Fresh Air

Richard Pryor’s daughter Elizabeth is a scholar of the N-word

The word has two distinct pronunciations, she says, which signal entirely different meanings. The hard 'er' ending, she says, has historically been used as a weapon — a way of saying you are less than human. The soft 'a' ending, she says, is used within the Black community as a term of familiarity and even affection.

The New York Times

How Black Voters in Alabama Are Fighting G.O.P. Redistricting

As a Black woman in this country, just about every right that I have is some type of law that can be overturned. And in my lifetime, I'm actively watching those efforts happen.

Fresh Air

Richard Pryor’s daughter Elizabeth is a scholar of the N-word

The word is doing a tremendous amount of work in American culture and society, and it's a problem that causes real harm to people. And one of the ways that we can actually address that problem with more than hand-wringing or more than shock is to actually understand how it works.

Fresh Air

Richard Pryor’s daughter Elizabeth is a scholar of the N-word

It's the most volatile word in the American language. It has been used to harm, to bond, to challenge, to unite, to separate. It's impossible to discuss American history, literature, and culture without it.

Fresh Air

Richard Pryor’s daughter Elizabeth is a scholar of the N-word

The word is doing a tremendous amount of work — it's marking race, it's marking power, it's marking intimacy, it's marking hatred, it's marking love. And what's extraordinary about it is that it can mark all those things simultaneously.

Code Switch

Why so many Americans never learned to swim

In the US, about eight out of 10 children from households with incomes below $50,000 a year have few to no swimming skills. That's according to the American Red Cross. About 64% of black children have few to no swimming skills. For Latino children, it's 45%. For white kids, it's about 40%. And you know, not to get all heavy, but these disparities around swimming line up with drowning deaths in the US, which are most likely to affect poor kids and kids of color.