Sandhya Dirks

@audiosand.bsky.social

4953 Followers 2089 Following

Journalist, audio documentarian, writer. English professor at Dartmouth, working on a doc about the end of civil rights. Previously: NPR race and identity correspondent, “alarmingly divisive" signal: sandhya_.96 Podcasts: On Our Watch, American Suburb.

A transcript of an NPR story, reported by Sarah McCammon, featuring Lyman Stone talking about how his pronatalism is not at all, not even a little bit about race or immigration. (It was clear at the time to many journalists that it absolutely was): MCCAMMON: But some conservatives say the push for more babies isn't about race or immigration. Lyman Stone, who leads the Pronatalism Initiative at the conservative-leaning Institute for Family Studies, acknowledges that some on the far-right believe more babies being born in the U.S. would translate into more white people. But Stone says that's just not true because younger Americans, those of childbearing age, are also more diverse. LYMAN STONE: If we increase fertility in the U.S., the pace at which we become a less white nation accelerates. I know that this kind of surprises people when you say this, but it's really quite simple math. MCCAMMON: But Stone says he does want to see big changes in the way young people are living their lives. He wants U.S. policy to encourage the kinds of stable, prosperous families where children are more possible. And he says many young people feel they're not hitting all the marks they need to hit before having kids.
text from the RawStory write up: According to media watchdog Status, Weiss is eager to launch a media counter-offensive. She's been in talks with the New York Times' Michael Barbaro about appearing on "The Daily" podcast—a choice that reveals her strategy: find a friendly interviewer willing to let her explain away the wreckage.
A screen shot of the first paragraph of an NYTimes story about the sentencing of the Prairieland 6. It reads: The leader of a group of protesters accused of being members of the far-left movement antifa was sentenced on Tuesday to 100 years in prison after a jury found him and seven other demonstrators guilty of supporting terrorism while taking part in an armed assault last summer against an immigration facility in Alvarado, Texas.
A screen shot of bell hook's book communion: the female search for love
the screenshot from the Times obit captures this part of the article: “When I became dean,” he told The Miami Herald in 1995, referring to his job at Ohio State, “there was a white woman who met me and said, ‘Oh, you’re the dean. This is fantastic. You’ve reached the apex of your career.’ Then she found out I was Black and her first response — not to me, but to someone else — was ‘Did he get the job because he was Black?’” Mr. Williams added: “When she looked at me and assumed I was white, she assumed I was qualified for the job. When she discovered I was Black, she assumed that I was unqualified for the job.”
A screenshot from the article that reads: Then, of course, there are billionaires and their heirs. D’Souza believes that “many journalists are more powerful than billionaires,” explaining, “I can’t tell you how many billionaires and CEOs have called me in absolute tears about their lives being destroyed by one article.” He notes that most of them “have no media skill whatsoever” and have “never sought the spotlight,” so he contends that “there’s a massive power asymmetry.”
An excerpt from a story I wrote for NPR, about which historians were advising Biden on the threat to democracy: Wilentz has a history of getting race and racism wrong, says Jelani Cobb. He points to an infamous piece, entitled "Race Man," that Wilentz wrote in 2008. "Sean Wilentz said that Barack Obama had run the most racist campaign in modern American history," Cobb says. In the essay, Wilentz accused the Obama campaign of "the most outrageous deployment of racial politics since the Willie Horton campaign ad in 1988 and the most insidious since Ronald Reagan kicked off his 1980 campaign in Philadephia, Mississippi, praising states' rights." That announcement, just miles from where 3 civil rights workers were murdered by the KKK, was seen as a tacit nod by Reagan to white supremacists. "Here we have this crisis which is shot through with racial elements and that's the person in the room," Cobb says. "Yeah. That's a problem."
The end of the New York Times interview between Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Scott Pelley: Do you think Bari Weiss needs to be removed? Oh, gosh, yes. Look, she’s a lovely person. And her Free Press organization that she founded has been very successful. But television’s not her thing. This is like somebody walking up to me and saying, “There’s a 747, there are 400 people on it, we need you to fly it to Paris.” I’m going to decline because I don’t have a clue. And it would have been so much better if Bari Weiss had been offered this job and said, “Oh, that’s not for me, I don’t know how to do that.”
Another screen shot, with a statement from the professor's attorney: “Are SAIC faculty expected to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their course materials? Are Arab Muslims unworthy of their own case studies?” Kapitan wrote. “If a white supremacist student filed a discrimination complaint with the University alleging that he was triggered by a case study about a Black client who was struggling with police violence against Black people, would SAIC proceed with an investigation against the professor who drafted the assignment?”
A screenshot of part of the article reads: Savneet Talwar, a faculty member with the school’s art therapy and counseling program, assigned the case study in April to a class on the cultural dimensions of therapy. The assignment asked students to develop an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer, Muslim woman living in the US. The language of the assignment read: “While she was not particularly politically active in her home country, protests in support of Palestine resonated with her on a personal level. She felt deeply affected by the violence against Palestinian civilians and was critical of the home government’s limited response.” a woman holds a microphone in front of another woman outside a home ‘We were attacked as bad Jews’: Columbia faculty who supported Gaza protests file claims with Trump’s antisemitism fund Read more The two-page assignment, which was reviewed by the Guardian, mostly focused on other elements of the client’s case, including her family history, relationships and status as an immigrant. It made no additional references to Palestine or Palestinians, and no mention of Israel. But Talwar’s department had already been mired in multiple complaints and investigations about alleged antisemitism involving the same student, and faculty had been required to take anti-bias training as the school sought to address the “climate” in the department.
On a post on the far right, nazi boosting, Elon Musk owned social media site X, Vivek Ramaswamy posted on March 26, 2003 from his failed campaign to be the Republican nominee for President. The post features pictures of him meeting with white people in a church in Iowa, and the text reads: We hear about “black lives matter” all the time, but the fact is that a black baby is safer in a park, by himself, in the inner city of Chicago than he is in his black mother’s womb. This is sad and we need to change it because *all* lives matter. "We hear about “black lives matter” all the time, but the fact is that a black baby is safer in a park, by himself, in the inner city of Chicago than he is in his black mother’s womb. This is sad and we need to change it because *all* lives matter."
a tweet of Gregory K Bovino on the Elon Musk run, far right website X, populated by white supremacists and Neo-Nazis, in which he writes: "ICE Agents at Delaney, hang in there. You have the world watching and supporting your efforts to hold the line. Every one of us wants to be should to shoulder with you. In speaking with the Mean Green Team, they send you support and are wishing you the best. Give them hell and live the moment." This is accompanied by a picture of himself in full uniform giving an arm raised palm open salute, almost identical to the ones German Nazis gave, in support of their murderous, white supremacist, anti trans project, that also involved concentration camps.
a screenshot of the last three paragraphs of this article from NPR. The text reads: "In the past, we haven't had this sort of very explicit claim about masculinity using the language of online forums, using the language of the manosphere," he said. "And you know, this is all red pill, black pill, incel stuff. And it's a little terrifying that it's leaking out into mainstream political dialogue." The harsh, immediate gendered attacks in the Texas U.S. Senate race are happening for complex reasons, but Cassino theorizes that it's in part about the fact that Talarico is himself a man. "The hierarchy is already under threat," he said, noting economic problems that have dogged some working-class men. "And then if a white Christian man comes out and says, 'No, actually, we should be more compassionate. We should not be maintaining these hierarchies where white men are on top of everything,' that's a huge threat because he is potentially a trusted messenger."
A screen shot from a NPR story entitled: "Here are the nonfiction books NPR staffers have loved so far this year" The text on the screen shot reads: The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West by Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska Has the Western world lost interest in the great possibilities of science and technology? This provocative book claims giant tech firms are focusing on short-term commercial gain from consumer products that don't – and won't – have lasting impact, while ignoring bigger questions that could – and should – benefit society at large. The authors argue for a renewed partnership between tech companies and government, viewing it as a moral responsibility. Artificial intelligence makes the stakes high. The time is now, as it all shapes the community to which we belong. These important questions merit debate. The book is easy to read, and though it doesn't exactly declare definitive answers, it's worthy of your time. — Edith Chapin, editor-in-chief
A screen shot of part of a web page, showing the book "the technological republic" was listed as an "NPR staff top pick of 2025".
