Race

Laquan McDonald (right) walks down the street moments before being shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago in October 2014, in a still shot from a police dashcam video.

National

3 Chicago Police Officers Accused Of Cover-Up In Killing Of Laquan McDonald

6:24pm June 27, 2017

by Merrit Kennedy

The Cook County grand jury indictment alleges that the three police officers were at the scene of the killing and worked together to conceal crucial facts in order to protect a fellow officer.

National

A Writer On Being A Black Man In Minnesota

8:06am June 25, 2017

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks Marlon James about racism and being a black man in Minnesota. James's essay on the subject, "Smaller, and Smaller, and Smaller," has been widely shared.

Zoe Kazan stars alongside Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick.

Arts

'Big Sick' Creators Nanjiani And Gordon On Turning Their Courtship Into A Movie

4:38pm June 23, 2017

In Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon's new rom-com, girl meets boy, girl contracts a mysterious illness and boy's Pakistani parents struggle to accept the relationship.

Deborah Lipstadt on the TEDxSkoll stage.

Deborah Lipstadt: How Do You Stand Up To A Holocaust Denier?

9:24am June 23, 2017

by NPR/TED Staff

After publishing the book Denying the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt was sued for libel in the UK by Holocaust denier David Irving. Rather than ignore the case, she chose to fight it — and won.

Queue Listen Now

Gary Koivu and his wife Kim came to StoryCorps to talk about Koivu's friend Vincent Chin. Chin died 35 years ago, and his death became a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation.

National

His Life Cut Short, Vincent Chin Is Remembered For What Might Have Been

4:33am June 23, 2017

The Detroit resident's violent death become a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation. Thirty-five years later, his friend Gary Koivu recalls their final night together.

National

'Washington Post' Reporter Describes 'Social Contract' Of Police-Involved Shootings

4:31pm June 22, 2017

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to Wesley Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, about his newspaper's police-involved shooting database and why guilty verdicts for police officers are so rare.

"I wanted to explore that kind of grief, that desire...to bring back who you love and to wish for that power not simply out of hubris, but to see the one you love back again," LaValle says.

Updating Frankenstein For The Age of Black Lives Matter

6:46am June 22, 2017

by Gene Demby

The classic tale of the Monster resurrected from the dead gets a new treatment in Victor LaValle's new limited-series comic.

Protesters gather outside the state Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., Friday, June 16, 2017, after St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez was cleared in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile.

National

What To Make Of Philando Castile's Death, One Year Later

3:52am June 21, 2017

by Kat Chow

In the aftermath of the acquittal of the officer who shot and killed Philando Castile, we've rounded up some of the compelling writing about this case — and police shootings — over the past year.

"When you tell the truth, it's naturally going to offend people afraid of the truth, afraid of what the truth might force them to do," says writer Sherman Alexie.

Books
Arts

Sherman Alexie Says He's Been 'Indian Du Jour' For A 'Very Long Day'

1:53pm June 20, 2017

by Terry Gross

Alexie is excited for a new generation of Native American writers to come on the scene, "so I don't have to answer all the questions," he says. His new memoir is You Don't Have to Say You Love Me.

Queue Listen Now

Sometimes it can feel like there is a terrorist attack on the news every other week. But how much attention an attack receives has a lot to do with one factor: the religion of the perpetrator.

When Is It 'Terrorism'? How The Media Covers Attacks By Muslim Perpetrators

9:40pm June 19, 2017

In the last five years, just 12% of terrorist attacks in the U.S. were carried out by Muslims. More than 50% were perpetrated by far right extremists. So why the media focus on "Islamic terrorism"?