Sandhya Dirks
Sandhya Dirks is the race and equity reporter at KQED and the lead producer of On Our Watch, a new podcast from NPR and KQED about the shadow world of police discipline. She approaches race and equity not as a beat, but as a fundamental lens for all investigative and explanatory reporting.
Dirks covers policing, housing, social justice movements, and the shifting demographics of cities and suburbs. She's the creator and co-host of the podcast American Suburb, about the transformation of suburbia into the most diverse space in American life. She was the editor for Truth Be Told, an advice show for and by people of color. Her stories about race, space, and belonging were part of KQED's So Well Spoken project, which won RNDTA's Kaleidoscope award, honoring outstanding achievements in the coverage of diversity.
Prior to joining KQED in 2015, Dirks covered the 2012 presidential election from the swing state of Iowa for Iowa Public Radio. At KPBS in San Diego, she broke the story of a sexual harassment scandal that led to the mayor's resignation. She got her start in radio working on documentaries about Oakland that investigated the high drop-out rate in public schools and mistrust between the police and the community. Dirks lives in Oakland and believes all stories are stories about power.
-
Seattle is the first American city to protect people against discrimination based on caste. California could become the first state.
-
In the U.S., what does it mean when a white family and a Black family share a last name — and one of their ancestors is a pioneer of Black history? How Black and white Woodsons became one family. -
South Asians are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S., especially in battleground states. And out of all Asian Americans groups, they are the most politically liberal.
-
The FBI hate crime data for last year is so flawed and incomplete that experts are warning it could mask the real trend: a continuing and troubling rise in hate incidents and violence.
-
Georgia's next U.S. Senator will be the incumbent or a former NFL player. Both men are Black. The race pits the Black church's legacy of social justice against the white conservative evangelical vote.
-
Suburbs are now the most diverse areas in America. This transformation isn't just turning the suburbs "purple," it's also fueling so-called culture wars and white racial resentment.
-
We've heard again and again that crime is rising. But the reality is far more complex, in part because of how we define crime in the first place.
-
In the run up to the midterms, we keep hearing about a crime wave. But the claims are often rife with misinformation and racism.
-
In early August the White House invited an all-white group of historians to talk about threats to American democracy.
-
Historians were invited to the White House to advise President Biden on threats to democracy. But the group faced criticism for being all white, and for the historical parallels they discussed.
