Posted on 12/07/2014 5:13:45 PM PST by windcliff
A local public relations agency says it’s changing its name after an overnight firestorm on social media.
In a flurry of tweets and retweets that started late Saturday and continued into Sunday, people from across the nation and around the globe chastised Austin-based Strange Fruit Public Relations, which shares its name with a Billie Holiday song dealing with racism.
It is widely accepted that the song, based on a poem written in 1937 by Abel Meeropol, uses the term "strange fruit" as a metaphor for lynching victims hanging from trees.
This was one of the many tweets directed at the public relations agency, sent by @BlackGirlDanger: “You named your hospitality PR firm after a song about black people hanging from trees, @StrangeFruitPR? Really?”
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
They meant illegal aliens. There was a kerfuffle about the restaurant in Colorado in the news early this fall.
The owner said no, we’re not going to change it, it has nothing to do with that and we’re sticking to it.
No I knew the term.. Mom was a big Billie Holiday fan.. so knew the song and the story..
These guys are in trouble too......................
http://www.nerdygaga.com/10994/weird-strange-fruits-vegetables/
Everything is racist now. No matter what you say, or don’t say, Whitey is called racist.
Really profound and gut-wrenching that this happened in our country.
It’s weird Austin. ‘Nuff said.
“According to the Tuskegee Institute figures, between the years 1882 and 1951, 4,730 people were lynched in the United States: 3,437 Negro and 1,293 white The largest number of lynchings occurred in 1892. Of the 230 persons lynched that year, 161 were Negroes and sixty-nine whites.”
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html#b
Given their much smaller percentage of the population, blacks were lynched at a much higher.
I am familiar with the Billie Holliday reference. Unless the firm is owned by Mr. Strange and Mr. Fruit, you have to explain the idea behind the name.
About a year ago I saw a billboard in Florida for Yellow Tail wine from Australia.
It showed two attractive light skinned black women drinking, with the caption across the bottom Yellow Tail.
I thought it was hilarious.
You’re showing only part of the data from the Tuskegee Institute. If you look at all the lynchings in this country, white hangings outnumber the blacks.
From the same Tuskegee Institute you didn’t include this:
“In Oklahoma lynching generally followed the national trend. Surveys by the Tuskegee Institute, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and various scholars identify approximately 147 recorded lynching deaths from 1885 to1930 (dozens more probably went unrecorded). These numbered 77 white, 50 black, 14 American Indian, 1 Chinese, and 5 of unknown race. In Oklahoma, hanging was the most common form; with a few exceptions, burning was not used.
In the first phase of lynching in Oklahoma, 1885 through 1907, most victims were whites, punished primarily as rustlers, “highwaymen,” or robbers. In those years, 106 individuals were lynched for suspected criminal activities. While 1892 was the peak year nationally, 1893-95 were the peak in the Twin Territories, with cattle/horse theft and robbery the main offenses. The 106 victims included 71 whites, 17 blacks, 14 Indians, 1 Chinese, and 3 of unknown race.
There is another website that shows US hangings by year and by race. I’m not at a place to find it right now but it shows whites were hanged more often than blacks.
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