Hey there.
Shankar here.
Today, we wanted to bring you a bonus episode.
It's a story we reported several years ago.
It's about race and bias and the power of culture to affect our behavior.
A quick note before we get started.
This story begins with the police shooting of a man named Terence Crutcher, and there's discussion of police violence against African Americans throughout the episode.
On a September evening in 2016, Terrence Crutcher's suv stopped in the middle of a road in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
A woman saw him step out of the car.
The doors of the car were open.
The engine was still running.
The woman called 911.
Officer Betty Shelby was on her way to an unrelated incident when the call came in.
Terrence was 40, African American, born and raised in Tulsa.
He was a church going man with four children.
Betty was 42, white, a mother.
She was born in a small town not far from Tulsa.
In an ideal world, these two Oklahoma natives, close in age, ought to have had more to bring them together than hold them apart.
But on this evening, there was no small talk or friendly chatter.
The police officer told Terence to take his hands out of his pockets.