Strange Fruit

Miserable summer camp experiences are a staple in sitcoms and movies, where letters to home complain of mosquitos, inedible food, and obnoxious roommates. But for LGBTQ kids, the reality is often a lot less funny, and camp can be a scary place if you've been singled out as different. So teaming up with GLSEN and with support from NBA Cares, friends to the show Darnell Moore and Wade Davis are spearheading a brand new basketball camp this year—one designed for LGBTQ kids and their allies. The camp is free and features a whole roster of NBA stars dropping by. It's called YOU Belong: LGBTQA Youth Sports and Leadership Initiative, and Darnell took a few minutes on the eve of the camp's opening to tell us how it came about.While we had him on the phone, we also spoke about his article in this month's issue of The Advocate. They focused their entire July issue on LGBTQ people of color, and Darnell's article related some of his experiences of being 'too gay' in black spaces and 'too black' in gay spaces. In our main interview this week, we meet activist and author Chris Crass. His new book is called Toward Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy, and it features an interview with someone whose name is very familiar to Louisville's social justice community: Carla Wallace.In case you're new to town, Carla is a long-time activist, co-founder of the Fairness Campaign, and founder of Showing Up for Racial Justice. Carla told us of a time when LGBTQ activists in Louisville threatened to stop contributing to the campaign if any of the money was used in anti-racism efforts. We've come a long way since then, but our chat with Carla and Chris shows that we also have a long way to go.Chris Crass is in town this Sunday to celebrate the book's release. He and Carla had so many eye-opening things to say, we decided to split the interview into two parts; join us next week to hear the rest.What's juiciest in Louisville this week is the ongoing competition for national Entertainer of the Year. In the spirit of the event, Dr. Story offers etiquette tips for drag shows (hint: tipping=life).

It's been a week since George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin. Most of us have spent this week reflecting, arguing, thinking, protesting, writing, organizing, praying, and unfriending people on social media. Yesterday, President Barack Obama made a statement about the verdict, outlining the effects of racism in America and on his own life. He was immediately accused by some of being divisive. Many prevailing voices are saying we need to move forward. That the system did its job, even if we don't like the result. They say Martin was partially to blame, while we ask what he could have done differently. They say that talking about racism and systemic injustice just perpetuates division. They say they are colorblind, justice is colorblind, and we should be too. These words hold little comfort for those upset by the verdict, and they especially ring hollow for the parents of black children. This week, we talk about the killing, the verdict, the system, the jurors, the law, and where to go from here. We're joined by our friend Lucie Brooks, who's an author, an attorney, women's studies professor, and a mom to four black sons.

Judging by political rhetoric alone, you might think immigration is a bigger issue now than ever before. But in his book, Global Crossings: Immigration, Civilization and America, Alvaro Vargas Llosa argues that immigration rates have stayed fairly steady throughout the centuries. His book broadens the historical context of the immigration debate, and seeks to answer some contentious questions about why people risk their lives to come to America. We spoke to Vargas Llosa this week about some commonly-held immigration myths. We also asked him about what marriage equality means for international couples, and how the status quo fosters tension between immigrants and African Americans.

A few months ago we had an eye-opening conversation with author Yolo Akili about his article, Gay Men's Sexism and Women's Bodies. Today Yolo is back with us to talk about his new book, Dear Universe: Letters of Affirmation and Empowerment for All of Us. As always, Yolo is full of wisdom, and we hope he comes to Louisville one day and becomes Strange Fruit's official Life Coach. This week in Juicy Fruit we talk about an ugly incident that happened to one of our favorite people, Dr. Brittney Cooper. Dr. Cooper wrote about the experience in a piece for Salon: The N-word on the 4th of July.

The news was mixed from the Supreme Court this week: While LGBTQ activists celebrated the fall of the Defense of Marriage Act, granting federal benefits to same-sex married couples, the loss of parts of the Voting Act raised concerns about voter disenfranchisement in some states. We asked Professor Sam Marcosson to come shed some light on what the decisions mean.

SCOTUS said DOMA is unconstitutional, and Fairness invited us all down to the Hall of Justice to rally! In case you couldn't go, we captured the sights and sounds for our fruitcakes! Photos are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.214694072011263.1073741825.124249701055701&type=1&l=c556335adb

This week we're joined by Linda Golden and Melissa Chipman from the Louisville Not Kentucky podcast! They interviewed us for an upcoming episode of their show, so we invited them to sit in for Juicy Fruit this week. Speaking of Juicy Fruit, the Paula Deen story was probably this week's juiciest, especially when you consider the #PaulasBestDishes and #PaulaWontCookIt hashtags that quickly followed. We also talked about Mayor Fischer's move to forbid food stamp recipients from using the assistance to buy soft drinks, and an Ohio school's ban on the vast majority of natural black hairstyles among its students—namely, braids and afro-puffs. In our feature interview, we catch up with Dr. E. Patrick Johnson, author of Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South. He joined us to talk about the work he did on that anthology and the one-man show that followed, and also gave us the tea on his next project, which tells the stories of black gay women in the south. And it's gonna be called Honey Pot, which we could not love more!