A snapshot of the bluesky timeline. The first post, from Politico reads: "Member of the Jan 6th mob are suing the federal government for tens of millions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit is claiming that the 'indiscriminate' use of force by police officers repelling the attack caused them physical and emotional injuries." It is accompanied by a picture of the insurrection and attempted coup by a violent mop at the Capitol. The next post is from Status Coup News. It reads: "CHAOS ensued as DHS police & LAPD attacked/ gassed No Kings protestors in LA after protestors demonstrated outside the ICE prison downtown".... underneath is a picture of police on horseback with nightclubs raised, aimed down at an apparently peaceful crowd.
A photograph on the streets of Minneapolis this winter, when ICE invaded and occupied the city. A crowd has gathered to watch and record ICE -- as two heavily militarized agents loom in the foreground, between them, in the middle of the frame a woman in a green bathrobe and grey bath slippers records with her iphone, a look of deep intensity and focus on her face (she is, it will later be revealed, a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio).
A post from Richard Ward for District 21 Bangor on facebook: write to your local city officials. Do everything you can legally . Dear City Council Members,I am writing as a concerned citizen exercising my unalienable First Amendment right to free speech, demanding your immediate and total support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It's time to crush the left-wing violence that's poisoning our streets—riots, looting, and assaults on anyone who dares oppose their Marxist agenda. These radical leftists are nothing but thugs, and the police? They're pathetic tools, selectively enforcing laws to protect leftist mobs while cracking down on real Americans. It's the ultimate "rules for thee but not for me" hypocrisy: antifa burns cities with impunity, but God forbid a white patriot speaks up.We need accountability now. Arrest and prosecute the traitorous, corrupt politicians who stab white America in the back by putting illegal invaders first. These scum funnel our tax dollars to feed, house, and pamper border-jumpers while poor white families starve and our veterans are forgotten. Haul them in for corruption and betrayal—make examples of them through fair trials that expose their anti-white schemes. No more slaps on the wrist; it's time for real justice.This is all part of the war on white America. Our great nation was founded and built by white Europeans—innovators, warriors, and visionaries who turned wilderness into prosperity. But now, through endless third-world immigration floods, whites are being deliberately replaced, projected to become a minority by 2045 per Census data. We're watching our homeland devolve into a chaotic, crime-ridden dump, stripped of our culture and heritage. Fight back—protect white Americans before it's too late.And let's talk about Renee Good, that interfering leftist who got herself shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. She fucked around and found out—playing games with federal ops, thinking she could…
A screen shot of a facebook post from Richard Ward For District 21 Bangor that reads: "I wish leftist cared about the homeless as much as they do illegals coming here to replace us"
this screenshot of the LA Times article reads: "Trump administration officials have repeatedly expressed concern that revealing the names of ICE or Border Patrol agents will lead to harassment, but the filing of criminal charges in such cases is rare. Publishing certain protected information — like a federal employee’s home address, Social Security number or phone number — for the purpose of inciting harassment or violence is a federal crime. But the trial exposed far more personal information about the agent and his family than the alleged doxing incident. The protesters never mentioned his name on their live stream and never published his actual home address. During the three-day trial, prosecutors disclosed Huitzilin’s full name, his wife’s full name, the names and ages of their children, their now-former home address and details about Huitzilin’s career as a federal agent and military combat veteran."
Screen shot from a LA Times news article that reads: As they drive, the women can be heard discussing the possibility that the vehicle is headed toward an immigration enforcement operation. They also called on their Instagram followers to respond to Baldwin Park to protest any possible raids — a tactic used repeatedly in cities where the Trump administration has aggressively carried out immigration enforcement.
A screen shot of an article from Nieman Lab, the text from the screen shot reads: Update 2/19/2026: After this piece was published, I heard from two different people who received The Atlantic’s original press push email for the piece around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. At that time, when they clicked through, there was not an editor’s note/disclaimer on the piece at all. Both of those readers, who are professional journalists, responded to the press email with confusion and asked if the story was real. An Atlantic publicist emailed one of these readers back and said, “This is based on a mother’s real account. Thanks for checking.” Sometime after that, the disclaimer was added and it was there when I read the story around 7 p.m. on Thursday night. An Atlantic spokesperson told me yesterday, “The note was added almost immediately after publication.” This information is significant to me because it suggests that within The Atlantic there was confusion about whether the piece was fictional.
Screen shot of two tweets from Emmanuel Felton, who was fired from the Washington post. First tweet reads: I’m among the hundreds of people laid off by The Post. This comes six months after hearing in a national meeting that race coverage drives subscriptions. This wasn’t a financial decision it was an ideological one. Felton quote tweets it with this: The other reporter on my team covering race was also laid off as well as the editor in charge of race coverage across national. The team covering America beyond DC is now 90% white.
A screenshot from the attached Notus article: “When I see them in the hallways, they avert their gaze,” she said of the federal agents in her hotel. “They know what they’re doing is shameful. They’re nearly all Hispanic, but they don’t speak Spanish! They’re the children of illegals. But they forgot where they came from.”
From the website for the "march for billionaires," underneath a sub section that reads "our position": Judge individuals, not classes Of course, not all billionaires are good people. Some extract rather than create wealth. Some use their resources to cause serious political harm. These criticisms have merit, but they apply to individuals, not billionaires as a whole. We believe most have made tremendous contributions to society, directly through their entrepreneurship and secondarily through taxes and philanthropy. That deserves our respect and admiration.
A still from the movie My Undesirable Friends, following independent journalists in Moscow in the lead up to the invasion of Ukraine. "My god, this is fascism" one of the declares, her hands cupping her cheeks in shock).
A screen shot of the article reads: How the Border Patrol operates can be traced back to the agency’s origins in Wild West frontier policing. The United States Border Patrol was established in May 1924, days after the signing of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, which set very small quotas for immigrants from most of the world except Northern Europe. According to the Times headline at the time, the law was meant “to preserve racial type as it exists here today.”
Photo of hundreds of people gathered in a snow covered park at twilight.
A photo of a poster from the Minneapolis general strike protest. It shows the hat that was worn by five year old Liam Ramos in the picture of him from when ICE abducted him with his father, and send him to a concentration camp in Texas. Underneath the picture it reads “be better humans.”
A picture of the Mary Tyler Moore statue in downtown Minneapolis, depicting the iconic moment from the show where she throws her hat in the air. But the hat has been covered over with a protesters cardboard sign, reading “FUCK ICE.”
A still from the movie "My Undesirable Friends: Last Air in Moscow," a documentary about Russian independent journalist's working to tell the truth in the months leading up to the invasion of Ukraine. In the screen shotted frame, one of those journalists looks up from her computer scream, her hands gripping her cheeks in horror, exhaustion, frustration, "My god, this is fascism!" she says.
Screenshot of excerpt from the Sahan Journal article: "The small Minneapolis charter school where Renee Good sent her 6-year-old son has switched to online learning out of safety concerns after receiving multiple phone and email threats, the school told Sahan Journal. The school said it had reported some of these threats to local law enforcement. The threats to Southside Family Charter School came after New York Post articles describing the school’s social justice focus and a series of social media posts from right-wing commentators."
a screen shot of part of the transcript of an NPR story I did: WENDY VIA: The gloves are entirely off. DIRKS: Via says the use of the word remigration is a red flag. She says remigration is a policy idea that was popularized by an Austrian former neo-Nazi named Martin Sellner, who started using the term in 2019. She says it's been embraced by far-right European politicians as a plan to remove nonwhite migrants and Muslims. VIA: What it really is is a deeply racist plan to keep white people separate from nonwhite people and to make sure that so-called Western civilization remains strong.
A screen shot from the movie My Undesirable Friends, about the crackdown on free speech, protest and especially journalism in authoritarian Russia. In the screen shot one of the journalists, her labtop on the table before her, lifts her hands to her face and declares "My god, this is fascism!" One of the things that happened to many journalists were government raids, when they printed something the regime did not like. This moment is from just after Russia declared war on Ukraine, when the crackdown on speech became even more complete and terrifying.
