Say What? with Michele Norris

I could not sit on this story any longer. 🤎 I have released a special audio episode on my Substack about a rare recording and a reckoning on the anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. We need to know more about this troubling chapter of American history. On June 1, 1921, the Greenwood community of Tulsa woke up to ash and rubble. The entire community, a Black neighborhood so prosperous i...

I have been eager to share this story with all of you for years, and as we hit the 105th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, it’s time to finally pull it off the shelf. What you’re about to hear is the pilot episode of You People, a podcast we created five years ago , inspired by our work at The Race Card Project , where we collect 6-word stories about race and cultural identity. The journey s...

I was asked a question recently on air that has stayed with me. What does the world need to know about Minnesota right now? It came during a conversation about the aggressive immigration enforcement operations unfolding across the state — a conversation rooted in what I’d seen firsthand as a journalist reporting on the ground. I answered as a Minnesotan. As someone who understands the state’s rhyt...

Eric Newmark is a defense attorney based in the Twin Cities, where he has practiced law for 25 years. His work places him at the intersection of legal principle, the rule of law, and lived reality. We wanted to hear from him because he understands Minnesota’s civic and institutional landscape and because he was the defense attorney in an earlier December court case involving Jonathan Ross, the fed...

If you’ve been watching The Morning Show on Apple TV+ , then you know that the actress, Karen Pittman, has basically stolen the series this season as she transitioned from the loyal producer, willing to sacrifice everything for the network, to the frustrated employee willing to burn the whole place down. It has been a bit surreal to watch the fictional UBN network wrestle with some of the same rip...

Although James Baldwin died in 1987, he feels very much alive in this fractured moment in America. His writings, his self-aware posture in photographs, his clap-back videos are all fuel for the fire that rages in a culture of memeification on social media. But Baldwin’s true legacy is minimized and flattened when served up in small doses on our hand-held devices. He was a complex man who lived man...

When I first saw those ghastly images of the demolition of the East Wing, one of the first people I thought about was former White House secretary Deesha Dyer. Her work post was in the East Wing, near the suite of offices for First Lady Michelle Obama and her staff. I knew the destruction of that building would hit her hard, and I also knew that she would have a special insight into what was lost...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Special thank you to the fans at @wearedagild for their support and questions! ABOUT ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: Erica Armstrong Dunbar received her B.A. in History and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph. D. in History from Columbia University. Her area...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. ABOUT ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: Erica Armstrong Dunbar received her B.A. in History and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph. D. in History from Columbia University. Her area of expertise centers the lives of eighteenth and nineteenth century Black wome...