Although the great red scare of the 1950s almost erased the anti-lynching song Strange Fruit from the public arena, the strange fruit allusion - lynched bodies hanging from trees – was one of genius. It had gotten under our culture’s skin, and as time went on, it seeped out of its pores.
Nina Simone's album Pastel Blues, released in 1965, included her version of Strange Fruit.
Billie Holiday created the powerful classic rendition of the anti-lynching song by Abe Meeropol.
It was Abraham Lincoln who used the theme of Pilgrims and Indians eating happily together. He was trying to calm things down during the Civil War when people were divided. It was like a nice unity story. So what really happened? We made a treaty. They couldn't make a treaty for a boatload of people so they made a treaty between two nations - England and the Wampanoag Nation.
Native American Books that Tell the Real Thanksgiving Story; Wampanoags to March First at Plymouth; Dallas Kennedy-Haters Documented in Pictures; Black Theatre Groups in Trouble; We Are Living in the Anthropocene Era, can't You Tell?
Silicon Valley Dreams of Secession; Ms. Marvel is a Muslim; Homeland has a Muslim Problem; NFL Player Quits Football After Studying Chomsky; "Conventional" Racism
Reader Comments - Science, Climate Change; Angela Davis; Israel; Elections and Labor; Music and Race Relations - Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun; Weathermen; Doctors & Interns as Workers; Mondragón; Golden Rice; Civil War was About Slavery;
Announcements - Stop the Attacks on the School Bus Drivers' Union-Boston-Nov 9; Art to End All Wars - Live! Auction-New York-Nov 16; Unions & Child Care: Expanding Access, Raising Standards-New York-Dec 18; Travel-Study Delegations to Cuba
Clone Wars in Taiwan; Casino Man Hedges Bets - Calls for Nuking Iran; R.I.P. Dark Knight Lou Reed; Busted for Shopping While Black; Teaching Economics Needs to Catch Up
The Daily Show
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Aasif Mandvi investigates non-racist fallout from the Supreme Court's destruction of the Voting Rights Act.
The mass assault on this social order is eviscerating the soul, spirit and vision of a country that by decree but not sustainable policies and leadership could have been an inclusive and viable Democracy. ...founded in treachery and structured on the bones of colonialism, there were so many components from which a real Democracy could have been forged and sustained. For the sake of our grandchildren we can't be held hostage by Tea Party terror.
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