Journalist Michele Norris has spent the last 14 years collecting what she calls "an archive of the human experience." She wanted to see how Americans really talk and think about race, so she asked people to share their thoughts in six words. The results were overwhelming. Eventually, the project moved online and got more than half a million entries from over 100 countries. Norris turned the project into a new book called Our Hidden Conversations. Also, John Powers reviews a biography of Frantz Fanon, by Adam Shatz. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann.
Curzan says she gets a lot of.
Complaints about people using the pronoun they.
To refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Tanya Moseley.
In 2010, a year into Barack Obamas presidency, people were declaring that wed made so much progress that we were close to achieving a post racial society.
Award winning journalist Michelle Norris wanted to know if that was true.
She wanted to explore how Americans really talk and think about race.
So she came up with this idea.
She named the race card project and placed postcards in airports and coffee shops that asked a simple question, race, your thoughts.
Tell me your six words.
Norris was sure that most of those who would respond would be people of color because those are the ones we often hear talk about race.
But over the last 14 years, a vast number of the responses, over 500,000, have been from white Americans in the US and the world.
People from all walks of life sharing their most honest, intimate and revealing thoughts about race.
Norris has turned the race card project into a new book titled our hidden what Americans really think about race and identity.
Here's a snippet from the audiobook.