Stasis Theory- The Argument of "Strange Fruit"

Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” conveys the lynching of blacks in the South.  We can infer historically that this horrible practice occurred when whites tried to intimidate blacks and keep them in their place.  King explains why this happens in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” when he states that people in power don’t easily give up power.  The segregated South maintained status quo, despite racism and violence. 

            Holiday demonizes lynching by using analogies while expanding on them through her use of graphic imagery.   Holiday provides examples of “bulgin’ eyes,” “twisted mouths,” and “the sudden smell of burnin’ flesh.”  To burn someone is to reduce them to something that’s not human.  Dehumanizing anyone is morally wrong.  

Holiday uses her music to raise consciousness just as images of police brutality on TV raised consciousness of the unjust treatment of blacks.  Both examples put political pressure on the federal government to address racial violence in the South.

-Tylar