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This Week In Race: Immigration Headaches, Oscar Glow And POTUS At The Blacksonian

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs speaks onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California.
Kevin Winter
/
Getty Images
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs speaks onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California.

POTUS Yanks The Welcome Mat

The effects of the Trump administration's deportation sweeps will be felt, of course, most immediately by the people who are caught up in them. But as many conservatives are applauding the president's effort to make good on his campaign promise to rid the country of people who are here illegally, they may start to feel the results of that campaign in unanticipated ways.

For instance, Eater has a good piece on the interconnected nature of immigrant labor and the price of the food in supermarkets and restaurants. If the human-rights aspect of the issue doesn't interest you, the prospect of $8 avocados and double-digit fast food might.

And as the week has shown, having DACA status is no guarantee that an immigrant is safe from deportation, as KPCC reports.

Nor are asylum-seekers.

Meanwhile, the sweeps have caused widespread anxiety in Latino communities — and eager anticipationin at least one business, according to Mother Jones.

And if past is prologue, the president's intention to remove millions of undocumented immigrant farm workers might sound good to many of his supporters, but, as Politico reports, it didn't work before.

In Happier News: It's Academy Awards Weekend!

#OscarsMaybeNotSoWhite this year — at least in nominations. But we'll have to wait and see if Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Denzel Washington and/or Mahershala Ali pick up a Little Gold Man on Sunday night. Meanwhile, the New Yorker ponders the effect Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs (who is African-American) has had on Academy members and Academy diversity.

Lots of people head to theaters on the movies' biggest weekend to catch up on what they've missed. If you've seen all the Oscar contenders you care about, try this: Jordan Peele (of the hit comedy sketch series Key & Peele) directed a film about an interracial couple whose weekend with her parents goes very, very wrong. It's called Get Out. Gene Demby talked with Peele on this week's podcast.

Listen to the Story

We won't spoil it for you. Let's just say there's a lot of suspense, some surprises (Allison Williams of "Girls" fame plays the white girlfriend) and it's plenty scary.

But Then So Was This:

The president had been scheduled to visit the earlier in the month, but had to postpone. He did stop in front of Ben Carson's exhibit during his visit. Apparently, Mr. Douglass wasn't around to greet him.

Get your acceptance speeches ready, and have a weekend free of alternative facts, y'all.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.