I'm Jonathan Kapart and welcome to Kapart. Race, your story, six words, please send.

Twelve years ago, my fellow Washington Post columnist colleague Michel Norris posed that simple request to start a dialogue about race.

Little did she know that she would hear from more than half a million people whose stories

would form the foundation of her groundbreaking narrative archive called

The Race Card Project.

Today, those stories are part of her new book, Our Hidden Conversations, What Americans

Really Think About race and identity.

In this conversation first recorded for Washington Post Live on January 19th, Norris talks about

how she got people to open up about such a fraught topic, the difference between race and racism,

and what someone really means when they say you're playing the race card.

And it's usually a way of saying, please stop. when they say you're playing the race card.

And it's usually a way of saying,

please stop talking.

You're making me uncomfortable.

You're talking about something I'd prefer not to talk about.

So people can't say shut up.

But they can say you're playing the race card,

and it's a way ago six years ago next month

February 23rd 2018 to be exact.

You came to the podcast to talk about the race card project.

And I've been trying to get you back ever since

because it was such a great conversation.

...