Strange Fruit

In the late 1990's, feminist and anti-racist activist Peggy McIntosh described white privilege as "an invisible weightless knapsack of assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks." The invisible knapsack metaphor persists today as a way of introducing people to the concept of privilege. It comes in many forms - male, white, straight, cis, able-bodied, and other identities all confer certain benefits - but the suggestion of privilege can spark emotional denial. On this week's show we talk about white privilege and how it manifests itself in our culture, with Dr. David Owen. He's an associate professor of philosophy at UofL, and is on the local planning committee for the White Privilege Conference, coming to Louisville this Spring. In our Juicy Fruit Segment, we bring you the story of a hairstylist in Prince George's County in Maryland, who was fired when his HIV-positive status was discovered by his boss. We also dissect Sarah Silve

This week, the Supreme Court decided not to hear the marriage equality cases that were pending in Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Utah. By doing so, they legalized same-sex marriage in many states immediately (including our neighbors to the north!), and paved the way for others to follow soon. Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman joins us this week to talk about the decision, what it means, and what it doesn't—particularly for those of us in the Bluegrass State. He also brings us news from Berea that makes this week bittersweet: After over three years of trying to pass an ordinance that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, the measure was voted down by the city council. We talk about the fight there and the dedicated Bereans who fought tirelessly for fairness. Chris also sits in for our Juicy Fruit segment this week, where the topic du jour is labels. Actor Raven-Symone received much side-eye this week for telling Oprah that she doesn't identify as African American, but a

This week on Strange Fruit, Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman joins us to talk about this week's Supreme Court decision (or lack thereof) about same sex marriage. We also give a shout out to the folks who have been working for three years to pass a fairness law in Berea; the measure was defeated this week. And in Juicy Fruit... that's so Raven. Need we say more?

Ali Awards Red Carpet: Susan Sarandon by StrangeFruitPod

Kid President is an internet celebrity! kidpresident.com

Matt Lauer has been co-anchor of NBC News’ TODAY since January 6, 1997. He joined TODAY in January 1994 as the show’s news anchor.

Football player and actor Jim Brown is best known for his record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. He was also a supporter of Muhammad Ali's activism in the 1960s, as part of the Cleveland Five.

Actress, author, and activist Holly Robinson Peete advocates for and writes about people living with Autism and Parkinson's disease. She's best known to us 80's babies for her role on Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.

Actor and Louisville native William Mapother has appeared in the films Born on the Fourth of July, and Magnolia, done extensive theater work, and was in the cast of the TV show Lost.

Pamela Brown serves as a CNN Justice correspondent covering crime and justice issues, including law enforcement and the Supreme Court.

Kennedy Odede, age 29 of Kenya, received the Dedication honor for his Work with Shining Hope for Communities. Kennedy is the president and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). SHOFCO’s current programming comprises a school for girls, a free health clinic, a micro-loan and micro-savings program, sanitation and clean water services, and a program to combat gender‐based violence and promote sexual health of young people in the community. Kennedy founded SHOFCO with nothing more than a soccer ball and his “faith in people’s abilities to change their own lives.” Talia Leman, age 19 from Iowa, USA was honored with the Giving Award for her role with RandomKid. As the CEO and a Founder of RandomKid, Talia develops ideas, strategies and networks between kids internationally to increase their impact. She also leads "power" assemblies, doles out seed funds to help jumpstart philanthropic ventures, organizes web-conferences between youth across the globe, and mentors her peers in success strategies fo

It's been a star-studded week for Team Strange Fruit! We spent some time recently on the red carpet at the 2nd Annual Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, where we got to chat with celebrities and honorees about the Champ's civil rights legacy. Ali famously refused service in the US Army when he was drafted during the Vietnam War, claiming conscientious objector status. The Army denied his claim, and Ali was found guilty of refusing induction, stripped of his World Boxing Association Championship title, and banned from the sport for nearly four years—at what would seem to be the peak of his athletic career. This week on the show you'll hear us check in with Susan Sarandon, who was honored with the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Global Citizenship. She pointed out the significance of Ali's actions. "You just do not see celebrities or athletes putting themselves on the line the way that he did," she explained. "If you look at the context in which he came forward, it was so heavy and so brave of

It's Idea Festival time in Louisville, and that means cool people who do cool things descend on our city to talk about the things they're doing! We chatted with one of those folks, Juan Williams Chàvez, this week about his work, and what it means to do social activist through art. One of Chàvez's big projects, the Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary, takes place on land that was once home to one of the country's most notoriously awful housing developments. Built in the mid-1950s, the 33-building, high-rise complex fell into almost immediate disrepair, and was described in a Missouri History book as "something out of a Charles Dickens novel." It was eventually demolished in the mid 1970s. Today, thanks to Chàvez, it is home to a bee sanctuary, where members of the community learn about urban agriculture. The decision on how to use the land wasn't incidental. "Bees function as a community," Chàvez explains. "Pruitt-Igoe was designed for community. I wanted it to kind of go back to community."

