“Strange Fruit” Not Strange Enough

Billie Holiday’s iconic hit is as relevant today, as ever.

I write this with a broken heart. “Broken” because I saw a man, a black man get murdered on camera, by a Minneapolis police officer.

Right now, I am profoundly ashamed of being white. That is not empty rhetoric, I promise you, as I am struggling to understand how we’ve come to this point where a man dies in front of our eyes and the perpetrators are not immediately taken into custody.

We all know that if the situation was reversed, and this was a black on white crime, that man would be smacked down and locked up so fast our heads would swim.

If I didn’t know what year this was, I would have to believe that “Jim Crow” is alive and well. And that if I look carefully enough, I’ll see the bodies of black men dangling from trees.

The iconic, yet deeply troubled jazz great, Billie Holliday sang about this very thing.

Southern trees bearing strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots

“Strange Fruit” was written by Jewish-American writer, Abel Meeropol, who, in his lyrics, expressed his horror at the routine lynchings of Southern black men during the turn of the century.

As of this writing, the cop who killed George Floyd has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. That’s bullshit.

The third-degree charge carries a sentence of no more than twenty-five years in jail and a fine of no more than $40,000 or both.

That’s not enough. That is simply not enough.

Apparently, Derek Chauvin, the officer in question, or ex-officer was cited in. multiple incidents of violence. Yet he remained on the force.

Plus, as of this writing, the three other offices have yet to be charged! Watching CNN yesterday, we were treated to the news that aside from Chauvin, two of the other officers were also seen kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s prostrate body! While the fourth simply stood there and watched. Like a freakin’ garden gnome!

Although it’s become ridiculously easy to blame our Racist-in-Chief, for damn near every bad thing that occurs these days, that’s because he’s culpable! Trump, in the past, has famously condoned the “roughing up” of protesters, by police.

That would be black and brown protestors because Trump, who, even though he radiates a weird orange glow, is white. And in his mind and the minds of his inbred supporters, “white is right.”

Yes, as if POTUS hasn’t done enough damage and been the direct cause of so many Americans losing their lives, we can add the condoning of police brutality to this bastard’s slate.

Yet he is allowed to walk around and live his life and interact with his family and continue to ruin the fabric of once was the greatest country in the world. Where is the justice in this?

Mr. Floyd had already been cuffed and restrained and was on the ground in a prone position when Chauvin knelt on his neck. For nine minutes. Imagine how long nine minutes had to feel like for this poor man. Imagine his suffering.

You probably don’t want to imagine that. We turn away from such things and that’s why they continue to occur. Over and over again.

Chauvin and the other three cops knew the victim was in distress, yet they chose to ignore his pleas and those of the bystanders who saw the whole tragedy unfold.

Although I was young, I vividly remember the turbulence of the 60s. The riots during the Democratic National Convention. The pronouncement to the Chicago Police Department by Major Richard J. Daley that they should “shoot to kill” the protestors who ravaged the streets after the assassination of Martin Luther King. The Kent State Shootings, where thirteen unarmed students were shot by the National Guard for protesting the Viet Nam War. Four of those students lost their lives.

And here we are again. Back to square one. As if the lessons of the past are merely fever dreams, with about as much substance as cotton candy.

I can’t help but wonder how this situation would play out if the Black Panthers were still here with us, fists raised, voices loud and proud…fearless revolutionaries of whom J. Edgar Hoover proclaimed, “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”

Consider the source, here, friends.

Yes, I can’t help but wonder: What would Huey Newton do? Or Eldredge Cleaver? Or Bobby Seale? Or for that matter, Malcolm X?

No doubt, Dr. King would entreat us to embrace peace over the violence taking place in many cities across the U.S.

And yes, peace is always the best course of action. But that said, I understand the violence. I understand the simmering hatred of a system that continually shits on people of color all across a nation that was once “great,” but is now a source of shame for so many of us, as well as a hotbed of racism to the rest of the world thanks to the monster in the White House.

If I had been born black, I probably would be out there with the rest of the protestors. Would my actions be sane and rational? Or would I jump in the hate pool with both feet and a fire raging in my heart?

I don’t know. What I do know: George Floyd’s family will have to live the rest of their lives with the image of their loved one pleading for his life, and dying on national TV as he called out for his “Mama.”

We should sit with that one for a while.

Sherry McGuinn is a slightly-twisted, longtime Chicago-area writer and award-winning screenwriter. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and numerous other publications. Sherry’s manager is currently pitching her newest screenplay, a drama with dark, comedic overtones and inspired by a true story.

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