Whether your mask will be up or down...

...take a moment to catch your breath

View this email online Fam: A belated Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate — we hope you got to eat well with the people you love. We’ve been marveling at the beautiful ways people around the world have found to celebrate, despite a year of restrictions and challenges.  Speaking of “around the world” — typically, our newsletter focuses on matters within U.S. borders, but this week, our eyes have been glued to international headlines. Here’s a glimpse at some of the stories we’ve been following, from the very difficult to the very beautiful. We’ll start with the difficult. IN THE NEWS Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images Violence in Jerusalem and Gaza has made front page headlines. The unrest started, in part, because the Israeli government proposed removing families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. A demonstration against the proposed displacement ended with Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets and skunk water at the mostly Palestinian protesters. Since then, Palestinian militants have fired hundreds of rockets from Gaza toward Jerusalem, while the Israeli army has conducted at least 130 airstrikes over Gaza. According to Reuters, at least 103 people had been killed in Gaza as of Thursday, including 27 children. In Israel, seven people had been killed. (This is a very condensed summary of a situation that's still developing, we know — for ongoing updates and context, you can follow NPR’s coverage here.) Our whole team has been thinking about how the violence relates to race, and how our identities as Americans — whether they be political, religious, ethnic or racial — affect how we interpret news coming out of Israel and Palestine. We’ll have more on that on the podcast next week, so stay tuned. In other news, no less difficult: An estimated million or more Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and even forced sterilization. That’s according to our friends on the Throughline team, who did a deep dive into Uyghur identity on their show this week. They get into “who the Uyghur people are, their land, their customs, their music and why they've become the target of what many are calling a genocide.” The episode is well worth a listen. Finally, for something a bit more hopeful: NPR’s Goats and Soda team spoke to author Catherine McKinley about her newest work, The African Lookbook. It’s a book that explores fashion culture in different regions of Africa, and how African women turned the sewing machine “from a tool synonymous with toil, lack of choice and oppression into a means for them to achieve economic power.” The history is fascinating, but you’d be forgiven for just browsing through the gorgeous photos of fashion over the past hundred years. Newsletter continues after sponsor message ON THE POD Krystal Quiles for NPR We've said it multiple times on the show: Latinos are the second largest "demographic" in the United States. But...what does that actually mean? Are Latinos a race? Ethnicity? Culture? We try (and fail) to answer some of these questions with Dominican American podcaster and entertainer the Kid Mero. Listen Here READ / WATCH / LISTEN Elissa Nadworny, NPR education reporter: “I’m reading Nicole Lewis’ memoir Pregnant Girl, which chronicles her time as a teen mom getting her bachelor’s degree, interspersed with the stories of the students she now helps through her organization, Generation Hope, which helps teen parents finish college. I’ve written several stories about college students who are raising kids – which includes nearly 1 in 5 of our nation’s 20 million undergraduates. Often student parents don’t get the support they need, and despite having better grades than students without kids, they are more likely to drop out. The stories of these student parents in Pregnant Girl demonstrate so many opportunities for colleges to better support their students who have kids." Natalie Escobar, assistant editor: “As someone who works on a podcast, I’m really picky when it comes to the other shows I listen to in my free time. So when I listened to the first episode of ICYMI, a twice-weekly Slate podcast about internet culture, I was delighted by how much I genuinely loved it. Hosts Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher manage to make a show about internet phenomena really fun to listen to (which is not a given, based on other shows I’ve tried), thanks to a combination of their grade-A chemistry and the topics they cover — particularly how Black folks are responsible for the way Gen Z and millennials talk online. I particularly loved their interview with the Black teens who started the “Up” challenge on TikTok, Mya Johnson and Chris Cotter, and how white influencers like Addison Rae often get famous for doing challenges that Black creators started. Also, now I know way too much about AO3 fanfiction drama. What a blessing!” That’s it for now. Remember to take some deep breaths when you can (whether or not you’re ready to take your mask off in public.) We’ll be back next week. Written by Natalie Escobar and Leah Donnella and edited by Steve Drummond. Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: codeswitch@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Code Switch emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy