NPR

Michele Norris On The Anxiety Of White America, And Her Optimism For The Future

Former NPR host Michele Norris talks about her story for National Geographic magazine's issue on race. In it, Norris explores the unease of some residents of a rapidly changing Pennsylvania town.
Felyssa Ricco stands outside the house in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her mother and stepfather, Kelly and Jesse Portanova. In addition to flying Old Glory and other flags, such as "Don't Tread on Me," the Portanovas sometimes fly the Confederate flag, saying it's a way of standing up to those who believe it shouldn't be displayed or who want to disregard America's history.

In its Race Issue, National Geographic magazine examines the state of race relations in the United States, including an acknowledgement of the racism that permeated its own pages for decades. Among the magazine's contributors this month: Michele Norris, former host of NPR's All Things Considered.

Norris currently runs , in which she asks people to send in their thoughts on race in just six words. When she began the project in 2010, Norris assumed she'd hear mostly from people of color. She was

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