US History From a Brasilian's Perspective

Strange Fruit is a song released in 1939 by Billie Holiday. The first few times I listened to this song I didn’t get it but I just wasn’t paying much attention. Then I listened carefully to the first four lines:

“Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”

My blood didn’t necessarily run cold but I did feel quite creeped out. This song is about the African American hangings that happened all over the United States, especially in the South. I’m not going to lie, this song creeps me out. But what makes me even gloomy and actually quite a bit angry is the fact that so many African Americans were treated this way and ended up in this fate. Such a sad song. Such a real song. And real is what most people tend to avoid. However, such subjects cannot be avoided. They have to be faced and corrected. Its distressing to think that America was suppose to be the place where all were equal and all were free, a place where all could find their place in life but instances such as these happened. And not for just a few years. For decades. Too long for anyone to suffer.