Kisses from Kenya Episode 26: The Same Strange Fruit... Again.

EPISODE 26: The Same Strange Fruit... Again.

Karmelo Anthony. 35 years. Nolan Wells. Trayvon Martin. Ahmaud Arbery. A 16-year-old from the DRC found hanging in early June. A 21-year-old in Georgia in February. Brendan and Vuyanzi sit with Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" - and the devastating reality that the song still applies. The question at the end of this episode is not rhetorical: where do we actually go from here?

In this episode:

• Opening conversation - Karmelo Anthony sentenced to 35 years; self-defence, race, and the justice system; Nolan's case
• Deep Dive - adultification of Black children; the pattern from Trayvon to Ahmaud to the names we don't hear enough; Black people going missing and being found dead like Nolan Wells and the silence that surrounds it; "Strange Fruit" and the bitter reality that this conversation has not moved as far as it should have
• The question - we keep repeating this. Where do we go from here?

Democrats Abroad Kenya, Karmelo Anthony, racial justice, Nolan Wells, Black diaspora podcast, American abroad Nairobi, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Strange Fruit, African diaspora

Kisses from Kenya is the podcast for Americans living abroad who haven't stopped paying attention. Subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss an episode.

#KissesFromKenya #DemocratsAbroad #RacialJustice #BlackDiaspora #AmericanAbroad #KarmeloAnthony #Adultification #StrangeFruit #NairobiPodcast #AfricanDiaspora

Transcript

Vuyanzi 0:06

Hey, Kisses from Kenya is produced by Democrats Abroad Kenya, but everything you hear in this podcast reflects our personal perspectives.

Brendan 0:17

As Americans living in Kenya. Yes, nothing we say should be taken as the official stance of Democrats Abroad Kenya, Democrats Abroad Global, or the Democratic Party. And this is an entertainment space and not an official policy platform.

Vuyanzi 0:33

Thank you. No, but listen. Between your legs. So I'm gonna say something. I'm going to say this one time and I won't repeat it just in case the guilty parties hear this. But for my birthday, which the message you completely ignored, but for my birthday, I have already apologized.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

I know it, but I wasn't. Stop acting like a Libra, the way that you ought to just keep relitigating.

Vuyanzi 1:11

No, no. But I'll just say this. At that time, because now there's no roster, at that time the entire roster was involved.

Brendan 1:20

So no, you told us that.

Vuyanzi 1:23

Yeah, but it made me think about how I eliminated the roster. And now, because I'm serious about this. And so last night, when we when you had the um, when you did your lecture, drunken lecture last night, there was the guy that you were standing next to. He was the other white guy that was there. He said, Oh, don't I remember you from someplace? You know what he says to me as we're talking after you leave? He's like, Um, are you still looking for your African king? Let me let me just say this to you. I met him because I was trying to figure out in 2021. That means I've been on the hunt for a man for at least five years.

Brendan 2:03

That makes it better?

Vuyanzi 2:05

No, it's not.

Brendan 2:05

So when you've been calling coochie?

unknown 2:08

No, please stop.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

Do the actions and the ideas do they align.

Brendan 2:17

No, I'm gonna get hunting and your coochie chakras aligned.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

They're aligned now.

Brendan 2:24

Your booty chakra and your heart chakra and your throat chakra feeling they're out of alignment.

Vuyanzi 2:32

Don't you chakra me? But I could not believe he asked me that. And I said I hadn't seen it.

Brendan 2:37

Maybe he wanted to align your chakras.

Vuyanzi 2:39

No, he didn't want to align.

Brendan 2:40

He's a yoga professional.

Vuyanzi 2:42

Yeah, he is a yoga professional, but he doesn't want to align my chakras. He probably thinks I need a good chakra alignment, not from him, because he's he's just a cool guy.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yeah.

Vuyanzi 2:51

But when he said that to me, when I tell you, I was like, oh my god, I've been out in these streets. We know. And no streets. And I told him, Stop, the streets don't know. But I did tell him I've kissed a lot of frogs. And he's like, oh, really? So uh, but I just was, I felt I felt a little more easy. But before we go on, I want to talk about how I felt. But welcome to Kisses from Kenya. I am Vuyanzi. Oh, wait, let's do it again. Welcome to Kisses from Kenya. I am Vuyanzi.

