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The Racial Wealth Gap Is Ruining Black & Brown American Families (Video)

In 2013, Robert Reich featured prominently in a documentary entitled Inequality for All, which is a blistering critique of income inequality in the United States. Reich is a celebrated economist who has served in the administrations of presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton (under whom he served as... Read more

Jackie Robinson Made History Nearly 70 Years Ago, But His Story Is Far From Over (Video)

Next week will mark the 69th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's history-making entry into the Major League Baseball organization as the first Black player to ever do so, and a new documentary will serve as a reminder as to why that achievement was so important back in 1947, and why his... Read more

Killer Mike Says “Jim Crow Is Still Very Much Alive” (Video)

By now, even casual fans of Killer Mike's music have likely become familiar with his robust proclamations in his daily life, whether on social media, political speeches, or media appearances. Along with his extensive work on the campaign trail for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Killer Mike has been fighting... Read more

Black Donald Trump Supporters Are Put On The Spot & Defend Their Candidate (Video)

Political double-talkers abound, and it's no surprise why. Politicians have to appeal to so many different kinds of people, that often times they end up tangled in humorous hypocrisy. One need not look far for examples of hypocrites in our political arena, like the elected officials who vote anti-gay only... Read more

“Empire” Star Jussie Smollett Takes The Media To Task For Its Coverage Of Donald Trump (Video)

Last night, Comedy Central was once again the sight of an engrossing, multi-dynamic look at American racial politics, thanks to the perspectives shared on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. With many of today's top news stories approached from perspectives of people of color, the show often delves into the... Read more

Forget Presidential Candidates. Are Our Computers Also Racist and Sexist? (Audio)

Austin, Texas is currently the place to be for music industry insiders, with a whole host of artists performing across a spectrum of genres. However, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival is not just a place to get put up on the next hottest artist; it's also a well-established platform... Read more

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Words In This Rare 1967 Interview Are Still Relevant Today (Video)

A recently found master tape of a 1967 interview featuring Martin Luther King, Jr. on the iconic Merv Griffin talk show surfaced earlier this year, and it is an awe inspiring look at a man who was rarely seen in casual conversation. The Civil Rights Era thought leader has always... Read more

Viola Davis Gets Real With Sway About Hollywood’s Race Problem (Video)

Viola Davis is no stranger to the inner workings of Hollywood and has experienced the benefits and the difficulties of a successful career. Last year, she made television history as the first Black woman of any  nationality to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. How... Read more

John Oliver Shows Just How Deep Hollywood Whitewashing Goes (Video)

Next week, Hollywood's biggest night will take place when the 88th Academy Awards take place in Beverly Hills, California. It will transpire amid a cloud of controversy related to the lack of racial diversity of the nominees in the more major categories including Best Actor & Actress and Best Supporting... Read more

Killer Mike Is Taking The Fight To The Supreme Court To Protect Freedom Of Speech In Rap Music

In late 2015, Hip-Hop made its way to the steps of the Supreme Court when Killer Mike and others threw their support behind a teenager whose decision to pen a Rap song about goings-on at his high school got him suspended, permanently staining his academic record. Taylor Bell, a Mississippi student... Read more

A Documentary on the Black Panthers Depicts Events That Are Still Happening Today (Video)

Last year, a documentary film on the earliest days of the Black Panther Party hit select theatres across the country. Directed by Stanley Nelson, the celebrated filmmaker behind such powerful social examinations as Freedom Riders and The Murder of Emmett Till, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is an... Read more

MC Lyte & Rapsody Recount Racist Assaults & Open Up About Being Women in Hip-Hop

February 1 marked the beginning of Black History Month, a yearly occasion during which African-American stories, issues, art, and conversations are shared with more visibility than perhaps the rest of the year. In today's atmosphere - where "Black lives matter" is not just an aside in a casual conversation and... Read more

A Film About a Slave Revolt is Breaking Records. Has Hollywood Really Changed?

