School Colors

By Brooklyn Deep

What's School Colors about?

School Colors is a narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Season 2 premieres May 4, 2022: only on NPR's Code Switch.

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School Colors episodes:

02.08.2023
"We Can't Friend Our Way Out of White Supremacy" with Some of My Best Friends Are
Here’s a preview of another podcast, Some of My Best Friends Are, from Pushkin Industries. Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and journalist Ben Austen are friends, one Black and one white, who grew up together on the South Side of...
01.13.2023
Live from Queens, Part 2: Q&A
This is the second of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. After interviewing New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Mark and Max reflected on the Chancellor’s remarks and took questions...
12.22.2022
Live from Queens, Part 1: The Chancellor
This is the first of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. Mark and Max interviewed New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. Banks was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams and is...
11.30.2022
S2 E9: Water Under the Bridge
Over the course of this season, we've explored a rich history and complicated present — but what about the future? In this episode, we catch up with parents who became activated on both sides of the debate over the diversity...
11.30.2022
S2 Bonus: Ms. Mitchell's Pandemic Diary
"I know this work can take you under if you let it, so I try not to let it take me." Pat Mitchell is the beloved longtime principal of P.S. 48, an elementary school in South Jamaica. She cares deeply about...
11.30.2022
S2 E8: The Only Way Out
In 2018, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to replace the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT. For years, advocates had argued that the test favored white and Asian students while systematically keeping Black and...
11.30.2022
S2 E7: The Sleeping Giant
In some ways, this entire season was prompted by the parents who organized against diversity planning in District 28. So in this episode, we let the opposition speak for themselves. Who are these parents? What do they believe and why? And...
11.30.2022
S2 E6: Below Liberty
Queens has changed a lot in the last few decades — and so has District 28. New immigrant communities have taken root and the district is, on the whole, pretty diverse. But most Black folks still live on the Southside,...
11.30.2022
S2 E5: The Melting Pot
Until recently, District 28 was characterized by a white Northside, and a Black Southside. For more than a hundred years, we've seen how conflicts around housing, schools, and resources have played out mostly along this racial divide. So how did...
11.30.2022
S2 E4: The Mason-Dixon Line
So much of the present day conversation about District 28 hinges on the dynamic between the Northside and the Southside. But why were the north and the south wedged into the same school district to begin with? When we asked...
11.30.2022
S2 E3: The Battle of Forest Hills
In the early 1970s, Forest Hills, Queens, became a national symbol of white, middle class resistance to integration. Instead of public schools, this fight was over public housing. It was a fight that got so intense the press called it...
11.30.2022
S2 E2: Tales from the Southside
District 28 is both diverse and segregated. There’s a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply: the Southside is Black, and the further north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this. Once upon...
11.30.2022
S2 E1: "There Is No Plan"
Queens, New York is often called “the most diverse place on the planet.” So why would a school district in Queens need a diversity plan? And why would so many Queens parents be so fiercely opposed? Welcome back to School...
05.02.2022
Season 2 Trailer
School Colors is back! Season 2 premieres this week, presented by NPR's Code Switch. To listen, hop over to the Code Switch feed. In Season 1, hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman reported from their home turf in Central Brooklyn....
09.08.2020
Introducing Driving the Green Book
In Driving the Green Book, broadcaster Alvin Hall and activist Janée Woods Weber drive from Detroit to New Orleans collecting powerful stories about how Black Americans used The Negro Motorist Green Book to find safe havens and travel with dignity...
06.29.2020
Introducing Unfinished: Deep South
The 1954 lynching of Isadore Banks is one of the nation’s oldest unsolved civil rights cases. Unfinished: Deep South is a new podcast opening the case back up to find answers to this fading mystery — and help us come...
06.19.2020
Third Rail: The candidates for Senate District 25
In advance of the New York primary election on June 23rd, BMC hosted a virtual Town Hall with the candidates for Central Brooklyn's 25th State Senate district: Tremaine Wright, Jason Salmon, and Jabari Brisport. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
06.19.2020
Third Rail: The candidates for Assembly District 56
In advance of the New York primary election on June 23rd, BMC hosted a virtual Town Hall with the candidates for Central Brooklyn's 56th State Assembly district: Stefani Zinerman and Justin Cohen. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
06.19.2020
Third Rail: The candidates for Assembly District 57
In advance of the New York primary election on June 23, BMC Deputy Director Anthonine Pierre interviews the candidates for Central Brooklyn's 57th State Assembly district: Walter Mosley and Phara Souffrant Forrest. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
06.19.2020
Third Rail: The shifting Black electorate
This is the second installment of a special series from Brooklyn Deep's Third Rail podcast focused on New York's June 23rd primary elections. How is the Black electorate shifting in Central Brooklyn, generationally and politically? Anthonine Pierre talks to local...
06.18.2020
Third Rail: Holding elected officials accountable
This is the first episode of a special series from Brooklyn Deep's Third Rail podcast focused on New York's June 23rd primary elections. Why is it important, particularly now, to hold elected officials accountable in Central Brooklyn? Mark Winston Griffith...
01.03.2020
S1 Bonus: School Colors, Behind the Scenes
Every month on the Third Rail podcast, Brooklyn Deep deconstructs hot topics and social justice issues that impact the lives of Central Brooklynites. In November, Third Rail featured a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of School Colors, Brooklyn Deep's...
12.20.2019
S1 Bonus: A Night at the Library
In this bonus episode, recorded live at the Brooklyn Public Library, producers Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman talk with Christina Veiga, a reporter from Chalkbeat. They are joined by a special guest: NeQuan McLean, president of the Community Education...
12.06.2019
S1 E8: On the Move
Despite New York City's progressive self-image, our dirty secret is that we have one of the most deeply segregated school systems in the country. But with gentrification forcing the issue, school integration is back on the table for the first...
11.22.2019
S1 E7: New Kids on the Block
Gentrification is reshaping cities all over the country: more affluent people, often but not always white, are moving into historically Black and brown neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant. But even as the population of Bed-Stuy has been growing in numbers and wealth, the...
11.08.2019
S1 E6: Mo' Charters Mo' Problems
If you ask most people in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 why they think enrollment is falling, chances are they’ll point to charter schools: privately managed public schools, which have been on the rise in New York City for more than a...
10.25.2019
S1 E5: The Disappearing District
Since 2002, the number of students in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 has dropped by more than half. There’s no single reason why this is happening, but the year 2002 is a clue: that’s when Michael Bloomberg became the Mayor, abolished local...
10.11.2019
S1 E4: "Agitate! Educate! Organize!"
In the wake of the 1968 teachers’ strikes, Black people in Central Brooklyn continued to fight for self-determination in education -- both inside and outside of the public school system. Some veterans of the community control movement started an independent school...
10.04.2019
S1 E3: Third Strike
In the fall of 1968, New York City teachers went on strike three times, in reaction to an experiment in community control of schools in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. The third strike was the longest, and the ugliest. The movement for...
09.27.2019
S1 E2: Power to the People
In the late 1960s, the Central Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville was at the center of a bold experiment in community control of public schools. But as Black and Puerto Rican parents in Ocean Hill-Brownsville tried to exercise power over...
09.20.2019
S1 E1: Old School
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. But Bed-Stuy is changing. Fifty years ago, schools in Bed-Stuy's District 16 were so overcrowded that students went to school in shifts. Today, they're half-empty....
09.06.2019
Season 1 Trailer
Bedford-Stuyvesant is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. Community School District 16 covers about half of Bed-Stuy. And almost every school in District 16 is hemorrhaging kids. Something is wrong. But today’s crisis is just...
12.10.2018
Preview: Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Part 1
For three years in the late 1960s, the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville was at the epicenter of an experiment in community control of schools. Today, Ocean Hill-Brownsville is mostly remembered for the longest teachers' strike in American history: 36...