From the bio of the reporter, Bryan Passifiume, whose tweet is being shared on bluesky: "I specialize in covering the federal government and national political affairs, as well as international affairs. Since the Oct. 7 terror attacks I've devoted portions of covering Canada's explosion of antisemitism, the struggle of Canadian Jews and Israelis, and have visited Israel numerous times as part of my coverage."
screen shot of an excerpt from an NPR interview with Lyman Stone on April 27th, 2025: FRAYER: Immigrants tend to have a higher birth rate. Is that not just, like, a really good answer to your concerns? STONE: It doesn't matter how many immigrants come into the country. If the people who are here - whether they're immigrants or natives, doesn't matter - if they're still having half a kid less than they say they want, that's still a problem, right? So look, I'm all in favor of a higher rate of legal, regulated immigration. It just is totally irrelevant for the question of family formation. FRAYER: This movement to increase the birth rate attracts people from really, like, all over the ideological spectrum, including some people who've been, you know, labeled extreme. There's been support from white supremacist groups for, you know, white women to have children. So my question is, is there some baggage here? Does any of that bother you? STONE: Look, a couple weeks ago, I spoke at the natalism conference, and there were speakers there that - I think The Guardian referred to some of them as far-right white supremacists. That is so antithetical to everything I believe.
The section of the radio story transcript in this screenshot reads: DIRKS: 9/11 fundamentally changes what it means to be South Asian American, says political scientist Sangay Mishra. SANGAY MISHRA: It's a highly underappreciated story - right? - how South Asians have been targeted, not only Muslims, not only Sikh, but just being brown. DIRKS: Just being brown made you suspicious. Mishra says 9/11 created a new kind of racial category - being Muslim-looking. And for many South Asians, this punctured the myth that they were somehow protected as a model minority. Which brings us to now. MISHRA: You take any major progressive issue and Indian Americans are largely on the left. DIRKS: There's also been this real trend of especially younger progressive Desi candidates taking on establishment Democrats. ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I'm a Democratic socialist who ran against the party. DIRKS: That's Zohran Mamdani, one of the first South Asians elected to the New York Assembly in 2020. MAMDANI: Because if you played the party's rules, the time just never seemed to come for South Asians. DIRKS: He says he thinks more Desis are running to the left because they were left out. MAMDANI: I think that we have seen the limits of institutional politics and the racism of institutional politics.
The screen shot of the letter reads: Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, I appreciated the opportunity to speak with you yesterday. I welcome further engagement around how we can (a) enhance the long-standing partnership between the federal government and this country’s leading research universities and (b) ensure that higher education stays focused on academic excellence. As I shared on the call, I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact—whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House—is the right way to focus America’s leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission. Our universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law. Staying true to this responsibility is what will help American higher education build bipartisan public trust and continue to uphold its place as the envy of the world. We remain open to other ways to work with the federal government to enhance higher education. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President
The New York Times Opinion article reads, by way of introduction: For a long time, his style seemed like a throwback, but in 2025, he’s having a moment in the cultural spotlight. Is he just being hyped by his critics as a Trump-era villain? Or does America’s religious future really lie in a recovery of its zealous Puritan past?
A screen shot of an NPR sweatshirt with a logo that reads: "in my free press era"
From a screenshot of the article: "Parente said the video shows an agent turn federal vehicle left into Martinez’s vehicle, after which an agent says, “Do something b----.” The agent then exits the vehicle and shoots at Martinez. Parente said Martinez has “seven holes” in her from the shooting and that agents were in such a hurry to take her into custody at the hospital that they had to return later when Martinez began bleeding from her wounds."
A picture of the words from King's letter from Birmingham jail, projected onto the walls of a recreation of King's jail cell. The full quote: "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice"
The selected quote reads: I tell you this story because I think so often we encounter archives when we are liminal, when we are in between. When we are moving or searching for ourselves or for the truth in the past, sometimes in our own past. When we are looking for a way home. It turns out teetering towards fascism is beyond liminal. If a liminal space is a train station, we seem to all be collectively in limbo, unending uncertainty on the lip of hell. In a haze of epistemological dissonance we witness the shredding of the past through a looking glass so cracked that even the history repeating itself is unrecognizable.
the excerpt from the article reads: Infidels MC was set up by US military veterans of the Iraq war in 2006 and members see themselves as modern Crusaders, using the Crusader cross as their symbol - a reference to the medieval Christians who fought Muslims for control of Jerusalem. The gang is currently hosting anti-Muslim hate speech on its Facebook page and has previously held a pig roast "in defiance of" the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. "Putting the Infidels biker club in charge of delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza is like putting the KKK in charge of delivering humanitarian aid in Sudan. It makes no sense whatsoever," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim civil rights organisation in the US.
