Billie Holiday was a powerful vocalist, a jazz singer, and an African American woman with a short tragic life for a voice that transcended time. She became a cultural icon known for her soulful voice and for her iconic 1939 protest song ‘Strange Fruit’, a controversial performance that shook all of America as she made a political stance against the violent lynching against black Americans. Protest songs are written to criticize society, and ‘Strange Fruit’ points out the pseudo-integration and acceptance of black people and black culture into a segregated America. As time and society ‘progresses’, we see the integration of black artist into white spaces, but despite these triumphs, the ‘justified’ violence and killings of black men has not dissipated. This can be seen through the continuation and evolution of lynching in ‘This Is America’ by contemporary artist Childish Gambino. The soft melodies composing both ‘Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday and ‘This Is America’ by Childish Gambino juxtapose the bloody images of black bodies as their deaths are justified through racialized black masculinity. These songs point out the exploitation of black art and culture, as white audiences continue to consume black media, extracting only the values and ‘fruits’ they consider marketable, without acknowledging the unjust violence, dehumanization, and discrimination imposed on the bloody backs of black bodies used to fertilize the fruits.
The United States of America, the land of possibility from sea to shining sea: an idyllic home for the vast people, colors, backgrounds, culture, religion and sound. This idyllic image and dream are quickly shredded with the rude awakening that the United States was founded through the exploitation and violence against minorities. The protest song ‘Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday deploys pastoral imagery of the Deep South to critique lynching as an ‘normal’ feature of the southern landscape and social norm. Throughout the chorus of ‘Strange Fruit’ the lyrics vacillate between the description of southern landscape and the vivid image of black bodies hanging as if they were ‘fruits’, growing from the poplar trees. “The fruits are strange, in this poem, because they are the product of a violent and fearful from of life, typecast as Southern, figured in the tree with blood in its roots” (Carvalho, 112). Fear of black-brute imposed by years of racism and social Darwinism served as scapegoats to justify unlawful lynching. By describing black bodies as fruits and blending this grotesque image into the ‘gallant South’, Holiday punchers the United States ‘genteel’ status and idyllic image of progressive America.
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Despite the progress brought upon the Civil Right Movement, violence against black bodies, specifically black men, have not dissipated, demonstrating the enduring influence of a racist conception of black masculinity. Lynching and years of violence have been a “…foundational practice in America…”, which cannot just disappear in the course of 65 years (Osman, 2). ‘This Is America’ by Childish Gambino both lyrically and visually alludes to new form of lynching in our society as Julia Craven explains in ‘Donald Glover’s ‘This Is America’ Through the Eyes of a Jim Crow Historian’. Scene after scene, Gambino repeatedly critiques violence in America with the re-birth of lynching through police brutality and the prioritization of guns over black lives. This is implied as the guns used in the video are handled with grand care and with ‘respect’ as it were a ‘relic’ (Osman). Whereas the bodies are dragged away and treated nonchalantly. Yes, we should handle guns with care, but when did they gain privilege over the lives of a human being. “Yeah, this is America (woo, ayy)/ Guns in my area (word, my area)”. These lyrics explicitly address gun violence in America, with hate-crimes such as the Charleston church shooting, guns laws have turned into an issue of gun rights vs human rights, and an issue of gun rights over black lives. Anti-black hate crimes have not vanished. Instead, the long-standing history of lynching evolved to fit into the social and judicial constraints of today.
Police brutality has become the new form of lynching, which has been justified by the same prejudices. Lynching and police brutality are against the law, they are hate-crimes committed against black men in self-defense and as a precaution to society. Black men are considered dangerous and brute, therefore in the eyes of racist white America these deaths are morally forgiven. Not all police are racist, and nothing is applicable to every individual, but we cannot neglect the facts and tendencies we see throughout the judicial system. “The police force in the United States is known to be racist, and studies show that black men between the ages of 15 and 34 are a staggering 9 times more likely to be killed by the police than other American” (Marjolijn Winten). The disregard towards black lives is deplorable and to think that this is our current reality places me in a state of distraught. White audiences continue to consume black media, which is evident as ‘This Is America’ has over 500 million views on YouTube, and as many of the top charting artist continue to black artist, but continue to exploit people of color in order to maintain their racial superiority. Holiday wrote protest songs almost 80 years apart from the release of ‘This Is America’, implying that black lives continue to be expendable to white America as it turns a blind eye to the atrocities. The United States integrates black artist onto their billboards and movies, this is all an illusion to conceal the blood stains on their white robes, all while black bodies hang like puppets. Black bodies have become essentially objects of entertainment and merely fruits, that America can profit from and mold to their leisure.
