Karen Grigsby Bates
Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.
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In the past few months, several white people have been recorded calling police on black people who are going about their legitimate business: mowing the lawn, using the pool, and sleeping in the dorm. -
The reports from the border this week sent a collective shudder through many Japanese American communities around the country. -
While the nation mourns the loss of the chef, writer and humanitarian, many people in communities on the margins are especially sad at the loss of a friend and champion. -
"Cesar Chavez understood that (Bobby) was one of the only white politicians — maybe the only one — who truly and instantaneously got what was going on with the farm workers." Biographer Larry Tye -
A love story between a black Army nurse and a German POW during World War II? You couldn't make that story up — and Alexis Clark, author of the upcoming book, Enemies in Love, didn't. -
A group of black women gathered in Los Angeles to watch Meghan Markle marry her prince. They discussed their joy and pride in seeing a biracial Angeleno become a royal.
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The end of Bill Cosby's trial also in effect marked the end of his career as a beloved entertainer and cultural icon. NPR looks back at Cosby's work as an entertainment pioneer, and how his growing conservatism and legal troubles have dimmed that luster for many of his admirers.
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Kevin Young's new book of poetry, Brown, is colored by memories from his family and childhood, U.S. history and black culture. -
National Geographic has released an issue on race. Which, considering the magazine's history on race, is either intriguing or ironic. Maybe both.
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"Whoever thought that 50 years later, we'd still be talking about the same things? That's kinda sad," Kerner Commission member Fred Harris said.