We asked some of our favorite Fruitcakes what social justice song they love. Here's what they said! [Big thanks to Yolo Akili, Brandie Ford, Sam Marcosson, Chris Hartman, Monica Roberts, Kevin Chapman & Bojangles Blanchard for participating!]

It's Pride Weekend in Louisville, so we won't type your ear off. But please enjoy this episode of Strange Fruit where we talk about music as an agent of social change. We meet musician Arro Verse, whose pro-marriage-equality song "Marry Me" has been used in political campaigns, and hip-jop scholar Dr. Justin Burton. We also talk about our own favorite protest songs, and check in with some of our favorite fruitcakes about theirs. Happy Pride, y'all!

A report by the ACLU this week confirmed what many of us already suspected: Although marijuana usage is similar between black and white folks, black people are more likely to be arrested for possession (in some counties, much more likely).  In the nation as a whole, black people are, on average, 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for pot than white people. Zoom in to Kentucky, and you're six times more likely to be arrested for possession if you're a person of color (Kentucky's disparity is among the largest; only four states and the District of Columbia were worse). To help make sense of these numbers, we spoke this week with Amber Duke from the Kentucky ACLU. She says the disparity largely has to do with larger police presence in certain parts of town - usually African-American neighborhoods. So although crime rates may be similar, there are more cops around to see them. Plus, when someone is found with a small amount of marijuana, it's up to the officer's discretion whether to issue a citation or take the person to jail. Any time you have discretion of this kind, officers' own prejudices can come into play. Given the staggering amount of resources we pour into the "war" on marijuana (Kentucky spent $19.5 million in 2010 on marijuana enforcement) it's fair to wonder whether this is money well spent or money spent on racially biased law enforcement activity.  Also this week on our Juicy Fruit segment, we talked about the heckler and Michelle Obama, and why a white lady was so "taken aback" when the first lady politely but firmly asked her to stop yelling while Mrs. Obama tried to give a speech at a fundraiser about children.  And we learned about Louisville's first-ever Derby City Black Pride Weekend, going on this weekend, and co-founded by our very own Jaison Gardner!

Activism runs in Urmi Basu's family; her grandfather was a doctor who set up a school for dalit children (India's untouchable caste) in his own home. Urmi says her family "always challenged everything that's traditional in India." Thirteen years ago, she combined her passion for gender equality and her background and education in social work—along with 10,000 rupees, or $200—to found New Light India. New Light is non-profit organization based in the red light district of Calcutta, intended to help victims of sex trafficking and provide healthcare to people living with HIV/AIDS. With an estimated 40,000 new trafficked sex workers in the city each year, it's no small task. But Urmi is a woman of great determination. She was in Louisville recently and she sat down to talk with us about her work, and how sex trafficking in India is part of the larger global culture of gender inequality. In this week's Juicy Fruit segment, a look at the Kaitlyn Hunt case leads to a conversation about the application of statutory rape laws to queer relationships among teenagers. Follow Up: How you can help New Light India New Light's success stories Volunteer Opportunities Internship Opportunities Half the Sky Movement

This week, former Louisville Cardinals basketball player Jason Osborne was arrested after an incident at Fourth Street Live—which led to concern from Louisville's African-American leaders about possible discrimination at the downtown entertainment district. WFPL reporter Devin Katayama joins the Strange Fruit team to talk about what happened and past issues at Fourth Street Live. And documentary filmmaker discusses African-American jockeys in the Kentucky Derby.

