Accessibility links
Code Switch Race and identity, remixed.

Code SwitchCode Switch

Race. In your face.
Battle Of The Books

A collage of the books featured in the episode: Catherine House; Take a Hint, Dani Brown; Real Men Knit; and Mexican Gothic. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
LA Johnson/NPR

Code Switch

Battle Of The Books

The Code Switch team has been mired in a months-long debate that we're attempting to settle once and for all: What kind of books are best to read during this pandemic? Books that connect you to our current reality? Or ones that help you escape it?

Battle Of The Books

Listen · 37:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/915222213/915920404" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Protests Heard 'Round The World

Protesters throw a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour, during a Black Lives Matter protest rally, on Sunday, June 7. Ben Birchall/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Ben Birchall/AP

Code Switch

The Protests Heard 'Round The World

How did a police killing in Minneapolis lead people thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean to pull down the statue of a slave trader who's been dead for nearly three centuries? On this episode, we're going to the city of Bristol to tell the surprising story.

The Protests Heard 'Round The World

Listen · 37:49
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/913353564/913606090" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Kids Are All Right

Students behind the Flossy Podcast: Joshua Bovell, Jaheim Birch-Gentles, Brianna Johnson, Jamar Thompson, Ieszan McKinney, and Kamari Murdock in Canarsie, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Not pictured - Isaiah Dupuy.) Kholood Eid for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Kholood Eid for NPR

Code Switch

The Kids Are All Right

Adults often find it really hard to talk about race. But kids? Maybe not so much. NPR received more than 2,000 entries in this year's Student Podcast Challenge, and we heard from young people all over the country about how they're thinking about race and identity in these trying times.

The Kids Are All Right

Listen · 34:34
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/910836728/911038139" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
How Black Women Athletes Paved The Way For The NBA Strike

After the WNBA announcement of the postponed games for the evening, the Washington Mystics each wear white T-shirts with seven bullets on the back protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha, Wisconsin police at Feld Entertainment Center on August 26, 2020 in Palmetto, Florida. Julio Aguilar/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

Code Switch

How Black Women Athletes Paved The Way For The NBA Strike

The wildcat strike was unprecedented for the NBA — but the world of professional basketball is no stranger to protesting for Black lives.

Balls And Strikes

The Black Lives Matter logo is seen on an empty court as all NBA playoff games were postponed. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Code Switch

Balls And Strikes

Matilda Crawford. Sallie Bell. Carrie Jones. Dora Jones. Orphelia Turner. Sarah A. Collier. In 1881, these six Black women brought the city of Atlanta to a complete standstill by going on strike. The strategies they used in their fight for better working conditions have implications for future generations of organizers — and resonances with the professional sports strikes happening today.

Balls And Strikes

Listen · 33:30
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/908305393/908839773" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Clinton Melton: A Man Who Was Killed In Mississippi Just 3 Months After Emmett Till

Deloris Melton Gresham in her home in Drew, Miss., holding photographs of her parents Clinton and Beulah Melton. Courtesy of Radio Diaries hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Radio Diaries

Code Switch

Clinton Melton: A Man Who Was Killed In Mississippi Just 3 Months After Emmett Till

by Nellie Gilles , Joe Richman

The murder of Emmett Till 65 years ago this week became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Radio Diaries tells a lesser-known story of a Black man killed in a nearby town three months later.

Clinton Melton: A Man Who Was Killed In Mississippi Just 3 Months After Emmett Till

Listen · 12:07
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/906791647/906855364" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The United States' Pre-Existing Conditions
Urszula Soltys

Code Switch

The United States' Pre-Existing Conditions

How was the the richest and most powerful country in the world laid low by a virus only nanometers in size? Ed Yong, a science reporter for The Atlantic, says it's the inequities that have been with us for generations that made our body politic such opportunistic targets.

The United States' Pre-Existing Conditions

Listen · 24:49
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/905846282/906074594" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Kamala, Joe, And The Fissures In The Base
Therrious Davis for NPR

Code Switch

Kamala, Joe, And The Fissures In The Base

Black voters are the Democrats' most reliable and influential voting bloc. But this election has underscored the tensions between those Black voters, along generational and ideological lines — which could have major consequences on turnout this fall.

