Culture & Engagement

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. We're going to talk about how continuing racial inequality in America is in part a result of 20th-century policies that mandated housing segregation, including in the North. My guest Richard Rothstein is the author of the new book "The Color Of Law: A Forgotten History Of How Our Government Segregated America." He writes about federal, state and local policies that help explain why new suburbs were predominantly white while housing projects became predominantly black and so many neighborhoods became - and remain - segregated.

The police killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed have the nation discussing big issues of structural racism, policing and power. And maybe you're thinking about your part in all of this, too. Maybe at your workplace or in your friend group or among family, you're having difficult discussions about the instances of racism that you've seen or felt or even may have even been complicit in. Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has spent years researching and writing books on the effects of microaggressions. As these big structural issues play out, he says it's important to confront the small stuff.

In this episode of NPR's Througline, the origins of policing in the United States and how those origins put violent control of Black Americans at the heart of the system.

From the transcript, "This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Now it's time to go Behind Closed Doors. That's the part of the program where we talk about matters that many people prefer to keep private. Today, we want to talk about what it means to know where you come from. Now, a lot of Americans believe that a lot of the problems in this country - and frankly, many of the conflicts outside of it - stem from people who are too tied to their roots, to their religion or ethnic identity or race."

Sohla El-Waylly was one of the most vocal critics of her previous employer, Bon Appétit, and eventually resigned after the magazine's racial reckoning.

She's now a columnist at Food52 and star of the YouTube series Off-Script with Sohla. She and Sam talk about racism in the food media industry (and everywhere else), The Cheesecake Factory, and certain kinds of mushrooms.

Ijeoma Oluo, best-selling author of So You Want to Talk About Race, shares advice on how to talk to your parents about racism. While her tips are mostly geared towards non-black folks, there's something for everyone in this episode.

In this episode of NPR's Rough Translation podcast, producer Justine Yan talks with R.O. about what the essay meant to her, and how to break familiar silences surrounding Asian American communities.

9 to 5 was one of the first movies focused on the lives of women in the workplace. On this episode of NPR's Planet Money, we meet the women behind the movement that inspired the movie. And a look at how far we have — or haven't — come since then.