Strange Fruit

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.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is 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,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Billie Holiday and Abel Meeropol

History is my passion.  My studies of history have taught me that the only way to avoid repeating the evils of the past is to look at those evils – to take responsibility for them.  What use is it to say “Never again” if you don’t know what you’re talking about?

The website for “Without Sanctuary” contains a collection of postcards depicting lynchings in the early part of the 20th century.  I have done a little research into the use of lynching as a tool of intimidation and revenge ever since I learned about the murder of eleven ethnic Italians in New Orleans in 1891.  It is easy to forget that in the eyes of racists during the 19th and early 20th centuries, southern and eastern Europeans were despised for their dark complexions, different religions, incoherent languages, and odd cultural practices.  Italian immigrants had the added stigma of being viewed as prone to criminality and violence, thanks to the (real or newspaper-sensationalized) exploits of the Mafia.

Consider this photograph from “Without Sanctuary”.  The two men are identified as Castenego Ficarrotta and Angelo Albano, Italian immigrants who were accused of shooting a Tampa, Florida bookkeeper as part of a campaign of violence in support of unionization efforts.  The men were on their way to jail when a mob of angry white citizens abducted them, bound them, and strung them up, leaving a note that read:

Beware! Others take notice or go the same way. We know even more. We are watching you. If any more citizens are molested look out.

According to “Without Sanctuary”, such notes were commonly left at the site of a lynching.  After all, a lynching is not simply a murder; it is an act of terrorism.  The message needed to get out:  any resistance to the established order – be it in matters of race or, as in the case above, labor – would be met with the harshest of responses.  Know your place or die.

Human beings are capable of the most awe-inspiring achievements.  I recall walking into churches and cathedrals in Europe.  These buildings were designed to give worshippers the impression that they were actually standing in the presence of God - the stained glass, the gracefully arched ceilings, the walls reverberating with murmured chants or majestic organ music.  They are monuments to beauty, a testament to our desire to touch the goodness that people once (erroneously) believed exists only outside of ourselves.

But we are also capable of the most hideous acts of depravity, of rape, and of murder; we can cruelly rip babes from the arms of their mothers and callously dash their heads against brick walls, or drop thousands of tons of explosives on the homes of peasants ten thousand miles away, or massacre students in high schools and colleges using Second Amendment-protected automatic weapons.  Sometimes we justify these acts by labeling them “wars” or “justice”, but that only works when the majority approves of the killing.  The fact that a majority of people can approve of killing shows just how much farther we have to go before we can truly call ourselves civilized.

We are social creatures.  When we work together in groups we can create astounding works of art, erect the most impressive structures, accomplish the most amazing feats of engineering, and even eradicate deadly diseases and alleviate hunger.  But there’s a flip side to the good.  When the members of the group feel threatened by the other, the reptilian parts of our brain react out of fear.  We can distrust others.  We can let our prejudices cloud our judgment.  We can become aggressive.  We can even kill.

There is a history of racially-based terrorism in the United States that we have yet to truly confront.  The legacy of our unwillingness to see the ugliness that exists in our national soul eats away at our public politics like a cancer; for, only the historically ignorant could ever display this sign, and not grasp the horrible irony.

We must always be willing to look into the mirror – especially when we know we aren’t going to like the twisted, leering thing that sometimes peers back at us.

Thanks to SC’s “Salty Current” blog for inspiring this post.