As the Academy Awards inch closer and closer, the discussion about diversity in Hollywood continues to rage on. One of the highest-trending topics on Twitter, #OscarsSoWhite is a reaction to the announcement of Oscar nominees and in particular the fact that no people of color are represented in the top... Read more

The White Privilege Conversation is Ongoing. Macklemore & Collaborators Weigh In.

This past week has been a very cerebral, thought-provoking time in Hip-Hop. Since releasing "White Privilege II," Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have been discussing at great length the implications of White supremacy, the racial politics within Hip-Hop, and how those listening to the song can help educate and engage others... Read more

Killer Mike & Iconic Olympian Tommie Smith Discuss the Past & Current Civil Rights Movements (Video)

In one of the most iconic sports photographs, American Olympian athlete Tommie Smith is seen raising his Black fist into the air in solidarity with his fellow medal winners in a stunning show of solidarity with those back home fighting for civil rights. Nearly 50 years later, and Americans are... Read more

Activist DeRay McKesson Calls “All Lives Matter” A Distraction (Video)

DeRay McKesson has become a key voice in contemporary American race politics. The former teacher and current social activist began to amass a considerable Twitter following in the wake of the shooting death of Mike Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in the summer of 2014, and as... Read more

Macklemore & Sway Have an Incredibly Deep & Important Conversation About White Supremacy (Video)

Since releasing "White Privilege II" on January 22, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have re-ignited a generations-old discussion about race that has become a maelstrom surrounding the notion of the White versus Black experience in the United States as it exists today. Against the current backdrop of affairs, the conversation is... Read more

Macklemore Releases a New Song About White Privilege And It’s a Powder Keg (Audio)

Recent events have made it exceptionally clear that we are living in a modern-day Civil Rights Era. Despite all the progress American society has made in many ways - a Black President, LGBTQ rights, allowing women to serve in the military, and so forth - there is still an untenable... Read more

Killer Mike Schools Stephen Colbert on Systemic Racism in America & How To End It (Video)

On last night's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Killer Mike (born Michael Render) dropped some knowledge on the state of race relations in this country, something he's been doing for years through his music but which has only recently become something that mainstream media have begun to acknowledge.... Read more

Why Are Armed Whites Getting Treated Better than Unarmed Black & Brown Americans?

Over the weekend, news broke of an unusual event taking place in Oregon, a state most commonly associated with nature, liberalism, and the television series Portlandia. As such, the revelation that armed ranchers had quite literally taken a federal building hostage on Saturday, January 2, struck an odd chord for most... Read more

150 Years After Slavery Ended, Politicians Still Need a Reminder that Black Lives Matter

On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified with the sate of Georgia's approval of the legislation, bringing a formal end to slavery. The ratification meant that, at least on paper, human beings were no longer allowed to be viewed as property and that,... Read more

University of Missouri Students Fight the Power & Take Aim at the Media (Video)

Recent events that have transpired at the University of Missouri have turned the town of Columbia into a flashpoint of racial tension and political discourse surrounding what continues to become a standoff between school administrators and the student body. The university's football team made headlines when it walked away from... Read more

Thousands of Released Prisoners May Help Reform America’s Criminal Justice System (Video)

Criminal justice reform has been an agenda-topping issue for many Americans for decades, and it's only in recent months that its visibility has landed into the living rooms of mainstream American politics. Just this year, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit federal inmates, a touching exchange caught... Read more

Gentrification Is Giving the Boogie Down New Meaning & Not Everybody’s Feeling the Message

For decades, just the name "South Bronx" conjured up images of inner city turmoil, with all of its abandoned buildings, overcrowded schools, high crime rates, and a disproportionate level of poverty and its side effects - lack of access to healthy food, healthcare, and jobs. In fact, films like "80... Read more

Black Lives (& Bodies) Are Being Championed Through Song & Imagery From Supastition (Video)

In what may be the most recent example of the relationship between art and life, North Carolina MC Supastition has released an unflinchingly direct examination of race in America in the form of "Black Bodies," the latest single from June's The Gold Standard. The accompanying video's release comes just hours... Read more

