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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

Code Switch

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

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

Code Switch

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

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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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The dance that made its way from Harlem to Sweden

LaTasha Barnes is a tradition-bearer of Black social dances, including the Lindy Hop. Cassidy Araiza for NPR hide caption

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Cassidy Araiza for NPR

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The dance that made its way from Harlem to Sweden

Lindy Hop is a dance that was born in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s — created and performed by African Americans in segregated clubs and dance halls. But today, one of the world's most vibrant Lindy Hop communities is in Sweden. So what happens when a Black American wants to learn the art form that she first encountered at the hands of her great-grandmother?

The dance that made its way from Harlem to Sweden

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Wherefore art thou, N-word?
LA Johnson/NPR

Code Switch

Wherefore art thou, N-word?

It is probably the most radioactive word in the English language. At the same time, the N-word is kind of everywhere: books, movies, music, comedy (not to mention the mouths of people who use it frequently, whether as a slur or a term of endearment.) So on this episode, we're talking about what makes the word unique — and how the rules about its use line up with other words.

Wherefore art thou, N-word?

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Unlearning anti-Blackness in therapy: 'The Buck Stops Here'
Islenia Milien for NPR

Code Switch

Unlearning anti-Blackness in therapy: 'The Buck Stops Here'

by Isabeth Mendoza

Twenty percent of American adults sought out therapy in 2020. But Grisell Valencia faced a challenge; she wanted a therapist who could respond to experiences she was dealing with as an Afro-Latina.

Unlearning anti-Blackness in therapy: 'The Buck Stops Here'

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Screams and Silence, Revisited

Anti Asian-American hate has been on the rise, but is nothing new to the people who experience it. Hokyoung Kim for NPR hide caption

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Hokyoung Kim for NPR

Code Switch

Screams and Silence, Revisited

This week marks the one year anniversary of a deadly shooting spree in Atlanta, where eight people were killed. Six of those people were Asian American. That violence came after Asian American organizers had been trying, for months, to sound the alarm over a dramatic spike in reports of anti-Asian racism.

Screams and Silence, Revisited

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What's In A Dad?

Comedian Hari Kondabolu with his son Arjun. Antoine Didienne/Courtesy of Hari Kondabolu hide caption

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Antoine Didienne/Courtesy of Hari Kondabolu

Code Switch

What's In A Dad?

Gene Demby and comedian Hari Kondabolu are both new fathers, and they're both learning to raise kids who will have very different identities and upbringings than their own. It's left both of them reflecting on some big questions: How will they teach their children about race? What are the elements of their childhoods that they want to pass on? And what, exactly, is a father anyway?

What's In A Dad?

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Ice Breaker
Alaina Murphy/Blind Landing

Code Switch

Ice Breaker

Figure skating has always been about flair and drama. But what happens on the ice is nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes. This week, with the help of our friends at the Blind Landing podcast, we're telling the story of Mabel Fairbanks. Fairbanks was a Black and Seminole figure skater who spent her career training figure skaters of color — while navigating the complicated racial and social dynamics that characterized the sport.

Ice Breaker

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The rise and fall of 'America's Dad'
Michelle Rohn for NPR

Code Switch

The rise and fall of 'America's Dad'

At the height of his career, Bill Cosby was one of the most famous men in the United States. He was the biggest and highest paid star in the country, and with his image plastered on billboards, advertisements and television, many people felt like they knew him. Of course, few people really knew Bill Cosby. And many of the people who had seen who he was up close would be traumatized for the rest of their lives.

The rise and fall of 'America's Dad'

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Can therapy solve racism?

Can therapy erase racism? What are the limits of how it can be used to combat anti-Blackness? Islenia Milien for NPR hide caption

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Islenia Milien for NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Can therapy solve racism?

by Isabeth Mendoza , ,

In 2020, nearly 20% of Americans turned to therapy. Many of those people were looking for a space to process some of the big, painful events they were living through, including the pandemic, a contentious election cycle, and of course, the summer's racial reckoning. But that had us wondering: What exactly can therapy accomplish? Can it mitigate the effects of racism? Help us undo how we internalize racial trauma? Today, we're sharing the stories of two Latinx people who tried to use therapy as a means to understand and combat anti-Blackness in their own lives.

Can therapy solve racism?

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What internet outrage reveals about race and TikTok's algorithm

West Elm Caleb went from a local Hinge player to dating supervillain, the target of a massive, righteous internet investigation. An audience of millions helped uncover and blow up his personal information. Nicole Xu for NPR hide caption

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Nicole Xu for NPR

Code Switch

What internet outrage reveals about race and TikTok's algorithm

While it's good that many called out the overstep in reaction, it also made us think about the ways that these outrage cycles happen, and often get ignored, when people of color are involved.

Humor, poetry and romance on Code Switch Live

Clockwise from top left: Paul Tran, Ayesha Roscoe, Hari Kondabolu and Denice Frohman. NPR hide caption

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Humor, poetry and romance on Code Switch Live

by , Denice Frohman ,

Live from your computer screens, it's Code Switch! Guest hosts Ayesha Rascoe and Denice Frohman joined us to talk poetry and humor with special guests Paul Tran and Hari Kondabolu. Then, Ayesha and Denice answered your questions about race and love.

Humor, poetry and romance on Code Switch Live

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