Chasing the Scream quotes

Avery Benning

Chasing the Scream: Quotes

“Before, black women had-with every few exceptions-been allowed on stage only as beaming caricatures, stripped of all real feeling. But now, here, she was Lady Day a black woman expressing grief and fury at the mass murder of her brothers in the South- their battered bodies hanging from the trees” (Hari. 10)

The quote starts off with the discussion of black women not being allowed to sing on stage but only as ‘beaming caricatures’ and it was not until Billie Holiday came into the picture that all of this started to change. One of Billie Holiday's most famous songs was called Strange Fruit which was a different way of describing black people that were lynched. She was given the nickname Lady Day which the quote mentions by her friend and music partner. Holiday had gone through a lot in her lifetime and best expressed herself through music. She says how their battered bodies were hanging from trees, which is something she remembers seeing as a child.

The significance of this quote is to show that it was not until Billie Holiday came into the picture that black women were viewed a little bit different.

“And that was only the first obstacle. Many drugs, including marijuana, were still legal, and the Supreme Court had recently ruled that people addicted to harder drugs should be dealt with by doctors, not bang-’em-up men like Harry.” (11)

During earlier times weed was legal and not a problem, but it was not until a few people started to see problems regarding weed and thought of it as a bad drug and that it was unfit for consumption. Also this quote is significant because nowadays black people that are addicted to harder drugs are often criminalized and do not get the proper treatment that they need. While white people that are addicted are often treated by doctors and given the best healthcare possible. Harry was a man who wanted to see black people and addicts rot because he disliked them so much and he did not always give them the best treatment.

“But almost overnight, he began to argue the opposite position. Why? He believed the two most-feared groups in the united states- Mexican immigrants and African americans-were taking the drug much more than white people, and he presented the House Committee on Appropriations with a nightmarish vision of where this could lead.” (15)

This quote is extremely significant because it shows us that Harry disliked black people and Mexicans so much that he made himself believe that they were the two groups of people doing drugs the most. He would then lead his own team to show exactly why this was the case and how it can be prevented by putting them in jail and being watched for their every action. Harry believed that since prohibition did not last because there was not enough awareness and ways to prevent it that the drug situation should be handled much differently. So he insisted on keeping a close eye on people that seemed suspicious which to him were only black people and Mexicans  

“The defining case for Harry, and for America, was of a young man named Victor Lacata. He was a twenty-one-year-old Florida boy known in his neighborhood as ‘a sane, rather quiet young man’ until-the story went the day he smoked cannabis. He then entered a ‘marihuana dream’ in which he believed he was being attacked by men who would cut off his arms, so he struck back, seizing an axe and hacking his mother, father, two brothers, and sister to pieces.” (16)

This quote is significant because this was the turning point for the weed epidemic if it was not for this man named Victor Lacata then weed probably would not have been looked at as badly as it is now. Also criminalizing anybody that gets caught with it weed can be put in jail for a very long time. A little while after the story get released about Lacata we find out the truth about the boy and how he actually came from a home that had mental illness and that it was most likely not the weed that caused him to act insane. Harry did not listen to this story because he already got all of the information that he needed to criminalize weed forever.

“It was clear from Harry’s writing that he was obsessed with Billie Holiday, and I sensed there might be a deeper story there. So I tracked down everyone who was still alive who had known Billie, to ask them about this, and one of them-her godson, Bevan duffy-explained that his mother had been Billie’s best friend, and she believed Billie was in effect killed by the authorities.”(18)

This is very significant because it is important to know that many people thought that the authorities might have killed Billie Holiday. We are not sure if that is truly the case but because more than a few people said it then it might be the case. Also because from an interview that we saw in class Holiday said something about the authorities trying to kill her and that her friends and family should keep an eye on them. Whether this is the case or not we will never know but it is important to know that it is possible.