Protest Songs: A look at ‘Strange Fruit’ and ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’

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(659 Words)

The 1920s and 30s in America was a time of racial discrimination for the black people while economically it was a time of the Great Depression. Times were not only hard but also scary with hatred and desperation flowing across the cities and plains of America. Like prisoners in shackles, the unfortunate ones at the bottom rung of life did not have a voice and ways of expressing how they felt inarticulate terms.  This is why protest songs grew in prominence as they had a purpose, sentiment, and specific issues while invoking the reader to be shocked and angry. This is notwithstanding that these songs were meant to inspire the reader to acknowledge and change the situation. For this essay I have chosen two protest songs that epitomize the era of discrimination and depression; ‘Strange Fruit’ and ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’ I will highlight their literary merits and social criticism.

Initially, the reader is struck by the titles of these songs. ‘Strange fruit’ asks why fruit that hangs off trees would be so strange.  What must the fruit be a metaphor for? Horror upon horror the fruit is the black man lynched; no wonder the fruit looks strange.  On the other hand ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’ is plain to see as we recognize someone destitute and begging.  In both cases, there are images of victims, and those victims are persecuted in different ways. One is for being non-white, and the other for being a hard-working man, both are innocent citizens who have landed in a bad place where there seems no exit.

Moreover, as the reader reads on the full reality of the themes of these two songs highlighting lynching in all of its brutality and the fall out of the Crash of 1929 are exposed. ‘Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze’ cannot get more real, as the true horror of lynching is laid bare. While ‘the bulging eyes and twisted mouth’ show the gravity of the spectacle as these poor black men hung up for all to see and for no reason at all. The protagonist in the ‘Brother, can you spare me a dime’ is left bearing his soul too, as he is ‘just waiting for bread’ instead of ‘building a dream’, and asking ‘can you spare a dime’ instead of building a railroad. Society has been criticized that has left this man and the black man fighting for their lives, notwithstanding that they could well be an upstanding member of society. The reader asks what have they done wrong to deserve this!

Here now lies the haunting social impact of the songs. The man who ‘made it run’ the railroad that is, and ‘made it run against time’ and who also ‘was building a dream’ with ‘peace and glory ahead’ now invokes a sad legacy that in all that he did and all he was asked to do, he is now discarded for society to forget.  Furthermore, as much as is the case for the black man whose hanging body is ‘for the wind to suck’ and ‘for the sun to rot’. In both cases, the reader carries away the thought of life taken away. Nevertheless, for ‘Strange Fruit’ this was the first loud cries against racism. This was the way to move the black man’s story into the white man’s consciousness and Billie Holiday, the singer of Strange Fruit, her most successful song at that time.  Contrastingly, Brother can you Spare a Dime still resonates in the modern-day world as the world come out of another economic collapse.

To conclude, these two songs send powerful messages that are meant to get into the readers’ awareness of society and for them to feel abhorred by the situation. The reader is meant to feel sad but on the whole optimistic that times can change so that today those times are a distant memory forever banished to the history books but never forgotten.

 

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To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar: A journey through American Society

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To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything

(861 Words)

At first glance, the main actors in this movie viewers would not expect the roles they have taken on. These relatively famous actors are Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze.  Who? You say. They were famous in the nineties.  So the surprise is, this movie has them dressed up in drag in a Thelma and Louise type road movie, of sorts. The fact about this movie is that they are not just transvestites; they go the whole hog to near on transsexual status where their persona and characters take on distinct female movements and nature. The movie begins by Vida aka Swayze and Noxema aka Snipes winning a New York drag queen competition and as a result, having a chance to win a national drag queen competition in Hollywood. Before they leave for Los Angeles, they bump into one of the losers, a certain South American transvestite named Chi Chi who is asked to join them. Here starts their road trip, at least until they realize they have no money, thus they sell their flight tickets to purchase a cheap beat-up Cadillac for their adventure.

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Liam Gallagher – Amsterdam September 1994

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The thought provoking “Anne of Green Gables”

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Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

(1244 Words)

This movie takes the viewer back to the start of the 20th century; to a time when people were prim and proper and life actually seemed a little dull as there was not much imagination to lift the spirit. People just dealt with life with appropriateness. That is the picture painted as we go into the world of Mathew and Marilla Cuthbert, as they await an orphan boy they are going to adopt. The movie which was made in 1934 from a book written in 1905 must have been a great eye-opening for the public at both times; making some people do a lot of soul-searching about their attitude towards people of lesser means. As such, the film shows people’s narrow-mindedness and perception of others that can lead them to behave in strange ways without a thought to their own actions.

