In 2010, then NPR host Michele Norris started “The Race Card Project.” Looking for honest conversations on race and identity, she left postcards wherever she went with the prompt “Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.” She got half a million response over 12 years, including You’re Pretty for a Black girl. White privilege, enjoy it, earned it. Lady, I don’t want your purse. Urban living has made me racist. I’m only Asian when it’s convenient.

In her new book, Our Hidden Conversations, Norris reveals what Americans told her and the conversations on race, racism and identity that followed.