Places and shapes of power

English

The notion I will present is the notion "Places and forms of power". This notion can be defined by saying that power is is the ability to control others and to make things happen despite obstacles, resistance, or opposition. This leads to conflict between those who have and exercise power and those who have none or little of it.

In class we studied the chapter "" and we wondered what tools black american people had used through the last century to fight racism and segregation for black American..

To answer the question I have chosen 3 documents: a song by Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit”, an extract of a speech by Martin Luther King entitled “I have a dream” and finally a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat “Irony Of Negro Policeman”.

With the first document I will try to show of a song can denounce and impact the other and the society. At the beginning this song was a poem written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 then Billie Holiday, who was his friend, turn it into a song. This song denounce and talk about the racism deeply rooted in U.S and more especially the lynching of black people in south states during “neckties party”. In the first stanza she uses metaphor and antithesis associating the lexical field of death ( “blood” *2, “hanging from the poplar trees”) and the lexical field of life (“trees”, fruits”, “breeze”). By doing this Billie Holiday create a feeling of discomfort and a dizzy spell because we are not sure what the “fruits” are as they are associated with black body hanging. We are uncertain of the theme and mining of this first stanza.

In the second stanza she starts to depict the South of the United States, talks about the nature which she describe really positively (“galant”, “sweet and fresh”, “magnolias”). But at the same time there is alternative verse that describe awful and horrible thing that refers to violence, torture and death ( “bulging eyes”, “twisted mouth”, “burning flesh”). So there is an alternation between what is beautiful, charming and pleasurable, and what is shocking, horrible, violent. This opposition create a very violent contrast and an opposition between the picture of a magnificent South and the reality of what happened here. It makes this horrible act even more revolting, shocking and abominable because it make it looks like it’s something normal and usual that is part of the setting. By doing this the poet really underline and emphasizes the cruelty and horror of this act.

In the last stanza now that we know what the “fruits” are she use the lexical field of death. The dead body start to become simple rotten fruit, a soulless thing hanging on a tree without anyone caring. It really show us how this body and more generally black people were dehumanized at this time and how it was “normal” in the South.

So as we can see it’s a very powerful and strong song, and it’s was transpose in Billie’s voice when she sings the song using feeling as anger, pain, sorrow and hatred. She grimaces and had a powerful body language as well to restore at her best her feeling. And as it was so emotional for Billie to sing this song to the point she cry and feel sick, it was also full of emotion for the public who was hit by the beauty and violence of the song and most of time stand up give a huge applause after the song.

So I thinks it’s a very good document to illustrate the notion. This song is one of the first big protest and voice against the racism and discrimination. With this song she denounces, and show the full horror of this act giving to music a new meaning and dimension. Music is not only now just a enjoyable sound to hear but it became a political and cultural weapon against what happened in the South. It became an act of rebellion and a revolutionary act bringing people together to fight and denounce society. It allow people to bring together and identify to someone else experience and feeling, giving them the power to be heard and act in order to change things. Indeed as we will see words are a huge way to fight, touch people and make things progress.

Then with this second document how can a speech deliver a strong message full of hope to million of people and change a country. This document is a speech delivered by Martin Luther King the 28th August 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. This speech was a decisive moment for the recognition and progress of the American Civil rights movement. During this speech Martin Luther King give an optimistic and hopeful message to the crowd: he call everyone and believe in racial equality and in the end of any form of racism and discrimination. He denounce and show all the racism and discrimination black people had endured since the slavery to now, especially in some states like Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama. He denounce “the heat of oppression” and all the injustice and “despair”. He claim and demand the end of these oppression and injustice. He says that he had “a dream” that in the future people and his children will not be judge by the colour of their skin but by the human being they are. He hopes that black and white people will live peacefully and equally in a spirit of friendship, brotherhood and love, and then one day everyone will be free.

This speech was a very powerful speech and became very famous and even an icon of fought against the racism of this time. As a preacher Martin Luther king use different tools to impact and touch the audience, making this speech a true masterpiece of rhetoric. We can notice that as a preacher he oftenly make allusion to Bible and religion. He uses the vocabulary field of the religion and sacred with words like “Lord”, “faith” or “God”. He also refers to the “Old Negro Spiritual” a song expressing religious faith and protest at the same time creating by American slaves. By doing this Luther King give to his speech a form of divination and prophecy. He promises them a bright and happy future.

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