One of Billy Holidays songs called 'Strange Fruit' really portrays how the black people were treated all throughout slavery and most shockingly, the mistreatment still occurred afterwards too. Billy Holiday sings her song, not in a polished way, and it makes me wonder why the song is called 'Strange Fruit'? This is most probably because the black race at that time could have been considered as 'strange' in the white peoples eye. In which comes the term 'Strange fruit'.
This isn't a happy song, it is about the murdering of the black people, most importantly innocent black people. They were tortured, murdered and worst hung from trees almost as a warning to other black people to not make the same mistake. These mistakes weren't even mistakes, for example a black man could have been murdered for just looking at a white woman. Black people were victims of a 'kangaroo court'.
In 1880, the American Civil War abolition of slavery finally came through, the reason why America kept the slavery and slave trade in 'business' is simply because of the money, safe labor and for the economy to feel out of the depression, that 'business' is back and other people can do their jobs for them.
Known as the 'kkk' or Ku Klux Klan; a cult clan specializing in lynching, and founded as a racist group. Worst of all the members at night were the pillars of the community. These were everyday shop owners, men of the law, priests, policemen and everyday people who went around dragging the innocent black people out of their beds and homes, in which they 'lynched' or better known as tortured and murdered.
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| The 'kkk' Otherwise known as the 'Ku Klux Klan' |
Another term used to describe this is known as 'White supremacists'. This term is used when the belief is that white people are better - i.e. more superior, powerful and in charge of every move and action that others may take. Another term used is known as 'segregation', which started in the 1880's and ended in the 1960's; so nearly 100 years for the black and white people living the same lives but very differently.
Such as the instances in these pictures below:
From these images above, especially the top left; we can see that the black peoples station for drinking is a lot less 'nicer' whereas the white peoples isn't a tap but is more of a 'superior' version. Maybe the word 'superior' isn't the correct word, but in this instance we can clearly see that inequality is present and unfortunately that resulted in the black people receiving on the 'unequal line'. This became known as 'The Jim Crow' - involving in separate buses, separate drinking stations, partly because of the white people of that time; I believe were afraid of difference.
So why tell you this?
I think it is good to relate this information of what really happened, not that long ago, and to compare these instances of what the character in 'Of Mice and Men', Crooks tells us ( us as the reader). Crooks, otherwise known as 'stable-buck' in the novel, is discriminated partly because the colour of his skin. The other workers on the Ranch just seem to judge him by appearance, and the fact that he isn't allowed in the 'bunk house' because of the colour of his skin, totally wrong; in my personal opinion. And the other characters seem to abuse that power especially when Candy tells George and Lennie about the fight.
Although Candy and Crooks have worked on the ranch for about the same time period, the two characters only really meet when Candy walks into Crooks room for the first time. Lennie seems to be totally accepting of the 'stable-buck's skin colour and talks to him easily. It is Lennie which brings these two long working characters together to finally meet properly.
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| "Stable-buck" otherwise known as Crooks In accordance to the film 'Of Mice and Me I know the images below are graphic but I think it is important from a historical aspect to really see what it was like. |
I think the worst and most horrific thing is that these occurrences are still happening to this day
nigger
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