Shereen Marisol Meraji
Shereen Marisol Meraji is the co-host and senior producer of NPR's Code Switch podcast. She didn't grow up listening to public radio in the back seat of her parent's car. She grew up in a Puerto Rican and Iranian home where no one spoke in hushed tones, and where the rhythms and cadences of life inspired her story pitches and storytelling style. She's an award-winning journalist and founding member of the pre-eminent podcast about race and identity in America, NPR's Code Switch. When she's not telling stories that help us better understand the people we share this planet with, she's dancing salsa, baking brownies or kicking around a soccer ball.
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Describing groups of people as animals, using language like, "hunt them down" and "infestation" is an age old tactic to influence public opinion. And, it works. History shows when dehumanizing language is repeated, people start seeing their fellow human beings as sub-human.
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A popular style of tattooing called "black and gray realism" has its roots in East LA's Chicano culture. It moved from California prisons in the 1970s to high-end tattoo shops worldwide.
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A poll asked: When you were growing up, were you encouraged to apply to college, discouraged from applying or was this never discussed?
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What does it look like when one Latino is racist towards another? And what can one tiny interaction say about the way communities relate? How one viral video reveals fissures in the Latino community.
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A scholar and a journalist offer context and analysis on the events in Charlottesville and the politics of white anger.
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On the Code Switch podcast this week, a look at concerns and issues facing people of color in the 2020 Census, and a look back at the reasons why "Hispanics" became a word in the first place.
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The resignation of the U.S. Census Bureau's director, John Thompson, months before his term was to expire stunned the statistical community and raised anxieties about the 2020 count.
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People often remember tensions between African-Americans, white police officers and Korean business owners. That story gets more complicated when you step into a predominantly Latino neighborhood.
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For Puerto Ricans, the question of statehood and their status as American citizens makes identity a complicated topic. One Puerto Rico woman living in western Massachusetts talks about this tension.
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For the first time, four black directors are among the nominees in the best documentary feature category. Three of them made films that deal explicitly with race and race relations in America.