Raury Makes TV History With Powerful Performance & Conversation (Video)

For the first time in the show's history, Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show" featured a live music performance. Singer and rapper Raury was the artist chosen for the honor, and justifiably so. The show's host, Larry Wilmore, has rightfully dedicated much of his content to current issues of race relations in... Read more

The Numbers Show Police Don’t Care About Dead Rappers

For millennia, mankind has been at war. Whether in the name of religion, territory, love, greed, revenge, or duty, human casualties have remained constant throughout civilization, and as society is said to progress, murder remains a dark spot on our collective report card. For many Americans, particularly those of color,... Read more

Did You Know Ice-T Was Once Arrested for Possessing a Bomb…Which Was Fake? (Video)

Anyone with an internet connection over the last 48 hours was made well aware of the story of Ahmed Mohamed, a high-school student in Texas whose incredible skills in science and engineering got him arrested. The 14-year-old constructed a working clock out of his pencil case and, in a moment... Read more

Talib Kweli Shares Thoughts on Bernie Sanders & the Women Behind Black Lives Matter (Video)

Fresh off the release of a new single and a new (free) album, Talib Kweli has had a whirlwind 24-hours, and now the Brooklyn MC has brought his thoughts about today's socio-political climate outside the booth and onto television. As a guest on last night's episode of Real Time with... Read more

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Turns 50 Today. Here’s Why It’s Still Fighting for Survival

In the summer of 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law federal legislation which aimed to tackle racial discrimination in voting. The Civil Rights Era had brought racial tensions to a head, and Black Americans were fighting alongside Asian and Latino citizens for equal treatment under the law. Described... Read more

Blackface Will No Longer Be Used in One Opera, But There’s Still a Long Way to Go

Blackface, the practice of white performers darkening their skin to portray a person of color, is an ugly vestige of what many would say is a bygone era; in the United States, it was common fare in minstrel-show productions, where whites played the roles of African-Americans by painting their faces... Read more

South Carolina Senate Takes Major First Step Towards Removing Confederate Flag

In a historic and overwhelmingly favored step, the South Carolina Senate voted 37-3 for the removal of the Confederate flag from the State House earlier today (July 6). The Republican-controlled state senate took up the vote after the June 17 slaughter of nine African-Americans at a historical Black church placed... Read more

What Do Cole & Kendrick’s Hair Have to Do With Progress? Talib Kweli Explains In A New Essay

With a long history of being socially and politically critical, not only in his lyrics but also outside of the studio, Brooklyn, New York MC Talib Kweli has shared his strong beliefs on a vast array of topics including racism, police brutality, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, he... Read more

John Forte Responds To Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon In With His Heart & Mind (Audio)

University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon showed the world watching why we, as a people, have so far to go. The racial slurs, light made of murderous histories, and proud discrimination serve as a wake up call that hate lurks. Most wake up calls come at dawn. Two of those... Read more

Waka Flocka Flame Cancels University Of Oklahoma Show Following Racist Videos

Sometimes money doesn't matter. Following videos surfacing of some fraternity members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at University of Oklahoma chanting about the brotherhood's exclusion of Blacks and using racial slurs, Waka Flocka Flame does not want money from OSU in his hands. The Brick Squad Monopoly front man announced, via... Read more

Rapsody Drops An Insightful Illustration Of Injustice Today In 2 Songs (Audio)

Throughout the headlines of the last month, oppression appears to be at the root of the biggest stories of the day. Whether racism, sexism, police brutality, domestic abuse, social unrest, all of these topics trace down to people being oppressed by another—another person, a people, an institution, a governing body,... Read more

NBA Bans L.A. Clippers Owner Donald Sterling For Life, Hip-Hop Artists React

Earlier today, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced a lifetime ban sanctioned against 30-plus-year owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling. The streamed and televised press conference took place following a week where racist remarks from Sterling during a phone-called were leaked to website TMZ.com. Additionally, Sterling will be forced... Read more