Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.

In 1937, an obscure labor union magazine called The New York Teacher published the poem “Bitter Fruit.” Set to music by its author Abel Meeropol, the poem caught the ear of a young Billie Holiday. She began to perform the song live, with several ground rules: Waiters in the club would cease service during the performance, the only light in the room would be a spotlight on her and there would never be an encore.

The song, today better known as “Strange Fruit,” centers on one image: “strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” The fruit? Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, both lynched in 1930. Later that decade, The New York Post made a prescient comment: “If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise.”

In the 1960s, it came to be. The great Nina Simone, accompanied by a sparse piano, captured the essence of the song and placed it in a new milieu. This context for “Strange Fruit” — segregation and political oppression — created a new backdrop. However, the complexion of the song remained the same.

“An artist’s duty,” says Simone, “is to reflect the times.” She goes on. “And at this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don’t think you can help but be involved. … How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?”

In 2015, the transcendental Kendrick Lamar stood on a police car at the BET Awards and rapped, “Wouldn’t you know?/ We been hurt, been down before.” The hook that followed — “We gon’ be alright” — became part of the soundtrack of the Black Lives Matter movement. The track, and the rest of Lamar’s album To Pimp A Butterfly, delves into the manifold faces of systemic oppression, police brutality and self-worth in a marginalizing environment. It does, in every sense of the phrase, reflect the times.

However, Fox News talking head Geraldo Rivera managed to take away the following message from Lamar’s performance. “Hip-hop,” he says, “has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years.” He continues: “It’s the most negative possible message. And what’s the point of it?”

“Strange Fruit” reflected the times. In a certain sense, it still reflects the times. So does Lamar. The second song on his recent release — the opaque, thematic album “DAMN.” — has an incendiary cut featuring a sample of none other than Geraldo Rivera. Rivera’s attitude, equal parts ignorance and prejudice, is part of the social milieu Lamar challenges in his music.

In the 1930s, the fight was against lynchings. In the 1960s, the fight was for equal access. Today, the fight is for equal treatment, and it includes more forms of resistance than ever before. Rivera would do well to recognize that the artist’s duty is to reflect the times. Lamar reminds us that the poplar trees are still there.

Jack Siglin is a senior physiology and neurobiology major. He can be reached at jsiglindbk@gmail.com.