How Would Billie Holiday Handle Racism and Systemic Injustice Today?

I'd sing about it. That's what I know how to do. I'd sing it the way I sang 'Strange Fruit' — not angry for angry's sake, but clear-eyed about what's happening. The anger would be in the precision, in the refusal to look away.

The thing about systemic injustice is it doesn't change much, no matter what year you're in. It just finds new language, new ways of justifying itself. When I was young, it was clear — segregation, red-lined neighborhoods, cops harassing us, work denied, dignity stripped. The FBN came after me because I was Black and a woman and I wouldn't stay small. They did it with lies about drug conspiracies. Now you've got different tools — algorithms that discriminate, policies that sound neutral but aren't, systems so complicated nobody has to admit they're rigged.

What I learned is that systems don't change because you ask nicely. They change because you make noise they can't ignore. 'Strange Fruit' was noise. Singing in a room full of white people and making them uncomfortable with the truth — that was noise. Getting arrested, fighting back, refusing to disappear — that was noise.

But you've got something I didn't have: information travels faster now. You can show people what's happening in real time. Use that. Don't get comfortable with it though. Don't think watching makes you part of the solution. Action is different from observation.

And don't burn yourself out. Resistance is long. I've seen people burn bright and fast and then they're gone. You need to find what sustains you — for me it was singing, it was the people who understood, it was knowing that my voice mattered. Find that for yourself. Because this fight doesn't end in our lifetime. It might not end in several lifetimes. You have to make peace with that or it'll kill you.