What's School Colors about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

School Colors episodes:

"We Can't Friend Our Way Out of White Supremacy" with Some of My Best Friends Are

Live from Queens, Part 2: Q&A

Live from Queens, Part 1: The Chancellor

S2 E9: Water Under the Bridge

S2 Bonus: Ms. Mitchell's Pandemic Diary

S2 E8: The Only Way Out

S2 E7: The Sleeping Giant

S2 E6: Below Liberty

S2 E5: The Melting Pot

S2 E4: The Mason-Dixon Line

S2 E3: The Battle of Forest Hills

S2 E2: Tales from the Southside

S2 E1: "There Is No Plan"

Season 2 Trailer

Introducing Driving the Green Book

Introducing Unfinished: Deep South

Third Rail: The candidates for Senate District 25

Third Rail: The candidates for Assembly District 56

Third Rail: The candidates for Assembly District 57

Third Rail: The shifting Black electorate

Third Rail: Holding elected officials accountable

S1 Bonus: School Colors, Behind the Scenes

S1 Bonus: A Night at the Library

S1 E8: On the Move

S1 E7: New Kids on the Block

S1 E6: Mo' Charters Mo' Problems

S1 E5: The Disappearing District

S1 E4: "Agitate! Educate! Organize!"

S1 E3: Third Strike

S1 E2: Power to the People

S1 E1: Old School

Season 1 Trailer

Preview: Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Part 1

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