Strange Fruit

What was the best, biggest, most important album released in 2016? Last weekend at the Grammy Awards, that honor went not to Beyoncé's "Lemonade," but to Adele's "25," leading many of us to wonder what Adele herself asked backstage: "What the f*** does she have to do to win album of the year?" But it was her comments on stage, while accepting the award, that got most of the attention. She praised "Lemonade" and called Beyoncé, "the artist of my life." And then she said this: "And the way that you make me and my friends feel, the way you make my black friends feel, is empowering. And you make them stand up for themselves. And I love you. I always have and I always will." While the speech sounds complimentary, there's history behind the phrase "black friends" coming out of a white person's mouth. It's been called the "some of my best friends" defense, deployed in response to being accused of racism. Like, "I can't be racist. I have black friends." For some viewers, who have heard that tired phrase a time too many, Adele's remark provoked a knee-jerk reaction. "I was trying to understand the context where she was coming from," Kaila explains in this week's episode. "I didn't like that response." Rutgers professor Dr. Brittney Cooper had a similar reaction—at first. "I was like, why'd she have to say it like that?" But she says upon reflection, Adele's comment made sense. "If you are going to be a white person who invokes your black friends, this is the way that you do it," Cooper says. "She stands up and says, look, I felt lots of things about this, as an artist, as a woman, but I celebrate the fact that it did particular kinds of emotional work for my black women friends." So while Adele may be off the hook, the Grammy Awards themselves are not. The awards show's producers love to have black artists perform during the show and book many musicians of color. But they seem to have less love for actually giving awards to those black artists. "They really just want the visibility and ratings of black folks," Cooper says. "They want the cultural labor that we do, but they want all the awards for themselves."

Dr. Brittney Cooper joins us this week to talk about Adele's Grammy Awards mention of her "black friends," and why we should look deeper than our initial irritation at her comments. Here's Dr. Cooper's article on it for Cosmopolitan: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a8775477/adele-black-friends-at-the-grammys/

Strange Fruit returns this week after a 5-month hiatus! A few things have happened since our last episode, which was produced shortly after the Republican National Convention. Back then, we were still talking about Melania Trump's oddly familiar speech. And closer to home, Butler High School was under fire for banning some natural black hairstyles. Now, we have a new President, and the first few weeks of his administration have made activists out of people who have never even signed a petition before. The Women's March on Washington and its satellite events drew record numbers of protesters to streets throughout the country, leading many long-time activists to wonder whether the newly-minted marchers will stick around for the next Black Lives Matter action. In the entertainment world, black- and LGBT-centric films are dominating awards season! Fences, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight have won dozens of major awards, and each is a contender for best picture at the Academy Awards later this month. In this week's episode, we delve into all the stories that had the nerve to develop even in our absence. And speaking of things that are developing, not sure if you heard, but BEYONCÉ AND JAY-Z ARE HAVING TWINS, Y'ALL! See you next week!

This week marked what would have been the 92nd birthday of Louisville civil rights legend Anne Braden. She began as a labor activist, but soon turned her attention to housing equality - or the lack thereof - in Louisville. In 1954, Anne and her husband Carl bought a house in an all-white neighborhood, on behalf of a black couple. That couple, Andrew and Charlotte Wade, had their windows broken when they moved in, and white neighbors burned a cross on their lawn. Days later, the house was dynamited. The Bradens were charged with sedition, while the bombers went unpunished. This week, Dr. Catherine Fos'l, from UofL's Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, joins us to share some of the remarkable story of Anne Braden's life. We talk about what inspired her to activism, and the role of white allies and accomplices in the movement of today. Then we check in with WFPL's Jake Ryan, who reported this week on Louisville's lack of progress in dealing with abandoned and vacant homes.

Summer is in full swing, and it's the time of year when most of us head outside to enjoy the fresh air. Maybe you take to the hiking trail with just what you can carry on your back. Or maybe your idea of being outdoorsy is having drinks on a patio. (We'll let you figure out which option #TeamStrangeFruit favors.) If you're a person of color, especially a black person, data shows you're less likely to participate in traditional outdoor activities. NPR's Code Switch talked about it recently in their podcast, noting the National Parks Service's statistic that around 80% of its visitors, volunteers and staff last year were white. 12045552_10205580003002972_7170443638992725955_oExplore Kentucky We decided to see what the situation looks like closer to home. So we spoke with Gerry James, founder and director of the Explore Kentucky initiative. He says it's not unusual for him to be the only black camper, hiker, or paddle boarder in his group — and people notice. He's heard everything from, "Hey, it's great to see you out here, brother!" to "Get out of the water, you can't swim," accompanied by racial slurs. So his work with Explore Kentucky encourages everyone to enjoy our state's beautiful scenery. They offer classes, workshops, and donation-based activities to all interested parties, regardless of income level or experience. We talked about some of the factors that might prevent people of color from engaging more with nature, including the fact that public parks and pools were tightly segregated under Jim Crow laws. We also promised Gerry to be more open to the idea of spending time outside (not counting patios), and he even has us ready to try out his favorite sport: the ancient Hawaiian practice of stand-up paddle boarding. In our Juicy Fruit segment, we talk about Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention, and how Dr. Story plans to use it to teach her university students about plagiarism.

