Jennifer - Chapter 9

Important Words

segregation - the act or practice of separating different people or the state or condition of being segregated.
racial prejudice - the hostile attitude towards or judgement of people based on their race.
cosmopolitan - free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world.
taboo - a prohibition or interdiction of anything; exclusion from use or practice.
lynching - to put to death, esp. by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.
"Strange Fruit" - Billie Holiday's song based on a poem written by Lewis Allen which describes the situations that caused her father's death.
Local 802 - a welfare organization that her mother went when she stopped working at a cheap restaurant in order to "go legit " (actually cheat on welfare money) and to make her own new restaurant.
Uptown and Downtown Manhattan - Uptown Manhattan symbolizes the ghetto and immigrant areas (especially African-Americans) in Harlem and Downtown Manhattan symbolizes the rich and luxurious areas that are well-integrated and culturally diverse.

Summary

In Chapter 9 in Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday moves in from the ghetto Harlem in Upper Manhattan to Sheridan Square, Fourth St. in the luxurious Downtown Manhattan which she found a nightclub with no segregration and no racial prejudice. In other words, she found a haven where there's a diversity of famous celebrities, rich people, and artists.

As she performed the song, "Strange Fruit", everyone applauded her although the song had several flashbacks of her turbulent past. The song itself symbolizes prejudice of different people in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. As she became a celebrity, things become different for her since she is in a new environment of an upper-class society. Things become culturally different as she befriends a white upper-class woman named Brenda. Brenda wants to help Billie with her life, including her relationship with her mother which later refused to lend money to Billie for the new restaurant. As for revenge, she composed this song called, "God Bless The Child" in order to cause wrath to her mother. Finally, Billie took a vacation and convinced Barney Josephson to hire Hazel Scott as a lounge singer at Cafe Society.

Quotation

"God bless the child that's got his own..."

- Billie Holiday
Question

What was Billie Holiday trying to insinuate or infer when she says "God bless the child that's got his own."? In other words, what does she mean by saying this back to her mother?