Earlier this week, my colleague Gene Demby interviewed a sociologist whose research focuses on race and higher education. (You’ll hear that conversation on the podcast tomorrow.) That scholar, Aya Waller-Bey, spent years working as an admissions officer at Georgetown, focused on Black recruitment. And in that role, she encountered a pattern that is both familiar and troubling to me: that in their college admissions essays, many young Black applicants are encouraged to write about overcoming trauma.
“You know, I'm seeing stories about homelessness,” Aya said, “I'm seeing stories about parents with mental health crises burning down a house. Sleeping in the car. Just these stories of pain.” Those stories, she said, often felt like they were in stark contrast to the kinds of essays many other students were writing — about, say, their love for crew, their success on student council, wanting to be a doctor because their grandmother had been a doctor.
There’s a version of this dynamic that I come across all the time, both in my work as a journalist and in my everyday experiences. To be Black — or really, any person with a marginalized identity — is to be reduced to the experience of hardship. It’s discrimination, it’s economic precarity, it’s isolation and disrespect.
LA Johnson/NPR
And look, no doubt, those things are all very real and very burdensome. Our reporting on Code Switch bears that out time and time again. But I think it’s important — especially when the world feels particularly hostile — to remind ourselves of what we love about our identities. Because that’s real, too. Yes, the Black people I know hate experiencing racism. But that’s not the end of it. Back in 2023, I interviewed a whole bunch of African and Caribbean immigrants living in Tennessee, and I tried to end every conversation by asking people what they loved about being Black. Their answers were funny and smart and joyful, and talked about everything from the nod, to getting to eat “seasoned, delicious food,” to having “the freedom to be exactly who I am. Who I was created to be.”
So in that spirit, this week I want to hear from all of you about what you love about your identity. What is it about being queer, or an immigrant, or a Sikh, or old, that makes your life richer? In a society so defined by “isms,” why do you still love being you? We’ll be compiling some of your stories for an upcoming episode of the podcast, so I’d love to hear from as many of you as possible. I want us to collectively write an admissions essay so cheesy and earnest and joyful and untraumatized that we would never get into college. Send your thoughts to CodeSwitch@npr.org with the subject line, “CS Love.”
Oh, and thank you all for your thoughts a couple weeks ago on how to talk to kids about hard stuff. Your suggestions and reflections were extremely helpful, and we’ll have more to share very soon 📚
By the way — what I love about being both Black and Jewish? Having the darkest sense of humor imaginable. That’s a side of me you’ll never see on NPR. But the real ones know.
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ON THE POD
Courtesy of Jennifer C. Pan
The Trump administration has been very candid about their disdain for all things DEI. But it's not just conservatives who have critiques. On this episode, we're talking to Jennifer C. Pan, author of Selling Social Justice: Why the Rich Love Antiracism, about why she thinks people on the left should be skeptical of DEI programs as well. We get into how DEI programs are frequently used as a tool for large corporations to assert their moral authority — without actually sacrificing their bottom line, or improving conditions for workers writ large.
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That's all for today. Pizza City Fest starts in Los Angeles tomorrow, so you know I'll be planning to have a good weekend. I hope you all find ways to do the same. Until then, be safe and be good.
-Leah Donnella, senior editor
Written by Leah Donnella and editedby Dalia Mortada
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