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Race and media stereotypes
Race and media stereotypes
History of racism in America
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People of all colors will always wonder about the sad and unfortunate death against racism in American’s history. A poem called, “Bitter Fruit” also known as “Strange Fruit” is perhaps one of the greatest poem and song ever written to protest the hatred of discrimination. This poem was written by a Jewish male teacher named Abel Meeropol, who was inspired by a haunted photographic picture of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith being lynched in Marron. After seeing an image of the lynch, Meeropol was deeply disturbed which explained how the photo “Haunted” him “for days” (Blair). This portrait made Meeropol opened his eyes to display the ugly truth about the horrors that African-Americans experienced through the abolition. After he was inspired to …show more content…
According to “History of Lynchings” stated, “From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States. Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black. The blacks lynched accounted for 72.7% of the people lynched.” (NAACP). This quote reflects the song “Strange Fruit” because black people who were lynched had a higher rate than other race in the History of United States. This proves evidence that white people who are racist only wanted to lynch blacks for no reason. This connection to the part when Billie said, “For the Sun to rot / for the tree to drop / here is a Strange and Bitter Crop”. After time pass by, the hanging bodies would rot on their rope from the sun until eventually the body would fall apart and drop to the grass below. This part is like a metaphor because trees drop their fruit when they ripen. This part of the quote also lead to no one can stop them as they watch more black people get lynch. The person who tries to make a change would be the next person to be …show more content…
According to “History of Lynchings” stated, “Out of the 4,743 people lynched only 1,297 white people were lynched. That is only 27.3%. Many of the whites lynched were lynched for helping the black or being anti-lynching and even for domestic crimes.”. (NAACP). This quote supports the outside of the box idea of some white people who were not part of the Ku Klux Klan want to help black people or end the murder because they did not like the way of KKK’s ideas. This connects to the outer thought of the song because not all white wanted to lynch African-American. If some white keep helping the blacks, the white people who were helping them would be afraid that they were going to be the next person in line to be
The dead black person hanging from a tree is described as “fruit for the crows to pluck/For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck/For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop.” During this portion of the song, one can hear the tremolo of the piano building in volume and ending with a staccato at the end of each line. Musically, this adds an element of suspense, and emphasizes the last dependent clause, effectively adding heaviness to the entire section. From the viewpoint of anyone other than racist white southerners in the 20th century, it is extremely troubling that the violent murder of black people had become so integrated into natural cycles, which seem to be more encompassing and absolute than societal customs. The lyrics attempt to transcend societal ingroups and outgroups, political issues of personal and peripheral interest and the concepts of time and place by describing how pointless violence, a moral rebellion against nature, has become part of nature. However, my interpretation of the intentions of the songwriter may be informed by my background information about the post-Reconstruction South and my hardline stance against systemic violence and white
Hughes says, “They hung my black young lover / To a cross roads tree.” (3-4). One can see that the narrator, this young girl has just loss her lover. Her lover got lynched and this causes our reader to have a broken heart. One can see that due to society and racism
On August 11-12 of 2017, white nationalist filled the streets of charlottesville and opposed anyone who stood in their way.The poem ”Black Confederate Ghost Story” by Terrance Hayes describes how racism existed in the past and how its presence is seen in significant events around the world today. Throughout this poem, Hayes develops a belief that the confederates deserve to be haunted. In the first part of the poem, the author emphasises himself as a peaceful racially motivated protester, but as the story progresses, his hatred and revenge comes into play. The author’s growing hatred and need for vengeance manifests as the poem progresses revealing the fact that racism exists in the world's present society.
Wells challenged this notion as a concealed racist agenda that functioned to keep white men in power over blacks as well as white women. Jacqueline Jones Royster documents the stereotypes of this popular white belief in an analysis of Wells’ reports.... ... middle of paper ... ...]” http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynching/lynching.htm>. [3] Tabulating the statistics for lynchings in 1893, [in A Red Record] Wells demonstrated that less than a third of the victims were even accused of rape or attempted a rape.. http://www.alexanderstreet6.com/wasm/wasmrestricted/aswpl/doc4.htm> 4 Royster.
Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit “is probably one of the greatest songs composed telling the chilling story about lynching. A little unknown fact is that it was written by a Jewish man by the name of Abel Meeropol. Initially “Strange Fruit” originated as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, as a protest against lynching of African Americans. Meeropol meet Holiday in a bar, where she read the poem, and decided to make the poem into a song. The record made it to No. 16 on the charts in July 1939. This song is probably Holiday’s most famous song she ever sung throughout her whole life. In the end Strange fruit forces listeners to relive the tragic horrors of living in America as an African American. The vivid lyrics paints a picture that causes a person
The mob had to make a point to follow Meredith Lewis and kidnap him and hanged by his neck for a murder which her was not convicted. I feel that the white people felt that the blacks were getting to close to be like an equal. With that on mind, the whites felt that they need to show the blacks that they still run things. For instance, on page 107, it clearly states, "There are friends of humanity who feel their souls shrink from any compromise with murder, but whose deep and abiding reverence for womanhood causes them to hesitate in giving their support to this crusade against Lynch Law, out of fear that they may encourage the miscreants whose deeds are worse than murder."
This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality, only to find out that at this time equality for blacks does not exist. It is written for fellow black men, in an effort to make them understand that the American dream is not something to abandon hope in, but something to fight for. The struggle of putting up with the racist mistreatment is evident even in the first four lines:
Southern Horror s: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells took me on a journey through our nations violent past. This book voices how strong the practice of lynching is sewn into the fabric of America and expresses the elevated severity of this issue; she also includes pages of graphic stories detailing lynching in the South. Wells examined the many cases of lynching based on “rape of white women” and concluded that rape was just an excuse to shadow white’s real reasons for this type of execution. It was black’s economic progress that threatened white’s ideas about black inferiority. In the South Reconstruction laws often conflicted with real Southern racism. Before I give it to you straight, let me take you on a journey through Ida’s
Schoettler, Carl. "Tinged with Sorrow but Sung with Love; Blues: `Strange Fruit,' the Mournful Dirge about Lynching, is Forever Linked with Billie Holiday. A New Book about the Singer from Baltimore Recalls the Moment She Introduced it." The Baltimore Sun Jun 13 2000: 1.F. ProQuest Central. 16 Nov. 2011
Poems and other readings with strong racial undertones such as Strange Fruit allow me to reflect back on the role race plays in my life as a black young woman and analysis if much has changed in terms of racism in the American society today.
Due to the past history of racial tension and lynching, black journalist and activist associate lynching with white on black violence. If you google “lynchings today,” the top five links are about black people being lynched. Today America has practiced using new and old ways of lynching. In the 21st century people are still be lynched for crimes they committed. Hate crimes involving lynching have died down a lot since the 20th century and so has the activity of the notorious Ku Klux Klan. Lynching was a punishment system designed to prevent a rape culture from spreading and help protect white women from being raped. However, over the years this punishment formed into a racial tension that increased as years went by. During the 20th century black activists and journalist such as Ida B. Wells documented every lynching in the United States to show the people what is happening behind closed curtains in the south. Wells stressed the importance of recording these numbers into something called “Lynch Law.” In this documentation Wells numbers the amount of black people being lynched in different states. You can tell the difference in demographic areas were lynching occurred more frequently; while New York only had 1, Tennessee had 28. The numbers vary from state to state, based on where they were located on the map. Wells’ “Lynch Law,” shows that the further down south you go the more frequent lynchings happen toward black
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
Langston Hughes’s “Lament for Dark Peoples” consists of a brooding three quatrain scene in which the speaker grieves a time before racial oppression. What is special about this poem is that it brings to the table a sense of solidarity between Blacks and Native Americans, who both have deep histories of terrorization from whites. The poem in itself demonstrates a recollection of life prior to white supremacy, but its core reflects the true loss and consequences of oppression on people of color. The poem initiates with the establishment that there was a loss of identity experienced by the two oppressed groups mentioned: “red” and “black”, or indigenous Americans and Africans.