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Race. In your face.
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Waiting In No Man's Land
Dion MBD for NPR

Code Switch

Waiting In No Man's Land

Tens of thousands of children were adopted from other countries by parents in the U.S., only to discover as adults a quirk in federal law that meant they had never been guaranteed American citizenship. Much like the Dreamers, these adoptees are now fighting for legal status to ensure they can stay with the only homes and families they've ever known.

Waiting In No Man's Land

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School Colors Episode 7: 'The Sleeping Giant'

School Colors Episode 7: "The Sleeping Giant." LA Johnson hide caption

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LA Johnson

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School Colors Episode 7: 'The Sleeping Giant'

by , , Soraya Shockley , Carly Rubin , Illana Levinson

In some ways, this entire season was prompted by the parents who organized against diversity planning in School District 28. So in this episode, we're going back to that one ugly meeting, where they unleashed their fear and anger into the rest of the community. So who are these parents, what do they believe and why? Moreover, why were they ready to fight so hard against a plan that didn't exist?

School Colors Episode 7: 'The Sleeping Giant'

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On Food, Mattress Sales, and Juneteenth

Beloved Black cookbooks for Juneteenth. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

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LA Johnson/NPR

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On Food, Mattress Sales, and Juneteenth

It's the second year that Juneteenth has been a federal holiday — which means it's getting the full summer holiday treatment: sales on appliances, branded merchandise, and for some, a day off of work. But on this episode, we're talking about the origin of the holiday — and the traditions that keep its history alive for Black folks around the country.

On Food, Mattress Sales, and Juneteenth

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School Colors Episode 6: 'Below Liberty'
LA Johnson

Code Switch

School Colors Episode 6: 'Below Liberty'

by , , Soraya Shockley , Carly Rubin , Ilana Levinson

Though a lot of parents and educators agree there needs to be some change in District 28, the question remains: what kind of change? When we asked around, more diversity wasn't necessarily at the top of everybody's list. In fact, from the north and south, we heard a lot of the same kind of thing: "leave our kids where they are and give all the schools what they need."

School Colors Episode 6: 'Below Liberty'

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The impact of COVID-19, a million deaths in

Author Linda Villarosa pictured next to her book, Under the Skin. Nic Villarosa hide caption

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Nic Villarosa

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The impact of COVID-19, a million deaths in

A new book by Linda Villarosa looks at how racial bias in healthcare has costs for all Americans. Spoiler: Poverty counts — but not as much as you'd think.

The impact of COVID-19, a million deaths in

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How 'A Strange Loop' fits into Black theater legacies

James Jackson, Jr., L. Morgan Lee, Antwayn Hopper, John-Andrew Morrison and Jason Veasey play the self-lacerating thoughts of Usher (Jaquel Spivey) in A Strange Loop. Teresa Castracane/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Association with Playwrights Horizons and Page 73 Productions hide caption

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Teresa Castracane/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Association with Playwrights Horizons and Page 73 Productions

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How 'A Strange Loop' fits into Black theater legacies

The musical — which is up for 11 Tony Awards this Sunday — subverts and reimagines decades of Black theater and pop culture.

Spilling the T

Actor and comedian D'Lo performing in his one-man play, "To T or Not to T" Mikel Darling hide caption

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Mikel Darling

Code Switch

Spilling the T

Code Switch's Kumari Devarajan found an unlikely demographic doppelganger in D'Lo, a comedian and playwright whose one-person show about growing up as a queer child of immigrants in the U.S. is reopening on a bigger theater stage. But when you share so much in common with a stranger who is putting their sometimes messy business on front street for the world to see, it can feel like they're also sharing your secrets, too.

Spilling the T

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School Colors Episode 5: 'The Melting Pot'
LA Johnson

Code Switch

School Colors Episode 5: 'The Melting Pot'

by , , Soraya Shockley , Carly Rubin , Ilana Levinson

Until recently, School District 28 in Queens, N.Y., was characterized by a white Northside, and a Black Southside. But today, the district, and Queens at large, has become what is considered to be one of the most diverse places on the planet. So how did District 28 go from being defined by this racial binary, to a place where people brag about how diverse it is?

School Colors Episode 5: 'The Melting Pot'

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Rethinking 'safety' in the wake of Uvalde

An officer walks outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images

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Rethinking 'safety' in the wake of Uvalde

In the wake of violence and tragedies, people are often left in search of ways to feel safe again. That almost inevitably to conversations about the role of police. On today's episode, we're talking to the author and sociologist Alex Vitale, who argues that many spaces in U.S. society over-rely on the police to prevent problems that are better addressed through other means. Doing so, he says, can prevent us from properly investing in resources and programs that could make the country safer in the long run.

Rethinking 'safety' in the wake of Uvalde

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School Colors Episode 4: 'The Mason-Dixon Line'
LA Johnson

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School Colors Episode 4: 'The Mason-Dixon Line'

by , , Soraya Shockley , Carly Rubin , Ilana Levinson

So much of the present day conversation about District 28 hinges on the dynamic between the Northside and the Southside. But why were the North and the South wedged into the same school district to begin with? When we asked around, no one seemed to know. What we do know are the consequences.

