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鈥攁nd 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 1955, it was virtually unheard of for a black man to testify against a white person. Willie Reed, who changed his last name to Louis after fleeing to Chicago, died last week at 76. -
A popular Spanish-language radio show hosted by Eddie Sotelo, also known as Piol铆n or "Tweety Bird," has been abruptly canceled by Univision. -
Many African-Americans are pleased that President Obama spoke frankly about the inequities experienced in this country by blacks. They say understanding the distress over the Zimmerman verdict is key to honest discussions about race. -
DreamWork's Turbo has been touted for having a multicultural cast, but does the movie, with its distinctly "urban" garden snails and its ethnic characters, really move beyond racial tropes? -
Many black parents are agonizing about what Saturday's acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case means for their children. They still worry about whether their kids go to the mall "church-ready" or leave the house with their pants on their hips.
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In 1965, sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan authored a controversial report that said the decline of the black nuclear family was a major part of black poverty. Now, 50 years later, the Urban Institute has released a follow-up study. -
African-American and Mexican, Nick Gabaldon carved a path for surfers of color. He died in 1951, but access to surfing can still be limited. -
Many black women in the U.S. have or know someone who has done domestic work. With an expanding black middle class, some find themselves conflicted: To hire help or not? -
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.
