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.
-
For years Black and brown people have complained about racism, corruption and abuse by the Antioch, Calif., police. Now a racist text message scandal implicates almost half of the department. -
What an almost entirely white Republican supermajority in a gerrymandered state acting to expel two young Black democratic politicians reveals about race and democracy.
-
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.
-
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 early August the White House invited an all-white group of historians to talk about threats to American democracy.
-
The Jan. 6 Committee has been uncovering what led up to the insurrection. But just beneath the surface is a central cause of the riot — racism and the fear of losing white power.
-
Ten years ago, seven people died when a white supremacist opened fire at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisc. A decade later, hate crimes against South Asians and Sikhs are on the rise.
-
The symbol of the post-Roe era might not be coat hangers. It may instead be prison bars.
-
Shrinking access to abortion in Republican-controlled states has already hit people of color hardest. They will bear the brunt of the end of Roe v. Wade, experts and advocates say.
-
Since Los Angeles exploded three decades ago, some things have changed and so much remains the same.
