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Building Bridges of Understanding: Reflecting on Michele Norris’ Keynote at the 2025 Community MLK Celebration
I had the honor of representing the School of Data Science as a co-emcee at the 2025 Community MLK Celebration, held at the Paramount Theatre. This year’s keynotes speaker was award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Michele Norris.
Norris’ work as a Senior Contributing Editor at MSNBC is comprised of salient discussions on current events and driving social change in a divided nation. From 2002 to 2012, she served as co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered”, the longest-running national program on public radio. Following her time at NPR, she developed two successful initiatives, The Race Card Project and NPR’s Backseat Book Club. Norris also hosts “Your Mama’s Kitchen”, a renowned podcast produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s media company. Additionally, she has received a myriad of journalistic honors such as the Peabody, Emmy, and duPont awards, and was named Journalist of the Year in 2009 by the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2022, she received the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
It was a pleasure to introduce Michele Norris to the stage. In her thoughtful keynote address, she discussed the pervasiveness of racial injustice and America’s reluctance to talk about race. Through The Race Card Project, Norris asked people around the world to share their thoughts, questions, experiences, and aspirations about identity and race in just six words. Some of the narratives that stood out to me were “No. Where are you really from?”, “Yes I’m Black, but not angry”, and “I’m the future, can’t you see?”. She also talked about her experience writing her newest book, Our Hidden Conversations, a collection of stories that shed light on how Americans see themselves and one another.
The keynote address was followed by a discussion between Norris and Melody Barnes, the founding executive director of UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy. During the discussion, they unpacked the scrutinization of DEI institutions throughout the United States under the current presidential administration and recent Supreme Court rulings.
Norris spoke about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his role in the Civil Rights Movement. She reminded us that we were all able to lawfully congregate in the theater for the event due to the efforts of MLK and many other advocates of the Civil Rights Movement. This reminder reinforced the fact that we, as a society, are still capable of driving social progress at the same scale today in 2025.
Norris’ words instilled a sense of hope and inspired me to hold space for difficult conversations with family members whose beliefs differ from mine. With this sentiment in mind, I encourage everyone to continue to build bridges of understanding, carrying forward MLK’s legacy and paving the way for a more united and compassionate future.