Brendan 3:30

And I'm Bended.

Vuyanzi 3:31

I felt a little bit ashamed. I felt a little embarrassed. I felt a little like out of alignment. And now I saw you in my head going, oh God, you're saying this for the oh, you're saying you're off the market for the 80th time. Guess what? Guess what? This bitch is off the market. There's no roster. I will tell you, somebody sent me a message and I said the coochie is closed. The heart is open for someone who's in alignment. Oh, because here's the thing. I decided. I have words. I have words for this. I want someone who can hold space for me.

Brendan 4:14

Emotionally. What Bernab podcast were you listening to?

Vuyanzi 4:19

No, I'm serious. Someone who emotionally can hold space. If you can't hold space and you just want to get into my pants or up my skirt, because most days I wear a skirt. But if you just want to do that, then I'm not talking you. No, you are done. Done. So that's I mean, but why can't like you know?

Brendan 4:39

I I know you're a big fan of you know I walk in a philosophy of abundance. And I feel like I want you to be a both and kind of person.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

No.

Brendan 4:52

But it is, it's like, it's like, like I told you, it's like Harry Potter, like, it's like the sorting hat. So like when you meet them and it's like, okay, like heart coochie, hearty, you put them in that pile.

Vuyanzi 5:03

I don't want coochie pile anymore. The coochie has piled up. Do you want it to get cobwebs?

SPEAKER_04 5:09

You'll be like, that's seen in scary movie where she opened her underwear and all but he was using the like the tribunal.

Vuyanzi 5:17

And then the baby flew out. No, I won't get cobwebs, but I'm gonna tell you, I might, but the universe I have to be in alignment. I know you were making fun, but this is truth. If I want to be No, I'm being serious.

Brendan 5:33

I have a turning hat that I use.

Vuyanzi 5:34

Yeah, but I'm being serious.

Brendan 5:36

The problem is most men go in the coochie pile.

Vuyanzi 5:39

I need to be in alignment so the universe can know what exactly I want. I'm done. Anyway, that's all I want to say. I wanted to start this off on a little bit.

Brendan 5:47

Y'all mark these words, episode 26. Published in the last week of July 2026. If we still talk about this in Q4, please come for her in the comments.

Vuyanzi 5:59

No, I'm like, don't come for me in the comments. I'm very sensitive. But I'm just saying, the only thing we're gonna be talking about is are you still holding on? And I'm like, yeah, I'm still holding on. And I'm letting go all at the same time. Okay. All right. So um I do want to bring this to a bit more of a somber thing.

Brendan 6:23

It's like a hard, like a hard pivot.

Vuyanzi 6:26

I know it is. Did someone say hard? And I won't get rid of the jokes, though.

Brendan 6:32

The jokes will always be there. Jokes are gonna wither and tower like her coochie wanna say unlike my coochie.

Vuyanzi 6:40

Unlike my vagina.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

I'm not gonna use pliable. The skin is gonna become thin.

Vuyanzi 6:49

I do cables, I can be doing my.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Skin in my vagina.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

When it doesn't experience friction over time, it thins out. That is uh that is such a um it's gonna tear. No, my vagina's not gonna tear. Three big people came out of it. Oh my god. We try to get some more big people up in it.

Vuyanzi 7:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

That's what I'm manifesting for you.

Vuyanzi 7:19

No, I want you to manifest like my kids. A man with a big heart. My ass. And a big with his intellect. With his with his well, I mean, I have the rose, but that's a different conversation. I have a toy. We can talk about that. I gotta make sure I charge it up actually when I get home. However, we should have an episode where we talk about that. Yeah.

Brendan 7:45

I have strong feelings about sex toys.

Vuyanzi 7:47

Really? Okay, let's pause there because I'm trying my best to pivot into the next thing.

Brendan 7:52

We can talk about the start of the next episode.

