“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 States have afforded white people unfair advantages, and it isn’t helpful to ignore that reality. “Until 1964, no white member of my family ever had to compete with a person of color to get a job or to get a privilege. And even today I can go places and I’m treated in a different way.” Tomlinson Hill is a fascinating look at how the remnants of slavery are still present in our every day lives—sometimes even our last names. In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we talk about Ray Rice, former running back for the Baltimore Ravens who was released from the team after TMZ posted video this week of him physically attacking his then-girlfriend in an elevator. The assault happened in March, but at the time, Rice received only a two-game suspension. Accounts differ about whether the NFL saw the footage then, or not until this week. Rice and his girlfriend were married subsequent to the attack, spurring understandable concern from experts and survivors (domestic violence rarely happens just once, and usually escalates with each incident). Others blamed Janay Rice for staying with and marrying the man who had knocked her unconscious. Financial scholar and commentator (and Louisville native) Dr. Boyce Watkins penned an open letter to Janay Rice, praising her for her decision to stay with her abuser. We read an excerpt from his letter on this week’s show—specifically this passage, which was widely scorned on social media: For every woman who made the mistake of staying in a relationship with a perpetually abusive man, there is another woman who is glad she made the choice to keep her family together. Some will call these women stupid or the product of male manipulation; I call them heroes, ultimate mothers, and powerful people. At the very least, women deserve to have a say in what happens to their families without paternalistic eavesdroppers forcing them to do something they don’t want to do. With black families being torn apart left and right by the pitfalls of extreme feminism, we should appreciate situations where someone isn’t seeking to throw the baby out with the bathwater and destroying their family at the drop of a hat. Dr. Story points out that while most domestic and sexual violence is intra-racial, black women feel pressure to excuse the violence visited upon them by black men. “Black women have been living with these things in silence for fear that if they air it, they’re somehow race traitors or they’re selling their man out.” She calls for black male thinkers and writers to speak up when high-profile black men commit violent crimes against black women. “You got contempt for Darren Wilson? You need to have contempt for Ray Rice,” she explains. “Both parties felt as if it was their right to be able to do anything they wanted to a black body.”