Shereen Marisol Meraji
Shereen Marisol Meraji is the co-host and senior producer of NPR's Code Switch podcast. She didn't grow up listening to public radio in the back seat of her parent's car. She grew up in a Puerto Rican and Iranian home where no one spoke in hushed tones, and where the rhythms and cadences of life inspired her story pitches and storytelling style. She's an award-winning journalist and founding member of the pre-eminent podcast about race and identity in America, NPR's Code Switch. When she's not telling stories that help us better understand the people we share this planet with, she's dancing salsa, baking brownies or kicking around a soccer ball.
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Latino families sued four Orange County school districts over school segregation. The case, Mendez v. Westminster, ended school segregation in California seven years before Brown v. Board. -
National Hispanic University's founders wanted a bilingual, bicultural environment with smaller class sizes to serve first generation college students. -
Lending Circles Help Latinas Pay Bills And InvestParticipants in these social networks pool their money to give each other informal, no-interest loans. They're called cundinas or tandas, and politicians are taking notice.
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The Los Angeles Police Department is recognizing Women's History Month by honoring the first Mexican-American woman to join their force as a police officer: Josephine Serrano Collier.
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The buff and chesty Oscar statuette is said to be modeled after Mexican actor and director Emilio Fernandez. True story or Hollywood legend? -
People often question why some pronounce the word "ask" as "ax." We axed several linguists, and it turns out that "ax" has long been an accepted form of the word, used by English speakers for more than a thousand years. -
An East Los Angeles rivalry has become the largest high school football game west of the Mississippi. The football teams of Garfield High School and Roosevelt High School will meet on the gridiron Friday night for the 79th year. The game is expected to draw 20,000 fans.
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Bluefield State College in Bluefield, W.Va., is 90 percent white. Its alumni association is all black, and it still gets federal money as a historically black institution. -
The documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, is about some Muslim-American comedians on a U.S, tour to combat Islamophobia with humor. The comedians set up an Ask A Muslim booth and encourage passersby to play a quiz called Name That Religion. The goal is to familiarize more people with Muslims and Islam.
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The California legislature passed a bill that would allow lawful permanent residents to sit on juries. Governor Jerry Brown has until Oct. 13 to sign the bill into law. If he does, California will be the first state to allow non-citizens to perform jury duty.