Vuyanzi 7:54

Okay. Oh, we can.

Brendan 7:55

Okay.

Vuyanzi 7:55

Um, so so the thing is about what we're going to talk about is something that at this time, who knows by the time this airs, what developments will be.

Brendan 8:05

However, um Should we should we put a like a trigger warning?

Vuyanzi 8:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so I want to say the trigger warning. We should have a trigger. Well, there's a warning.

Brendan 8:16

There's always a big trigger warning, but this is about a different type of trial. Yeah, this is.

Vuyanzi 8:20

So I wanted to say if um, and especially uh African Americans like I am. In fact, we're gonna talk about it. However, I'm I've stopped watching things about it on Instagram because it is triggered. So trigger warning here, uh, the next topic is sensitive. So a couple of things have happened.

Brendan 8:40

We're gonna give them some specific triggers, though.

Vuyanzi 8:43

Have you done a trigger warning before? No.

Brendan 8:45

You're supposed to say, like, we're about to talk about okay.

Vuyanzi 8:48

So this is a trigger warning. Um if you might be um triggered by anything around violence or red rum spelled in the opposite way, uh, or aspecially as to do with especially as has to do with race. Especially as it having to do with race. I myself am talking about this, however, honestly, I've even had to do some regulation. So this is making sure it's recording. That's our disclaimer before we go into the next conversation. There have been some things in the news since we last met. One of them was Carmelo Anthony, who was convicted of a crime. Yeah. And I'll just put it like that. And what it brought out was the adultification of sentences for black boys. Because his his sentence right now, I'm forget, it's something like 30 years, it's something like 30 years. Um, whereas I mean, someone's someone was unalived in that crime.

Brendan 9:53

No, but it's like I mean, it's like if you put it directly next to like Kyle Rittenhouse, like you know, the one who had the you know, and and he got off. Or it's like even when they do get convicted, it's usually for a shorter period of time.

Vuyanzi 10:06

Yeah, yeah. And this was I think he had said uh self-defense. Yeah. And actually, you said call Rittenhouse, and it reminded me of the guy in Florida who um was that Trayvon Martin. Um, that was Trayvon Martin. Um Stan Your Ground?

Brendan 10:22

Yeah, you're you're talking about um who is the good? Well, Stan Your Ground came up. There was actually that woman, there was a black woman who was killed in Florida, and that was the one that had to do with their law, and then there's George George, um yeah, that guy. But again, he unalived someone and the one who killed Treymount or who unalived someone.

Vuyanzi 10:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's okay. We're getting we're getting used to it. That's fine. Um, so that was that, and so that is disturbing it's because it's not the first time we're seeing this, right? However, in 2026, there's a part of me that wants to believe that we wouldn't still be in exactly the same spine. The conversations that we've had for centuries.

Brendan 11:09

And it's like centuries. I I just feel like sometimes it I I literally like it feels like like I mean, even like with the kind of joke I was making earlier about like the WMDs and like feeling like we're like trapped in the like it just feels like we're trapped in like a time like this is one of those Twilight Zone episodes, you know, where it's like you keep the same things keep happening, and it's like you feel the deja vu, but then it's like everyone else just like they they want to re-argue and re-litigate the same thing.

Vuyanzi 11:40

It's the same damn thing all the time. Because you you can look up something and it's like the same thing. Also, this is a case now that just has happened over the past week. There's someone else, um, Nolan, what is his last name? Is it Nolan Wells? I think it may be Nolan Wells.

Brendan 11:57

The young man in Mississippi.

Vuyanzi 11:59

Yeah, that's the one who went away on vacation.

Brendan 12:02

No, it wasn't even vacation, they just like went on on the boat for the day.

Vuyanzi 12:06

Oh, it was just for a day. Yeah. It was like a day party out on this little island. All his friends, and I'm putting air quotes for those of you who are listening to the podcast. I'm putting air quotes around it. All his friends come back, he's missing, and no one knows, and everyone deletes or privatizes their social media, including the parents. But no one knows what happened, but that is their friend. And I will say someone dropped a video of them back on Memorial Day where it was somewhere else. They said it was that weekend, but it wasn't. It wasn't. No, it wasn't since then. It was because then actually the date is somewhere there. I remember seeing it.

