Strange Fruit #81: Freedom Rides and Food Banks in Ferguson, Plus Throwing Shade at the Dictionary

It's been two weeks now since a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown, and the community is still experiencing the aftermath. The school year in Ferguson was supposed to start on August 14, but it was delayed due to the unrest, leaving students who rely on school meals with fewer options. And business closures have left some residents out of work and short on money. This week we check in with a St. Louis food bank to see how they're responding to folks in their community who need help putting food on the table. UofL student Brina Joiner traveled to Ferguson, and stops by our studio to tell us what she saw there that we aren't seeing on the news—and to share some much-needed optimism with us and our fruitcakes. Joiner tells us it's important for young people to make the trip, because history is unfolding there. "I have to go to Ferguson," she says. "I have to see what's happening. I have to make my voice be heard, to create that change. To create what comes next." Our other guest this week would agree. Patrisse Cullors, of Dignity and Power Now, along with our friend Darnell Moore, is organizing a freedom ride to Ferguson for Labor Day weekend. It's part of the Black Lives Matter movement they started after the shooting of Trayvon Martin. She says showing solidarity in times of protest is important, and even more effective when done in person. "There's nothing like having an actual body on the front lines with you," she explains, "to say I am here with you. I am your ally. I am not going anywhere." In our Juicy Fruit segment we lighten things up with the news that Oxford Dictionaries has added one of our favorite phrases to their list: throwing shade. Unfortunately they got the definition a bit wrong. They also added some other terms, and Jaison gives Kaila a pop quiz to see how many she can define. And new pictures of Queen Latifah and her presumed girlfriend on vacation in Italy lead us to to wonder, will she ever come out? And does it actually matter any more?