Why The 'Race Card' Is Played

When a crown is passed No one knows exactly when it happens. But after it does, everybody knows. People can literally feel it. Because its powerful. One reign over. And new one beginning. It happens not so often on a big platform like music. One can't feel when a drug kingpin in Detroit is taken over by his young rival. The world doesn't feel it when a CEO is forced out. Then replaced by his apprentice. The stage, and interests for these transfers of power are not big enough. But on a platform as large and universal as music, it makes waves. When a lion takes over territory from another the lion roars constantly after the fight. This is to let everyone know that a change has come. And that he is in charge now. And in a competitive genre like hip-hop, the shift is even louder. Fans take note first. Then the artist who takes over, then the artists who's replaced. Then come the numbers from sells. The number of views on social media. Then questions fr

Janet Jackson to get the Billboard Icon Award Janet Jackson's icon status is being confirmed at the Billboard Awards. The superstar is set to get the Billboard Icon Award at the May 20 ceremony in Las Vegas, hosted by Kelly Clarkson. She'll also reward fans with a performance on the live telecast, her first televised performance in nine years. Past award recipients include Prince, Stevie Wonder, Cher, Neil Diamond, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez.

I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye Kanye West wants freedom—white freedom. I  could only have  seen it there, on the waxed hardwood floor of my elementary-school auditorium, because I was young then, barely 7 years old, and cable had not yet come to the city, and if it had, my father would not have believed in it. Yes, it had to have happened like this, like folk wisdom, because when I think of that era, I do not think of MTV, but of the futile attempt to stay awake and navigate the yawning whiteness of  Friday Night Videos , and I remember that there were no VCRs among us then, and so it would have had to have been there that I saw it, in the auditorium that adjoined the cafeteria, where after the daily serving of tater tots and chocolate milk, a curtain divider was pulled back and all the kids stormed the stage. And I would have been there among them, awkwardly uprocking, or worming in place, or stiffly snaking, or back-spinning like a broken rotor, and I would have looked up and se

Double Standard: Adidas Keeps Kanye, Snubs Colin Kaepernick?

Teacher left school after pulling student's hair. Community wants her back in the classroom A veteran South Carolina teacher recently retired after a video spread online of her making physical contact with a student who was sleeping at his desk. In response, a member of the school board has resigned over the way the teacher was treated, while current and former students have mounted a social media campaign to voice their support for the teacher, including launching an  online petition . A march was even held, with the goal of getting the teacher back in the classroom.

Miami Cop Suspended After Kicking Man in Head on Video Earlier today, the City of Miami Police Department issued an ominous statement: Chief Jorge Colina said he'd received a video of an officer clearly violating departmental policy. That cop had been relieved of duty, he reported, adding the department had sent the clip to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Now the video has surfaced. It shows  an Miami  Police officer taking a running start and then kicking a defenseless, handcuffed suspect in the head. A police department spokesperson confirmed this was the video in question.

African-American students with disabilities suspended at disproportionately high rates The  report , “Disabling Punishment: The Need for Remedies to the Disparate Loss of Instruction Experienced by Black Students with Disabilities,” extrapolated its findings from federal data from 2014-15 and 2015-16, the last year for which it is available. Released last month, it examined only white and black students, in part because research has found that black students overall are suspended at the highest rates of all student groups. The report found that nationwide, for every 100 students with special needs in 2015-16, white students lost 43 days to suspension, while black students lost 121 days. The findings showed a slight increase in disparity between the two groups over the previous year.

George Zimmerman 'sells Trayvon Martin gun for $250,000 to a mother planning to give it to her son for his birthday' George Zimmerman sold the gun he used to shoot dead Trayvon Martin for $250,000 to a mother planning to give it to her son for his birthday, according to reports. Zimmerman said he put the pistol up for auction after hearing Hillary Clinton's 'anti-gun rhetoric' as he smoked a cigar during an interview with  KTNV . He also vowed to fight against the Black Lives Matter movement and end the career of Florida state attorney Angela Corey, who led Zimmerman's prosecution. But he may have made yet another enemy after he snubbed Daytona Beach bar owner Denny Honeycutt, who Zimmerman initially agreed to sell the gun to for $150,000.

'Black Cowboys' Sheds Light On Overlooked Music Of African-Americans Who Went West " Black Cowboys " is the new album from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter  Dom Flemons , a co-founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. But it's more than a collection of songs from the Wild West — the record sheds light on the prominent but often-overlooked role African-American pioneers played in westward expansion. Here & Now 's Eric Westervelt ( @Ericnpr ) talks with Flemons ( @domflemons ) about the music's origins and evolution.