The minefields of parenting and race

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Parenting is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Between choosing a neighborhood to live in or whether to send your kid to public school, there are a lot of decisions that feel high stakes — and sticky, especially when it comes to race. We're here to help. This week we're digging into our archives to bring you some parenting advice around some of the parenting-and-race dilemmas our listeners have faced.

This episode features advice from Cassandra Harewood, child and adolescent psychiatrist, Amy Stuart Wells, professor emeritus of sociology and education at Teachers College at Columbia University, Jenn Jackson, professor of political science at Syracuse University focusing on Blackness and gender, Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African & African American Studies at Duke University, and Gigliana Melzi, associate professor of applied psychology at New York University.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Real quick, y'all.
0:02.2	So Code Switch is about to turn 10.
0:04.3	So, one, thank you for rocking with us all this time.
0:07.6	We really want to hear from you about any episodes over this last decade that really, really stuck with you.
0:12.8	You can email us or you can send us a voice memo, even doper, at codeswitch at npr.org.
0:17.6	You might even hear your voice on the show.
0:19.8	All right. On to the show.
0:25.9	Hey, everyone. You're listening to Code Switch. I'm B.A. Parker. And I'm Gene Demby.
0:31.4	So, Parker, what are you doing for your mom for Mother's Day? You're like typical mom coming
0:36.1	in New York stuff. Okay. Like, Busy brunch and a Broadway show.
0:39.1	Oh, Busy Brunch.
0:40.2	Yes.
0:40.8	Like, what are you, what are your Mother's Day plans? My mom's birthday is actually right around Mother's Day every year. So, you know, it's hard to forget. I got to double up. You know what I got to get a birthday gift and a Mother's Day gift. And my lady has been giving me some not so subtle hints about what she wants for Mother's Day.
0:54.2	She's getting links, text links, you know what I'm saying?
0:55.9	Exactly.
0:56.3	So I already know what it is. And my lady has been giving me some not so subtle hints about what she wants on Mother's Day.
0:55.8	She's getting links, text links, you know what I'm saying?
0:56.3	Exactly.
0:59.2	So I already know what it is in advance this year.
1:07.7	Since this episode is coming out around Mother's Day, we figured we should dig in the crates and revisit one of our favorite episodes.
1:14.0	Tips from the toughest job in the world. That job being parenting.
1:22.0	When that episode dropped, Karen Grisbee Bates. Hey, Karen. We miss you. Yes, Karen. Our then editor,
	...

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