1.       the song that I choose is called "Strange Fruit",� originally a poem by Abel Meeropol.
 Abel Meeropol was a teacher from the Bronx, New York, he was inspired to write this poem when he seen a photograph of a black man strung up by his neck and hung from a popular tree, he was disturbed by racism and the photograph put him on edge. The poem was made a song years later and the famous singer Billie Holiday gave listeners a chilling and haunting reminder of what life was like for people of color in the in the Jim crow south.

2.This song is out of my milieu because I can only imagine what African America went through during the time of segregation and racism. I feel as if the Hispanic culture can somewhat identify with the African American plight in America, and racial prejudice that went on and still goes on today. I identify as both so I can see both sides of the African American culture and the Hispanic culture. 

3. This song/ poem was written by a white jewish man from the North, and he was simply writing what he saw and how he felt about it, it is very amazing how raw and pure this poem is because it is truly chilling,

4. This song intersects with life, affairs, and all communities because everyday in the 1930's a Black body was hung in Alabama when a body was hung a flag was flown half staff at African churches to let everybody know that somebody was hung today, not only did it affect families of the one that was hung, but it also affected the community as a whole because this person was a neighbor, brother sister, mother or father.

This song was sung and recorded by Billie Holiday and it reached global attention because it let the whole world know what was going on , you can compare it to the beating of Rodney King in the 1990's The first verse in the poem automatically breaks barriers and sends ice cold chills down your body, if you are from another place other than the U.S. at this time , you have to think about what he is saying when he says, Southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the roots, an outsider might not know what this means, and they may also ask what kind of tree in the South produces blood, and come to the conclusion that indeed this is a strange tree. 

5. This song influences my understanding of the community and the civil issues today because it is so true today the American south or the old Jim crow south still remains one of the most racist places in America, and although there are no Black bodies swinging from popular trees, there is till blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Today in America African Americans are more likely to go to jail, be shot and killed, than any other race. They are also the majority to get killed but remain the minority in American.

6. The purpose and benefit of this kind of music is to pull the covers off, and stop sugar coating things that many pretend not to see, this sing was written in code, so that some outsiders and even some people right here in America could understand. The strange crop that Meerpol was talking about is African Americans being hung, it calls it a strange crop so that he wouldn't just come out and say lynching because in those days to speak of it in a song was unheard of. The gallant South is the Jim Crow American South. This matters because to this day some people still have an invisible veil over their eyes and pretend that these problems dont matter or that they dont happen anymore.

7. When listening to this song I can feel as an outsider and insider because I can relate to “our people” being killed , but also as an outsider because it never hit home for me, and I feels as if nobody can really feel and understand what those people went through, or what they seen every day. To see somebody that you knew hung up and lifeless is only a mere thought, but we truly cannot understand.

8. coming from many cultural backgrounds I have somewhat understand some aspects, and I can see the struggle on both sides, when I first heard this song a few weeks ago I really didn’t understand the first lyric or the song as a whole, but as I listened more closely I began to realize that the author wasn’t really talking about fruit or a crop, but real people “ Black bodies hanging from popular trees bulging eyes and the twisted mouth…..the scent of magnolias sweet and fresh, then the sudden smell of burning flesh.”

7. When listening to this song I can feel as an outsider and insider because I can relate to  people being killed , but also as an outsider because it never hit home for me, and I feels as if nobody can really feel and understand what those people went through, or what they seen every day. To see somebody that you knew hung up and lifeless is only a mere thought, but we truly cannot understand.

8. coming from many cultural backgrounds I have somewhat understand some aspects, and I can see the struggle on both sides, when I first heard this song a few weeks ago I really didnt understand the first lyric or the song as a whole, but as I listened more closely I began to realize that the author wasnt really talking about fruit or a crop, but real people. "Black bodies hanging from popular trees bulging eyes and the twisted mouth....the scent of magnolias sweet and fresh, then the sudden smell of burning flesh."