Terrorist. What image pops up in your mind when you hear that word? "When we think of the word 'terrorism,' most people get an image in their head of somebody who, of course, is a foreign national or somebody who's immigrated to the United States, who's Muslim, typically" explains clinical psychologist Dr. Kevin Chapman. "We think of things like violence. Guns. We think of airport screening." Defining terrorism is challenging (even for the United Nations, apparently), but in common usage, it's an act of violence intended to intimidate or coerce, often for ideological reasons. The word itself has a long and emotional history, but this week, we were interested in how that word is applied, or not applied, following mass killings like the Boston bombing. "We in America tend to react differently to terrorism depending on the ethnic, demographic, religious, and national profile of the alleged assailant," explains David Sirota. David is a political commentator who wrote a piece for Salon called Let's Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber is a White American. In it, he points out the double standard in public reaction to mass killings. If the perpetrator is white, like in many recent shooting cases, it will be seen as an isolated incident, an aberration, possibly related to mental illness. We'll likely hear folks on TV mention how many hours a day the shooter spent playing video games. Any political fallout will probably be limited to gun control debate and will not involve taking action against the attacker's nation of origin or adding surveillance against people who share his background. Or as Tim Wise wrote last week, "[I]f he's an Italian American Catholic we won't bomb the Vatican." We spoke to Sirota this week about his piece, and the fallout from it. "My email box has been filled with the worst kind of anti-Semitic, racial epithets from the n-word to everything, for simply raising a point that should be obvious." That reaction reveals just how deeply invested some folks are in their need to believe these acts are committed by people who are not like them. To understand what it is in our psychology that spurs this need to categorize "them" and "us," we called on friend to the show Dr. Chapman. "It's human nature to categorize, and unfortunately we dichotomize too often: ingroup, outgroup," he explains. "We lump groups of individuals and profile them as a result, and that maintains our ingroup ideology." Dr. Chapman also joined us for our Juicy Fruit segment this week, where we looked at TransGriot blogger Monica Roberts' musings on the future of uterine transplants and what they might mean for trans women who want to bear children. Since we had a psychologist in the studio, we asked him something that can be perplexing to LGBTQ folks with chosen families: just why is it so emotionally important for some people to physically give birth to their children?

Did you feel safe in middle and high school? Were you ever physically harassed, or even assaulted, because of your LGBTQ identity? A report released last month by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) confirms what many of us already knew: Kentucky schools are often hostile and unsafe for LGBTQ students. The study is called School Climate in Kentucky (PDF), and the results show lots of work still needs to be done. For example, 9 out of 10 students in the Commonwealth say they regularly hear anti-gay slurs in school. 36% reported regularly hearing that language from school staff members. Nearly 6 in 1o students were physically harassed (like being pushed or shoved), and 3 in 10 were physically assaulted (like being punched, kicked, or injured with a weapon) because of their LGBTQ status or gender presentation. So instead of just rattling off numbers and feeling disheartened, we decided to speak to the folks who compiled the research. Mark Bartkiewicz is a GLSEN researcher who worked on the state reports, and he joins us by phone this week to talk about the results, how Kentucky's numbers compare to other states, and what can be done to help (spoiler alert: it's gay/straight student alliances and enlightened faculty members). We also spoke more this week about the closet door in professional sports (for people who know next to nothing about them, we sure do talk about them a lot). This week, NCAA breakout star & top WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner came out of the closet. "I wouldn't say I was hiding or anything like that," she told Sports Illustrated in an interview. "I've always been open about who I am and my sexuality. So it wasn't hard at all. If I can show that I'm out and I'm fine and everything's ok, then hopefully the younger generation will definitely feel the same way." Who doesn't feel the same way? Male professional athletes, it would seem. In fact, this same week, NFL player and University of Louisville alumnus Kerry Rhodes has been the target of gay rumors after MediaTakeOut.com released pictures of him looking affectionate with another man while on vacation (they helpfully illustrated the story with an NFL logo in which the football has been covered in pink sequins). Rhodes told The Advocate that he's not gay, but he's an ally. "I know a lot of people are recently talking about athletes struggling to come out to their fans right now," he said, "and I support them, as well as wish those individuals comfort." It seems like the world is waiting for an actively-playing male athlete to come out, so in our Juicy Fruit and closing thoughts segments this week, we did some unpacking of the situation. How do sexual politics play out in the hyper-masculine culture of pro sports (especially football), and why is it so very different for women athletes than men?

David Sedaris never liked Chinese food. Then he went to China, and he really didn't like Chinese food. His essay about it, Chicken Toenails, Anyone? was published in the Guardian and was criticized as disrespectful, xenophobic, and even racist. This week we were lucky enough to chat with Sedaris and get his reaction. He said if he were worried about keeping his humor PC he couldn't be an honest about his experiences, and wouldn't get as many laughs. "I always figure that the thing you can admit that's most embarrassing is the thing that most people can relate to," he explained. "Because we're not that different, really." We also asked whether he considers himself an LGBTQ activist. He told us, "the way I write about my relationship is just about trying to make a life with somebody, and anybody can relate to it. It's not important that I'm trying to make that life with another man. It's just important that I'm trying to make that life with another person." We also spoke more broadly about his life and work, LGBTQ visibility in pop culture, why speech therapy classes are full of gay children, and whether marriage equality will lead to an increase in annoying destination weddings. "I think gay people should get the right to marry," he said. "And then I think none of us should act on it." David Sedaris will be in Louisville on April 18 at the Kentucky Center.