Kamala, Joe, And The Fissures In The Base

Listen · 44:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/890416712/901773060" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
One Korean American's Reckoning
Gracia Lam for NPR

Code Switch

One Korean American's Reckoning

At a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles, a young Korean American man named Edmond Hong decided to grab a megaphone. Addressing other Asian Americans in the crowd, he described the need to stop being quiet and complacent in the fight against racism. On this episode, we talk to Edmond about why he decided to speak out. And we check in with a historian about why so many people mistakenly believe that Asian Americans aren't political.

One Korean American's Reckoning

Listen · 26:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/892974604/896539554" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
After Being Called Out For Racism, What Comes Next?

Makram El-Amin (left) and Majdi Wadi (right) Yasmin Yassin for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Yasmin Yassin for NPR

Code Switch

After Being Called Out For Racism, What Comes Next?

After his daughter's racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic social media posts became public and drew backlash, an Arab Muslim business owner is trying to making amends. But is redemption possible?

After Being Called Out For Racism, What Comes Next?

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/891829285/896006410" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Race

Protests For Racial Justice Bring Light To Anti-Blackness Within Communities Of Color

A Muslim immigrant-owned grocery store in Minneapolis has become the center of a conversation among communities of color and minority faiths about complicity in and contributions to systemic racism.

Protests For Racial Justice Bring Light To Anti-Blackness Within Communities Of Color

Listen · 8:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/895329201/895329202" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Un-HolyLand? An Arab Muslim Reckoning With Racism
Fahmida Azim

Code Switch

Un-HolyLand? An Arab Muslim Reckoning With Racism

After his daughter's racist and anti-LGBTQ social media posts became public, an Arab-Muslim entrepreneur is fighting to keep his once-burgeoning business alive in the middle of a national — and personal — reckoning with anti-blackness.

Un-HolyLand? An Arab Muslim Reckoning With Racism

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/892974522/894055335" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Remembering The 'Divine Diahann Carroll'

Actress, model and singer Diahann Carroll. Bee Harris hide caption

toggle caption
Bee Harris

Code Switch

Remembering The 'Divine Diahann Carroll'

by Sonari Glinton

On what would have been Diahann Carroll's 85th birthday, we're celebrating the legacy of the actress, model and singer. Reporter Sonari Glinton went to her estate sale and took a tour of some of the objects that represent important moments in Ms. Carroll's life. And because Diahann Carroll achieved so many firsts, the exhibit was more like a civil rights exhibit than an auction.

Remembering The 'Divine Diahann Carroll'

Listen · 17:24
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/891177902/892307996" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
What's In A 'Karen'?

The evolution of a nickname for a certain type of white woman. Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

Opinion

Code Switch

What's In A 'Karen'?

"Karen" has become cultural shorthand for a white woman who wields her race as a cudgel. And look, we all love to hate a good Karen. But where did this archetype come from? What will the next iteration of Karen be? And what are we missing by focusing on the Karens of the world?

What's In A 'Karen'?

Listen · 23:28
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/891177904/891442595" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
An Immune System
Therrious Davis for NPR

Code Switch

An Immune System

While it's technically possible to win a civil lawsuit against police officers for wrongdoing, there's a reason it almost never happens: a legal technicality called qualified immunity. On this episode, we look at how a law meant to protect Black people from racist violence gave way to a legal doctrine that many people see as the biggest obstacle to police reform.

An Immune System

Listen · 21:08
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/876212065/888806961" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
We Aren't Who We Think We Are
LA Johnson

Code Switch

We Aren't Who We Think We Are

Every family has a myth about who they are and where they came from. And there are a lot of reasons people tell these stories. Sometimes it's to make your family seem like they were part of an important historical event. Other times, it's to hide something that is too painful to talk about. That last point can be especially true for African American families.

We Aren't Who We Think We Are

Listen · 41:43
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/885179622/886369792" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Bittersweet Moment For Black Bookstore Owners

Katie Mitchell, co-owner of Good Books in Atlanta, runs an online and pop-up bookshop with her mom, Katherine. "Things are trendy for a while ... and then they're not," she says. Lynsey Weatherspoon for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Lynsey Weatherspoon for NPR

Code Switch

A Bittersweet Moment For Black Bookstore Owners

As Black booksellers race to meet increased demand for books about race and justice, many are dealing with complicated, sometimes painful feelings about what the new business means.

Browse archive or search npr.org