Brendan 12:39

But one of his so-called friends making uh gorilla noises or monkey noises. Oh no, the video I saw was it was a video from that day out on the island where they were all like, because it's like one of those little like barrier islands, you know, like that like it's not an inhabited island, it's just like a little sandbar that you know, people go and they park their boats and they like party. Yeah. And so there was a video that someone had taken, it's like a 360 video from one of the boats, and you see like a group of people on the beach, and you can hear them like arguing, and then they think that it was like those other, like the white boys like arguing with him on the beach.

Vuyanzi 13:21

Oh, I didn't see that one because they already treated him like trash, and this is where like as a parent, I'm gonna say this, right? When I see the black boy in the pictures with all the white kids, and because that's whatever area of school he went to, and my kids for part of their schooling were some of the only's.

Brendan 13:39

Yeah.

Vuyanzi 13:40

And in fact, there was one time, I swear to you, at the high school, all the black kids lived in my house because it was like my nephew, my my my twins, my stepson, like they knew your house.

Brendan 13:51

Yeah, like they had a file on your house.

Vuyanzi 13:54

So, however, how dangerous was it? Because I remember even one time my one of my sons, the one who called during this one, he was out with his white friends on we used to call it gate night. Um, do you know gate night? Uh, the night before Halloween, what do you call it? Mischief night?

Brendan 14:11

When you mess up. I have I have a concept of what you're talking about. I don't remember.

Vuyanzi 14:14

Oh, you never, okay. It was a big deal where we were. You go out, you throw eggs at you go and be destructive the day before Halloween. And so he was with his friends. I did allow my kids out on that night. Yes, I'm one of those parents.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Whatever.

Vuyanzi 14:28

Although the police came, and guess what? All the friends, all the white friends, and what did the police do? They looked at my son, what are you doing here? What are you doing? And you know, that's just a little thing there. However, the danger, and you of course, I'm am I saying all white people are dangerous or not?

Brendan 14:49

It goes back to the same thing, right? It's it's like, I mean, like parents have had to have the same conversation with their kids since time immemorial. I mean, at least since like the end of slavery and the mixing of the races. Yes, yes. Like, yes, and you know, I mean, it it's one of those things where I mean I think about these things sometimes because it's like, I mean, I like I'm like 99% sure if I mean, well, hopefully when I have a child. Like, I don't think I'm gonna have like a white child.

Vuyanzi 15:25

I don't if you have a white child, I would be so surprised.

Brendan 15:29

I feel like I feel like I would they would they would they would kick me out of all the fair groups.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Yeah, something like race trader!

Brendan 15:37

Blog no, it's so I I feel like most likely my kid my kids would at least be like mixed race. Yeah. And it like it, it's well, and especially if they were biracial, it's like I feel like it's one of those things where I often think about like what are like what I'm already kind of thinking about like what are some of the things I'm gonna have to talk to them about, right? Because it's like even if you're mixed, yeah, you ain't why uh that's the bottom line.

Vuyanzi 16:06

And it's like not white.

Brendan 16:07

You're gonna have to understand like that you can kicky with all these people in all these places, but like when push comes to shove and the shit hits the fan, you will be shoved and pushed and the shit will hit you. Yeah, you are the fan. Basically, and all accounts will be deleted and you will be able to do that. And actually, like I I think like I mean, I I find their case really interesting, like because even like the way that the mom responded, like, has been very kind of like, you know, they were like, oh, like thinking like the police and like I mean, granted, they're like in Mississippi, so it's like also like I feel like how much can she really in Trump's America in Mississippi kind of swing in for the police department on the news? But it's like yeah, like I look at like a lot of like I have I mean, I have some white friends who have adopted like children of color, and then I have some friends that are like, you know, mixed race families. And like I even tell them to like because like I I know like a lot of people my age who are like in that situation, you know, either you know, my black friends that had white parents, like adoptive parents or mixed race friends, yeah, whose white parents didn't say have those conversations with them. And they wound up like creating adults who are not properly equipped to navigate the reality of like their lived experience.