‘Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday was originally a poem written by a Jewish English teacher Abel Meeropol to criticize the hypocrisy of the self-inflated ‘genteel’ American and to show the parallels between the United States and Nazi-Germany. The lyrics of ‘Strange Fruit’ highlight the hypocrisies of the United States for upholding themselves as the moral elite in comparison to Nazi Germany: this irony in this claim is astonishing because while Nazi-Germany is killing millions of Jews, in the United State we have and continue to kill people of color. Meeropol debunks this self-proclaimed ‘moral elite’ title as he places this “…image of this violence done to black people in the face…” of the entire nation (Carvalho, 111). Meeropol is calling out the United States and showing them that they are no better than Nazi-Germany: he uses our scenes to teleport us eye to eye to the “bulging eyes and twisted mouths” of a dead black American. The almighty society of the United States is horrified by the images of burnt white bodies under the Nazi-German regime all while, remaining unfazed towards the burning lynched black bodies in the gallant south. These opposing reactions toward the killing of black men based on the racialized masculinity highlights the entitlement of people in power on the basis of social Darwinism. Meeropol is placing the United States and Nazi-Germany on both ends of a mirror to show that they are each other’s reflection. They both justify horrid killing of other human beings based on their hatred and prejudice. The American founded of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi-Germany both follow the same ideology and desire to exterminate the weak. They live under the same roof being feed by the same spoon: the United States is the older brother and Nazi-Germany follows its example. This necessity to be superior against the ‘lower’ race reveals the pseudo-integration of black artist into white spaces, as it is only to keep an eye on the less ‘evolved’ and ‘brut’ race. Both counties follow the same ideology and this false title of being morally elite exposes the United States: the integration of black artist is only so they can become a ‘example’ country and to prevent another Haitian revolution.
Billie Holiday’s debut of ‘Strange Fruit’ took place Café Society, performing at Café society was strategic as it allowed both black Americans and white American experience ‘Strange Fruit’ together. Café Society was an integrated place, a welcoming place for both whites and black, a place to socialize without segregation. In fact, it was “…billed as ‘The Wrong Place for the Right People’” (Carvalho, 112). But for Holiday and Meeropol, Café Society was the right place for the targeted audience. A place to awaken the liberal white American and a place to demoralize society in the Deep South. On one side you have Black Americans empathizing as they picture a very raw reality. While liberal white Americans are struck with a ‘bloody’, ‘bitter’, and ‘rotten’ image of a black body hanging upon a tree. The lyrics of the song uses sight, sound, smell, taste to describe the physical body and what it represents. Billie, just like the body, is subject to a crowed of white people, a subject being depicted by her race, her skin and non-European features. Billie stands vulnerable in a sea of white, but this parallel intensifies the performance because as she sings, you no longer see Billie holiday, but the corpse of a black man. By becoming the corpse, the audience is taken a back having to face the product of violence and racism. She is a prime example of the exploitation of black art, because she was glorified and cherished for her soul voice as she battled drug addiction and years of abuse. She too is a strange fruit ready “…for the crows to pluck” the crows represent white consumers ready to extract the ‘virtues’ they find in black media and culture.
‘This Is America’ by Childish Gambino has left in imprint in American culture as it reflects the continuation of antiblack violence. The video and lyrics are saturated with symbolism, and as the viewer we are subject to criticism as we observe the normality of racial violence and struggles people of color face through the comfort of our homes. The United States has become ‘superficial’ and a ‘consumerist society’ (Marjolijn Winten). Gambino is constantly dancing, finding different ways to captivate the viewer in order to distract them from the chaos in the background. Just how phones and social media have become a distraction from reality, but also a tool to debunk this fantastical world of favorites and retweets. “Look how I’m geekin’ out (hey)/ I’m so fitted (I’m so fitted, woo)/ I’m on Gucci (I’m on Gucci)”. American society has become so superficial that we now stake outside name brand stores for days just to get ‘fresh limited addition’ shoes, but lack incentive to call of the injustices in our society. Gambino places this materialistic America side to side to the crows, referenced in ‘Strange Fruit’. Just like those crows, American consumeristic society will pluck the ‘fruits’ produced by the bloody backs of black bodies. The outro of the song reflects the continuation of racialized black masculinity and exploitation of black art. Black artist have gain fame and fortune, but no matter how much they progress in the aristocratic white America, they shall always remain “just a black man in this world”.
Eighty years apart, two different artist, two different protest songs highlighting anti-black crimes. Black artist continues to be glorified and celebrated by white consumers. These protest songs explore prevailing struggles people of color face as a result of racial stigma, like black brutishness. To convey these realities, Holiday and Gambino belittle themselves in order to become the lynched black body. By transforming a violent act into a piece of art through a nonviolent medium, both artists dismiss the idea that they are a violent race. Holiday and Gambino both created art and white audiences continue to consume their content which emphasizes white consumption and the exploitation of black art and culture. White audiences benefit from the ‘fruits’, meanwhile people of color deal with the dangers of being black in a country meant to oppress them. As a consumerist society, we must become activist for our fellow American, rather than exploiting black art for our entertainment. We must work on dismantling racial stigma and the obstacles imposed on black people, hindering them as we profit.
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