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.
-
Despite the prominence of Asian artists in several aspects of hip-hop, they're still not the most visible performers in the genre. Dumbfoundead wants to be an exception. -
Diedre Melson, John Cox and Pam Thatcher are college-educated parents who once considered themselves part of the middle class. Then the Great Recession hit. A new HBO documentary shows their families desperately trying to make ends meet. -
The Kennedy administration commemorated the Emancipation Proclamation with a reception for a virtual who's who of black Americans. However, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed away. -
Decades ago, Bloomingdale's sold goods from China to intrigued American buyers. Today, to mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the store is doing the opposite: selling goods that cater to the interests of affluent visitors from Asia.
-
HBO's series Girlshas beencriticized for not being diverse enough. Long before Girls, two shows — Living Single and Girlfriends —featured professional African-American women.Butthe creator of Girlfriends says times have changed, and the shows she now produces have more multicultural casts to reflect changing demographics. -
A new law provides a path to temporary legal status for some youth in the U.S. illegally, but families must produce a bevy of documentation to qualify. In California, some school districts have devised new systems to help manage the high demand for data and school transcripts.