Vuyanzi 17:34

Yeah, yeah. And in so two things come up when you say that. Um, and then there's a couple of other things I want to talk about around this.

Brendan 17:41

So however I didn't mean to center white mass in our discussion.

Vuyanzi 17:44

Well, but it's interesting, but I don't know that you did. I think we're talking about because about mixed the race is mixing, you know, miscellanation, the dangers of the race mixing, you know. Um, so we I forgot what I was even gonna talk about. So, oh, it reminds me of uh the place where I went to high school and I lived part of my life is Teaneck, New Jersey. And I want to say Teaneck, New Jersey. It pro it it was it its pride was that it was the first school district in the United States to voluntarily integrate schools. So I went to Teaneck High School. Now, one of the things that I've heard from people who lived in Teaneck, from both black and white, this is very important, that when they went away to college, they were like, oh my gosh, where's the diversity of races? Yeah, they were like white, white children who would say, No, I don't, like, I just went to a school and there's all white people here.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

Well, that's what happened to me when I went to Hobart Williams coming from Schenectady High School. I was like, Where are the black people at? Yes, and I was about to be in the Caribbean Student Association and the Black Student Union. I was in the BSU. Yes, you're in the BSU with your kid take a lot that you're like, Koofy hat.

Brendan 19:08

I was like, Can I sit with y'all? Like, because we had that, it was like, you know, like one of those super white colleges that the real segregated dining hall. Oh, yeah. And I would be like, Can I sit with y'all?

Vuyanzi 19:18

And they were like all the kids from New York City. They're like, um, okay. But you but it's serious business. Now, I do want to say some other things too, uh, really quickly, because um, there's been also we're seeing on this level some hangings that have been deemed, you know, um unalike self-inflicted, right?

Brendan 19:42

However, that's one of those where I'm like, y'all, like it's like there sometimes it's like there are just things that like they're just true. Like it's like I don't need data, I don't need like a study. Yeah, and so I truly believe that when I see black folks online saying that like if a black person shows up at the end of a rope, that it is not self-inflicted, I truly believe that to be true.

Vuyanzi 20:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I can't I can't get my head to get out of it not being true, right? Like, I when I'm looking at it, I'm like, okay, I'm doing my damnedest, I'm doing acrobats in my head.

Brendan 20:26

Like, okay, in addition to which, especially these days, like who goes out that way? Most people don't well, let me not make light of self-inflicted right, right. And also, if you're someone who is considering that or needs help, there are a lot of resources that we can yeah, and maybe maybe we should make sure we put them, we'll have them here. Um but like no, there was nobody by choice is doing that to themselves. And by the way, especially like a black person, they're all in the south.

Vuyanzi 20:56

I'm sorry. Uh one exactly, and I just want to say no, because I'm a northerner. Y'all did Seattle, y'all in Hawaii. Seriously, and I I'm so sad I didn't write down the 16-year-old more recently who was found. I'm sorry, I thought I copied and pasted her name. 16-year-old, she's originally from DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo. Um, there was a 21-year-old found in February, Kyle Basinga. Uh, that was in Georgia, and um there was even another one in September of last year.

Brendan 21:32

No, it's I mean, it's been happening fairly consistently and being at least covered. I mean, at least in like my part of Twitter. Yeah, in your algorithm, yeah. Consistently, you know, over the last decade or more.

