Race, Identity, and Performance in Danzy Senna's 'New People'

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2017

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam talks to novelist Danzy Senna about her new book, 'New People,' and about race in America, why LA is boring in a good way, black identity, what white people say when they think they're alone, being "professionally black", how her students perform their race, artistic integrity and safe spaces, prestige black TV like 'Atlanta' and 'Insecure', and the election of Barack Obama. If you're in the Washington DC area, catch Sam and Danzy in person at the East City Bookshop in Capitol Hill on Monday, September 18. Email the show at [email protected] and follow Sam on Twitter @samsanders.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all, thanks so much for listening to this show.
0:02.4	Before we start Quick Plug for another show, up first.
0:06.8	It's NPR's Morning News Podcast.
0:09.4	Up first is about 12 minutes long,
0:11.8	and it's produced and posted at 6am every week they morning.
0:16.1	The show makes your real smart, real fast, and I listen every day.
0:20.6	You can hear up first on the NPR-1 app or wherever you get your podcast.
0:30.9	Hey y'all, Sam Sanders here.
0:32.6	It's been a minute.
0:33.6	Every Tuesday we bring you a deep dive conversation.
0:36.4	Today I am talking to novelist Danzy Sinna about so many things.
0:40.8	We're talking about race.
0:42.0	We talk about how whatever your race,
0:44.0	it's something that we all kind of perform.
0:46.2	We're talking about how the internet and current politics affect all of this,
0:50.0	and we're talking about what it means to have artistic integrity
0:53.6	in an era of safe spaces.
0:56.8	All these issues come up in Danzy's new novel.
0:59.2	It's called New People.
1:00.5	It's a story of a light-scanned black woman named Maria.
1:03.9	She lives in Brooklyn in the 90s.
1:05.9	The character has a really interesting group of friends.
	...

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