To begin with, the viewer is faced with Mrs. Rachel Lynde, the busybody neighbour, who is proud of her blatant self-righteous views. She sticks her nose in where it is none of her business. While gardening she notices that Matthew is dressed in a suit and off to town. She immediately goes to Morilla’s house to enquire as to this change from the norm. Marrila tells her that she intends to have an orphan boy. Mrs. Lynde’s contempt for this idea is stark and she does not mince her words, as she describes these sorts of people as ghastly creatures who will only bring sorrow for the Cuthburts.

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Is equality the highest social value?

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As globalization takes over the world, where a free-market economy prevails and money seems to be the goal of the masses, we ask ourselves if equality could ever be the exception, or is the gap between the rich and poor going to increasingly widen. Equality seems to be a distant dream in the modern world. It needs to be stated that although politicians and governments may talk about how people have rights and justice, it is still extremely hard for the less fortunate to change aspects of their lives that drastically transform their social environment. Philosophers in time refer to the struggle of people and their rights, showing that this is not a recent phenomenon. Above all, equality through an egalitarian philosophy upholds equality for all men, especially the right and privileges in their society that shows it is time for a new perspective to help all.

Setting out the concept of equality and egalitarianism with two initial examples, a start would be with equality, highlighting money and salaries. If ever there were people these days that had the highest salaries you have only got to look at sports stars. The general public may talk in thousands, but these sports stars are talking in the millions. For example, if we take Wayne Rooney, an English professional footballer, earning in the region of £300,000 pounds (Wayne Rooney’s salary calculator) in one week and compare it with an average teacher’s salary in England which hovers between £25,000 to £35,000. This is where equality is highlighted. It certainly draws attention to a value system that sees aspects like wealth, power and fame as number one and real values left to catch up. Even a yearly figure like £35,000, you can see it is nearer to the average wage in England (weekly gross of £474) than anywhere near Wayne Ronney’s massive weekly salary. You could argue, which has the highest value in society a sport/pop/movie star or a teacher? Who would/do the kids look up to? And, what role does education play in society?

The second example from an egalitarian perspective, which highlights equal rights, would be talking about the beautiful country of Australia.  If we had a picture of Australia it would usually show a sun-drenched paradise of idyllic beaches and surfing. This affluent country is definitely developed which is as modern as any other in the world, so you would definitely be surprised to read Kathy Mark’s story in the Independent newspaper with the headline ‘Children found starving in rural Australia’. This is the case of aboriginal families in the outback who are finding it hard to survive. There are extreme problems such as substance abuse, alcoholism, abuse, and general social breakdown. Where did it start and how did it come into being? It is actually the case nowadays that the Australian government spends more money on the aborigines than non-aborigines. People could say it has been a long time coming. The British arrived and started colonizing Australia from 1788 onwards, but it was not until relatively recently, in the 1960s, that Aboriginal rights were re-asserted. So, what has gone wrong that affluent Australia sees its indigenous people left behind?

Furthermore, mention of Australia’s national identity, it is shown to have the belief that it is an egalitarian society. It is a society that believes in a ‘fair go’. These are ideas that are widely held and celebrated. Egalitarianism is a value that became well-established in the national psyche in the nineteenth century and has had a profound impact on the make-up of Australia’s political institutions, government policies and the nature of social relations. This being said Australia may see itself as an egalitarian society, but the question is, does it (or for that matter England) adhere to all egalitarian ideals? In an egalitarian society, there are rules and ideas that everyone has to live by in order to serve the greater good.

it is clear to see that perhaps the most powerful way to express the idea of equality is to highlight those instances of inequality which appear to plague our world’s societies. In the aforementioned examples, it has been shown how the inequality in pay grade vs. benefit to society creates an incredible disparity between possible attainable lifestyles, whilst in Australia we see all too apparent how the damage done from not having equal standing during the formative years of a nation has entrenched generations of an indigenous people in poverty and hardship. If the idea of equality is positively enthused from the beginning the difficulty of repairing relations, lives and damages would not be irreparable. It is interesting to note that this belief in equality has long been thought of as important. A final thought is to look at the words of the Greek philosopher Aristotle taken from Politics V circa 322 BC that says “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.” 

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