Vuyanzi 21:48

So I I know we wanna we're gonna shift, but can I when I saw it and I was looking up these articles, the thought that came up for me was Strange Fruit by Billy Holliday. Um, who I heard something a few years ago and I didn't know this, right? Because all I hear is that she died in the hospital, you know, whatever it was. However, I didn't know that the United States government was angry with her for making the song called Strange Fruit. She was on a list. And I didn't know that when she was in the hospital, all they had to do, because she was an alcoholic, all they had to do was give her, because they do that in hospitals. They give you a little bit of alcohol to make sure you don't die from withdrawal. And they kept it from her to make sure that she would die. So I didn't know that. So I just before we go into the next much lighter segment, I want to share the lyrics. So the lyrics are from Strange Fruit, Billy Holiday. Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood on the root, black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees, pastoral scene of the gallant south, the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth. Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is a fruit for the crowns to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for the tree to drop. Here is a strange and bitter crop. And so we begin to. And letting go as we exhale, all that energy. We'll need to burn some sage too. Yeah, straight up. So, um, so you'll have to do lost in translation. Actually, I might have a similar thing to you because I'm not gonna do the thing that it currently says. I'm gonna switch up.

Brendan 24:01

So uh, so this is also an abrupt transition, but it is, but what are we gonna do?

Vuyanzi 24:07

This is this is life too. This is like my Instagram feed.

Brendan 24:10

It's the duality of life.

Vuyanzi 24:11

Yeah, this is like my Instagram feed, it'll be something serious, and then all of a sudden basically, basically. Um or or we can end it there. We can do something we've never done and let people and leave this off. And we we can always, these sections will always come up, and we can let people kind of sit with this and get comments. Why do we do that? I love to do such a something. So let's do this today, because this was heavy. Let's acknowledge that, like, right? This is heavy. I can feel the heaviness in my body, and we still have another episode to record. Um, however, uh, we we'd love to hear from you on this. So that goes to uh you may be watching this on YouTube, but remember you can catch us on your favorite platform to get a podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and whatever they are. And we'd love for you to please subscribe. Let us know your comments and click the like button.

Brendan 25:11

Well, I think I think too, like, I'd I'd just be curious to hear from y'all. You know, like because I think whenever this does come up, like to me, the question is always like, where do we go from here? You know, like what next?

Vuyanzi 25:24

This is where I kind of feel a little hopeless by the way.

Brendan 25:26

And well, but I don't think it's about being hopeless.

Vuyanzi 25:28

I just think it's like No, I'm just saying I feel that I know. You said what?

Brendan 25:33

Oh, sorry. I didn't I didn't mean to denigrate your feelings.

Vuyanzi 25:37

Okay, thank you.

Brendan 25:39

Um I did I feel like with with some of these things, it's like that's another one where I see us kind of like doing this loop. You know, it's like we all get upset, and then there's like a lot of like, and it's like we need accountability, and then like like people fight. Yeah, and then we just kind of go back to our corners, and it just it makes me want like what I've been thinking about a lot lately with a lot of this, like this, some of the political stuff. I'm always like, what is something new? Like, what is something novel that we could try to make things different, you know? Because if it does feel like one of those words, like if we keep running off the same playbook, nothing's gonna change.

Vuyanzi 26:26

Yeah. Well, it's and you talk about that as you're talking literally right then, news headlines and names came up for me when you're talking about a loot. The first name that came up for me was Amadou Diablo Dia Diablo, something like that.

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Amadou Diablo.

Vuyanzi 26:42

Yeah. How many years ago was that? 30, 40 years ago. That came up for me. Um, then right, then right after him, there was this young man. I think it was like the night before his wedding or the night after his wedding at a nightclub, he was shot multiple times. Um, by the I was specifically thinking about police killings. Then there was another one where I I don't even remember, this was more recent, maybe in the past. There's yeah, I mean it was just like these flashed in my mind. Brianna Taylor. And uh like these flashed in my mind when you talk about the loop. How many times are we can we have this conversation on this podcast or any, you know, just out? So this is so, so how about that? Like when when you guys are putting a comment in here, what is the nuance thing? What is what is what is the thing?

Brendan 27:33

Like, what is something different that we could do?

Vuyanzi 27:36

I I really am interested in in what will come up from here.

Brendan 27:40

I agree.

Vuyanzi 27:41

Okay, all right, you guys, this has been a very somber, but one that needed to be had a conversation that needed to be had. Kisses from Kenya.

Brendan 27:53

See you next time.

Vuyanzi 27:56

Need to stretch and kinda.