Strange Fruit #91: LMPD's Racial Profiling Study; Civil Rights Educator Professor john a. powelll

Civil Rights educator john a. powell will be in Louisville on November 11th to deliver the 8th annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture, and he joins us this week to talk about his concept of a "culture of belonging," and the problems with a so-called colorblind approach to policy and interpersonal relationships. "Most Americans, including most white Americans, even if they don't see race or try not see race at the conscious level, the unconscious is seeing it and acting on it and processing it in a very robust way," he explains. "So in a sense we don't even have a choice." And WFPL's Jake Ryan joins us to help unpack the results of the Louisville Metro Police Department's racial profiling study. The findings were called inconclusive, and they also only included traffic stops—perhaps missing more frequent ways black residents interact with police. In our Juicy Fruit segment, it's time for another annual event: the naming and shaming of racist Halloween costumes and displays (this year, a lynching scene in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was picked up by the national blogs). We also address the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby that have recently resurfaced, and muse over a question Dr. Brittney Cooper raised this week in Salon: "[W]hat does it mean that while these men played progressive, loving family men on television, they potentially and allegedly raped and terrorized women and children in their personal lives?"