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.
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From the time of slavery, some light-skinned African-Americans escaped racism by passing as white. The new book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, explores what they lost. -
As the situation quiets down in Ferguson, Mo., some political observers are asking why it took President Obama so long to publicly weigh in on events there. -
Twenty years ago, Diana Gabaldon's time-travel epic Outlander shot to the top of the best-seller lists — and stayed there. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates digs into the enduring potency of Gabaldon's magic. -
In her new book, Rachel Howzell Hall introduces Elouise "Lou" Norton, a fiercely ambitious homicide detective who patrols the same Los Angeles streets that she — and Hall — grew up on. -
Myers' young adult novels talked about the tough realities of urban life in language that made teens stop and listen. He won almost every award for YA literature during the course of his career. -
Paul Mazursky earned his first Oscar nomination for his debut feature film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, in 1969. His An Unmarried Woman was nominated for Best Picture.
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After a contentious half-year, Irwindale's City Council and Sriracha-maker David Tran have come to an agreement: His factory stays put and the spicy scent stays in the bottle. -
No one wants to return to the system of American apartheid. Public education, with its glaring inequities, is a reminder of all the work left undone. -
After months of tussling with the City Council over the smells emitted by his factory, Sriracha-maker David Tran says he might expand his business, but the main operation will not relocate. -
It's the end of an era, as Johnson Publishing Co. announced plans to cease printing Jet. The magazine, which started some 63 years ago, was long a staple for many African-Americans.
