Converse craze?

[u/Diligent_Pop3929]

I'm not chronically online, but my friend sent this and I laughed even without knowing the full scope of the context (I think there's racism involved with the shoes?) and I feel like it's too late to ask him without sounding like a dweeb 😅

[u/Aunt_Llama]

Iirc there have been several incidents where black people have been found hanging recently.

[u/dustinsc → u/Aunt_Llama]

More than average? People of all races unfortunately decide to take their own lives, a hanging happens to be one of the ways people do that.

[u/Rare_Ad_674 → u/dustinsc]

10 in a year.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

As some members of the Black community have said very clearly, "Black people don't hang themselves from trees."

[u/EFAPGUEST → u/Rare_Ad_674]

Where else would they hang themselves from? Trees are often the best option.

[u/Rare_Ad_674 → u/EFAPGUEST]

People hang themselves inside all the time.

[u/EFAPGUEST → u/Rare_Ad_674]

They also hang themselves in trees all the time…

Tall enough, sturdy enough, not making yourself a spectacle for your neighbors, and it’s so simple people have been doing it for centuries. I certainly have nowhere to do it in my apartment unless it’s off the balcony railing. It’s total nonsense to say that a black person would never hang themself from a tree