A notice on the Diverse Sources Database, from an archived version of the page on November 15th, 2024 reads: "The database is no longer being updated. NPR is deeply committed to diverse sourcing and is continuing this work with an internal tool. We are unable to maintain the public site due to resource constraints."
A screenshot from the article with this passage: “Low IQ savages have NOTHING to contribute to the West,” Faliceer wrote in a representative 2016 post. “If you want them to degenerate anyone’s heritage don’t make it someone else – fuck yourself up. Go have kids with a n—-r but do not push your race traitor propagandism on the masses.” A pull quote from the article and on the side of the screen shot reads: "He’s a pathological liar,” said a person who knew Lasker in college.
A screen shot of the transcript of this excerpt from a radio story: "But when talking specifically about Musk, he actually may have more pull with some young men, you know, who may be more socially liberal but felt seen by Trump last year and voted for him because of issues like the economy."
A tweet from "X" aka twitter by the former NYTimes reporter Jazmine Hughes, in response to a tweet about the Times "story" on Mamdani, whose central source was a eugenicist who promotes debunked racist science: "In 2019, I was an NYT reporter who had just finished contributing to the 1619 Project when Breitbart News published an article calling me as a racist and antisemite. The paper's response was to investigate me and issue disciplinary action. Funny who they listen to!"
A screenshot of a paragraph from the Guardian article reads: “Away from X, Cremieux runs a Substack also featuring posts on the supposed relationships between race and IQ. A prominently featured post there seeks to defend the argument that average national IQs vary by up to 40 points, with countries in Europe, North America, and East Asia at the high end and countries in the global south at the low end, and several African countries purportedly having average national IQs at a level that experts associate with mental impairment.”
A selection of transcript from a Code Switch episode I reported about who has the right to a story: UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Do you condemn the terrorist massacre of innocent men, women and children in Israel on Saturday? Yes or no? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: It's not a yes or no. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: It is. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: I can't condone violence. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: Why won't you come out and condemn a terrorist organization? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: Why won't you equivocate and say that Palestinian lives matter? DEBMY: Underneath that question is obviously this presumption, you know, whether it's intended or not, that you are guilty by association and you're guilty until you declare otherwise. JOUDAH: I've been asked so many times that I almost no longer recognize the question because the question is actually disinterested in me. The question is only interested in me when it wants to - when it feels - when "it," I say in quotation mark - feels that I need to be threatened. The question is so pervasive that there is no possible argument around it. It feels like constantly an interrogation of one's humanity or a justification for oppression.
The excerpted portion of the text reads: One piece we believed could have been stronger involved concerns that the Trump administration was seeking to overturn 1960s civil rights laws. The piece used several quotes from recent NPR interviews with civil rights experts. These experts were deeply troubled by what they saw as the erosion of civil rights under Trump and pointed to the president's elimination of scores of DEI initiatives throughout government, as well as his administration's actions against Harvard and other universities, as precursors to the dismantling of civil rights protections embedded in law. The piece then excerpted comments made by pro-Trump influencers in other forums that called for at least a rethinking and potentially a rejection of existing civil rights laws because, as they saw it, they discriminated against white people.
The transcript of the NPR radio story reads: ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I'm a Democratic socialist who ran against the party. DIRKS: That's Zohran Mamdani, one of the first South Asians elected to the New York Assembly in 2020. MAMDANI: Because if you played the party's rules, the time just never seemed to come for South Asians. DIRKS: He says he thinks more Desis are running to the left because they were left out. MAMDANI: I think that we have seen the limits of institutional politics and the racism of institutional politics. DIRKS: Mamdani says South Asian Americans aren't monolithic. Some are Republicans. Some are MAGA. And there's difference even within the liberal majority. MAMDANI: In the difference between Modi Democrats and socialist Democrats, I think you see all of these different experiences in many ways of what different families went through in India.
part of the transcript from an NPR radio / audio story: WENDY VIA: The gloves are entirely off. DIRKS: Via says the use of the word remigration is a red flag. She says remigration is a policy idea that was popularized by an Austrian former neo-Nazi named Martin Sellner, who started using the term in 2019. She says it's been embraced by far-right European politicians as a plan to remove nonwhite migrants and Muslims. VIA: What it really is is a deeply racist plan to keep white people separate from nonwhite people and to make sure that so-called Western civilization remains strong.