At times, she refused to sing it altogether because it brought her too close to her own grief. It reminded her of her father.

The song confronted white audiences with racial terror. But exposure does not necessarily lead to understanding.

“They’ll ask me to ‘sing that sexy song about the people swinging’.” Holiday said.

A song about Black people being lynched was entertainment. What is unbearable to us can become fascinating, provocative, even pleasurable to someone else.

As Black people, we are constantly encouraged to explain ourselves.

Explain racism.

Explain why something hurt.

Explain what happened.

Explain our anger.

Explain our exhaustion.

Explain our grief.

Explain our humanity.

We are asked to tell the story again.

And again.

And again.

There is an assumption that if we could only articulate our experiences clearly enough, if we could provide enough evidence, enough testimony, enough vulnerability, perhaps something would finally shift.

Perhaps they will understand.

Perhaps they will finally see us.

Perhaps, once they see the wound, they will recognise the person carrying it.

But what if they don't?

We have to reckon with the fact that being witnessed is not the same as being understood, and being understood is not the same as being cared for.

We should not have to narrate our trauma in exquisite detail to deserve tenderness.

We should not have to bleed publicly to prove that we can be hurt.

Black people have been made into objects of knowledge for centuries.

Our bodies examined.

Our cultures studied.

Our histories extracted.

Our pain documented.

Our deaths photographed.

Our suffering turned into archives, research, literature, film, art, statistics and spectacle.

We have been made extraordinarily visible, and yet visibility has never guaranteed safety.

The archive is full of Black suffering.

The museum is full of Black suffering.

The university is full of Black suffering.

The internet is full of Black suffering.

We have explained ourselves endlessly.

And still, the violence continues….