Three years ago this week, a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Like many people across the country, we were stunned, and saddened at the loss of life and lack of justice. We asked Lucie Brooks to join us in the studio that week, and help us analyze the cases presented by both the prosecution and defense, and what may have lead to the not-guilty verdict. Lucie taught us about jury demographics and how they affect trial outcomes (Zimmerman's just was made up of five white women and one Puerto Rican woman). And we also talked about something more personal: Lucie's experiences as the white mom of four black sons. Just over a year later, a police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests sprung up in the neighborhood, and the police responded with curfews and riot squads. International media descended on the St. Louis suburb. We thought surely things would change. Police departments would implement extra training about de-escalation, internal biases, and use of force. All the attention on Ferguson would bring change. The Black Lives Matter movement, formed in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, was galvanized. At that time, we spoke to now-Representative-elect Attica Scott, about the interplay between police departments, local governments, and their communities. Like Lucie, she spoke about raising black sons. Now, three years later, Philando Castille and Alton Sterling were both shot by police, in different cities, just days apart. They became the latest in what seems like an unending cycle of shootings, administrative leave, hashtags, protests, and acquittals. We're listening back to parts of our conversations with Attica and Lucie this week, since they are, sadly, still just as relevant here in the summer of 2016. In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we talk about a Yale employee who pulled a Bree Newsom in the Calhoun College dining hall, where he worked. Corey Menafee smashed a stained glass window that depicted enslaved people picking cotton. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for reckless endangerment in the second degree and a felony for criminal mischief in the first degree. Yale has asked the state's attorney in Connecticut to drop the charges, and Menafee has since resigned. And on a brighter note, the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors returned this week after a six-year hiatus, with a special show honoring the genre's female pioneers. We talk about the performances we loved, and women's importance in hip-hip history.

When we sat down in the studio to record this week's show, it was Wednesday evening, and our hearts were heavy with the news of Alton Sterling's death. Sterling was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge. He'd been selling CDs outside of a convenience store. It's a conversation we've had more times than we can accurately remember in our four years of producing Strange Fruit episodes. The details change, but our analysis stays the same. A police officer who hasn't been trained to recognize his own internal biases is more likely to see a black man as a threat. Media outlets look to the victim's past, and behavior during the stop, for evidence of guilt. Police who shoot people are rarely convicted of crimes. These are all factors in this cycle of police violence we're seeing in the United States — and now that most people have cell phones with video cameras, we actually see the incidents, all over the internet and TV. The morning after we recorded our episode, the whole world was watching a Facebook live video taken by Diamond Reynolds showing the last minutes of her boyfriend's life. Philandro Castile was shot by police during a traffic stop. Reynolds's 4-year-old daughter, who was in the back seat during the shooting, could be heard on the live stream telling her mom, "It’s OK, I’m right here with you." And then, the next night, a sniper shot at police during a peaceful protest in Dallas, killing five officers. The violence perpetrated by and involving the police is so constant, we can't keep up with it. So this week, we're bringing you the show as we originally recorded it, focused on Alton Sterling. We'll be at Louisville's vigil on Sunday, and we'll keep you posted on further developments. And we sincerely hope we never see another week like this.

Americans seemed stunned by the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Commenters on TV and online blamed easy access to guns. Some blamed lack of mental health care. Or radical Islam. Or homophobia. The culprit usually varied based on the ideology of the opinion holder, and arguments popped up over language use: Was it a hate crime? Is he a terrorist (and if so, why wasn't Dylan Roof)? We're a show hosted by LGBTQ people of color. We saw the shooting as an intentional targeting of LGBTQ people of color. Omar Mateen had done some research on Pulse, and would have certainly known it was Latino night. So how does that shape the way we think about the shooting? Eric Stanley is an assistant professor in the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside. In his essay, "Near Life, Queer Death," he asserts that anti-LGBTQ violence is not an aberration, but rather the natural result of an white-supremacist, hetero-supremacist society. Stanley connects large-scale acts of violence, like the Pulse shooting, to high murder rates of transgender women of color. "Often times it gets explained as being the work of one discrete bad person or the "bad apple" syndrome," Stanley says. "Anti-trans, anti-queer violence, which is always racialized, which is always gendered, is one of the foundational forms of violence that makes up the United States." We also talk about the hits and misses of the BET Awards, including their Prince tribute, and Jesse Williams' earth-shattering acceptance speech!

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin continues to do things his own way. He's been using executive orders to make changes with far-reaching implications — and getting sued for it. This week, we check in with Kentucky Public Radio's capital bureau chief, Ryland Barton, to get an update on Bevin's latest acts as governor. The one that got the most attention this week was Bevin's announcement that he was disbanding the University of Louisville's board of trustees (and that university president Dr. James Ramsey would step down). Bevin dismissed all the trustees and replaced them with three interim board members of his own choosing. But can he do that? A group of university faculty members (including our own Dr. Kaila Story) say they're worried the shakeup could affect the school's accreditation. Attorney General Andy Beshear is taking Bevin to court over this and other board reorganizations he says violate statutes. Dr. David Owen, chair of the Philosophy Department, joins us this week to talk about faculty concerns. And Lexington's EMW clinic closed this week after Bevin sued the abortion provider, saying they were performing abortions without the correct license. He's also sued Planned Parenthood of Kentucky and Indiana. Reproductive rights activist Molly Shah talks about what the loss of reproductive choices could mean in women's lives.

When we on #TeamStrangeFruit heard about the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando last Sunday morning, we reached out to each other. Throughout that day, we reached out to our community, our friends at the Fairness Campaign, and our counterparts across the river at Jeffersonville Pride, and helped create the beautiful vigil on the Big Four Bridge. In the week that's followed, we find ourselves reaching out to the people in our lives who are wise, and who maintain their ability to love in the face of hate and violence. One of those folks is Reverend Alvin Herring, friend to the show and LGBTQ ally (and the officiant of Kaila and Missy's wedding, earlier this year!). It's been a week since the shooting. Life goes on, but nothing feels normal, and maybe it never will again - at least not like it was before. So instead of recording a regular episode, we just brought Reverend Al into the studio, and he and Kaila had a conversation about faith, hate, love, recovery, and support. This week we bring you that conversation, and we hope it is as healing for you as it was for us. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back with a regular show next week.