School Colors Episode 4: 'The Mason-Dixon Line'

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How We Decide Who Is 'Worthy of Welcome'

Author Heba Gowayed next to the cover of her book, Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential. Courtesy of Heba Gowayed hide caption

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Courtesy of Heba Gowayed

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How We Decide Who Is 'Worthy of Welcome'

Millions of Syrians have been displaced by ongoing civil war. In her new book, Refuge, Heba Gowayed follows Syrians who have resettled in the U.S., Canada and Germany. She argues that finding their footing in their new homes is less about individual choice and more about governmental systems.

How We Decide Who Is 'Worthy of Welcome'

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School Colors Episode 3: 'The Battle of Forest Hills'
LA Johnson

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School Colors Episode 3: 'The Battle of Forest Hills'

by , , Soraya Shockley , Carly Rubin , Ilana Levinson

In the early 1970s, Forest Hills, Queens, became a national symbol of white, middle class resistance to integration. Instead of public schools, this fight was over public housing. A fight that got so intense the press called it "The Battle of Forest Hills." How did a famously liberal neighborhood become a hotbed of reaction and backlash? And how did a small group of angry homeowners change housing policy for the entire country?

School Colors Episode 3: 'The Battle of Forest Hills'

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The Utang Clan
Malaka Gharib/NPR

Perspective

The Code Switch Podcast

The Utang Clan

Utang na loob is the Filipino concept of an eternal debt to others, be it family or friends, who do a favor for you. It goes back to pre-colonial times in the Philippines, and can pass from one generation to another. And some Filipino-Americans want to do away with utang all together, especially when it butts up against "American" values of independence and self-reliance. On this week's episode, we break down this "debt of the inner soul" — and discover a surprising side to this value.

The Utang Clan

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School Colors Episode 2: 'Tales From The Southside'
Photo by Cassandra Giraldo for NPR

Code Switch

School Colors Episode 2: 'Tales From The Southside'

by , , Carly Rubin , Ilana Levinson , Soraya Shockley

School District 28 in Queens, N.Y., has a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply, the Southside is Black and the farther north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this. Once the home to two revolutionary experiments in integrated housing, the Southside of the district served as a beacon of interracial cooperation. So what happened between then and now?

School Colors Episode 2: 'Tales From The Southside'

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School Colors Episode 1: 'There Is No Plan'
NPR

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School Colors Episode 1: 'There Is No Plan'

by , , Soraya Shockley , Carly Rubin , Ilana Levinson

In 2019, a school district in Queens N.Y., one of the most diverse places on the planet, is selected to go through the process of creating something unexpected: a diversity plan. Why would the school district need such a plan and why were some parents so adamantly opposed?

School Colors Episode 1: 'There Is No Plan'

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Coming Soon: Code Switch presents 'School Colors'
NPR

Code Switch

Coming Soon: Code Switch presents 'School Colors'

Coming soon to the Code Switch feed: School Colors, a limited-run series about how race, class and power shape American cities and schools. Hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman take us to Queens, N.Y. – often touted as the most racially diverse place in the world. In 2019, a Queens school district announced that they were chosen to get a "diversity plan." One reaction from local parents? Outrage.

Coming Soon: Code Switch presents 'School Colors'

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The LA Uprising, a generation later

Authors John Cho (left) and Steph Cha (right.) Courtesy of Steph Cha and John Cho hide caption

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Courtesy of Steph Cha and John Cho

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The LA Uprising, a generation later

Some call it a riot. Some call it an uprising. Many Korean Americans simply call it "Sai-i-gu" (literally, 4-2-9.) But no matter what you call it, it's clear to many that April 29, 1992 made a fundamental mark on the city of Los Angeles. Now, 30 years later, we're talking to Steph Cha and John Cho — two authors whose books both center around that fateful time.

The LA Uprising, a generation later

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Race, queerness, and superpowers in 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once'

Michelle Yeoh stars as a woman who suddenly develops the power to leap between parallel universes in the action-adventure-fantasy Everything Everywhere All at Once. A24 hide caption

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A24

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Race, queerness, and superpowers in 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once'

How can anything be more important than what's happening right now? That's the question a woman named Evelyn Wang is pondering right before she is thrust into a surreal, sci-fi multiverse, in the movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once." On the other side — googly eyes, talking rocks, people with hot dog hands — and an exploration of the dynamics between three generations in a Chinese immigrant family.

Race, queerness, and superpowers in 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once'

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A makeup company gets a facelift
LA Johnson/NPR

Code Switch

A makeup company gets a facelift

In the 70s and 80s, Fashion Fair was an iconic cosmetics company designed to create makeup for Black women of all shades. This is the story of that company's meteoric rise, its slow decline, and the two women who think they can resurrect it once more.

A makeup company gets a facelift

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A New Movement on Standing Rock
Christina Cala/NPR

Code Switch

A New Movement on Standing Rock

What do you do when all your options for school kind of suck? That was the question some folks on the Standing Rock Reservation found themselves asking a couple of years ago. Young people were being harassed in public schools, and adults were worried that their kids weren't learning important tenets of Lakota culture. So finally, a group of educators and parents decided to start a brand new school, unlike any others in the region.

A New Movement on Standing Rock

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