It's a busy weekend in Louisville! The Louisville AIDS Walk takes place this Sunday on the Belvedere, and one of this year's special guests is fashion designer Mondo Guerra. Mondo came out as HIV positive when he was on season 8 of Project Runway (he came in second, but would later win the first Project Runway All-Star season). He's now part of Project I Design—a national campaign geared toward improving communication between HIV patients and their doctors. We speak with Mondo this week, who says that despite increased awareness, there's still stigma surrounding HIV. When he came out on TV, he hadn't told his family yet, waiting until just before the episode aired to have that conversation. "I was very self shaming, and I was very embarrassed, and I didn't feel like I could talk to my parents about this," he says. "Stigma has always played a role in this experience, this journey that I've had with HIV. But at the point that I'm at right now, living with HIV for 13 years and what I've been throu

Labor historian Toni Gilpin will make two appearances in Louisville tomorrow to tell the little-known story of a local labor union that was ahead of its time. A local chapter of the United Farm Machinery workers organized at Louisville's International Harvester plant in the late 1940s, and began anti-racism activism both inside out outside of the plant. Their efforts would lead to an entire factory of mostly white workers walking off the job to protest the unfair treatment of their African American colleagues. Outside the factory walls, union members tried to desegregate the Brown Hotel and Cherokee Park—both whites-only at the time—and were met with violence and forcible removal by police. Gilpin spoke with Kaila Story of WFPL's Strange Fruit about the work of Local 236. She will appear tomorrow afternoon at the University of Louisville and tomorrow night at the National Association of Letter Carriers.

“There are black people in town who have the same last name as me, and I never thought about why that might be.” Author Chris Tomlinson says he hears that a lot while touring for his recent book, called Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name—One White, One Black. In it, he traces his family’s history to a cotton plantation in Texas, and reaches out to another Tomlinson family whose ancestors were held as slaves there. Slavery is a topic that brings up strong feelings in Americans, because as Chris points out, it was part of our country’s economic and social as recently as five generations ago. But he says it wasn’t white guilt that motivated his work on the book. “I’m not asking forgiveness for what my great grandfather did,” he says. “On the other hand, I do have an obligation to recognize the privilege that I have because my ancestors oppressed people.” Chris says slavery, the Jim Crow era, and the institutionalized racism that has always been present in the United

You know her from her groundbreaking work as the TransGriot, and a frequent commentator on Strange Fruit. We know her as our Auntie Monica! Award-winning blogger Monica Roberts stopped by the Strange Fruit Studios on a recent visit to Louisville, and we checked in with her about the state of trans human rights. While Monica's blog covers a little bit of everything—"sports, feminism, human rights, whatever I feel like talking about," she says—the overarching focus is the lives of transgender women of color. Why a trans women of color blog rather than a general trans women blog? "Trans people of color experience a transition much differently from our white counterparts," Monica explains. "We are impacted negatively by racism that we deal with in our parent society, and even in the LGBT ranks." Even within the transfeminine community, there are challenges unique to different segments of the population. "The issues that I face as a trans woman of African descent, and the issues

In many ways, Nick and Bianca Bowser are very typical parents. They have two children; Kai is three and Pax is one. "We are exhausted all the time," Nick laughs. "We both work at a bar, so we both work at night, so there's very little sleep." The thing that sets this family apart, and has recently landed them on the Riki Lake show and in international headlines, is something strangers on the street usually don't even notice: Nick and Bianca are both transgender. Nick was assigned female gender at birth, and Bianca was assigned male. Neither has undergone full surgical transition (partially because it's so expensive), so when they decided to have children, they were able to conceive. Nick and Bianca are part of our own community right here in Louisville, and Nick stopped by this week to share their story. We were curious about why they chose to go public with their family's story, when they otherwise have no problem passing. "We want people who are like us to be able to get help if the

Nick Bowser and his wife Bianca are both transgender, and have made national headlines for following their own unique path to parenthood. This week, we'll talk to Nick about what it means to be a family, and his hopes for the future of the trans movement. In Juicy Fruit we focus on the anti-date-rape nail polish that's been in the news this week, and the state of consent on college campuses. And, of course, Beyoncé at the VMAs! Strange Fruit posts on Saturday morning at strangefruitpod.org, and airs Saturday night at 10pm on 89.3 WFPL.

On our very first episode EVER (September, 2012), we talked about how, when someone comes out of the closet in the black community, the first thing people ask is, "Does your mama know?" Until a person is out to their mama, they're not really 100% out. We had no idea what the show would become, so we were very experimental. That first week, Dr. Story took a recorder to campus and we made a montage of folks asking the question!