In another time when conservative meant oppression of those whose skin wasn't sufficiently white, and when lynchings were the status quo, three liberals came along and taught us a lesson about justice, and they taught it with a hammer.

I can still remember hearing the words of that lesson as a child, on a medium which was decidedly low tech. A vinyl disc which was read using a needle. Some dark voodoo brought their music and their words out of this nondescript black piece of plastic. It also tore down an old social fabric, it rang out danger, it rang out freedom, and it rang out love.
Forty years later, equality is more a reality every day. The old hatred is long gone, and the Klansmen when they're able to rally face tough opposition even showing up. One of the most recent Klan rallys here was opposed in force by an armed and organized group of all colors and creeds.
Today the hammer is ringing off-key. An African American is more likely to go to jail than to a 4 year college, a black man between 18 and 35 is more likely to be murdered than to face any other cause of death. Our prisons contain more African Americans than any other race, despite making up only 35% of the population. This is not racism, but the overwhelming crush of poverty, and the nationalization, and failure of our public school system 30 years ago. It's also social, the African American youth, instead of facing an uplifting culture face albums with names like "Cop Killer" and "The Massacre". Certainly there are a few who break this cycle, but the mother and grandmother who taught our President, who insisted he work to achieve were white. Somewhere along the lines we have failed to instill these values in the African American culture.
This weekend Norman Borlaug died. He's white, but his work with wheat allowed Mexico, India, and Pakistan to feed themselves, when everyone knew this was impossible. The man saved over one billion people from starvation. He bred a strain of wheat which was a miracle, because it grew shorter it could hold the weight of more grain, which meant much higher yields per field. This meant less clear-cutting of rainforest for farmland, saving millions of acres of forest as well. For this, he was presented the Nobel Peace prize.
Some rapper complained at an awards show that the awards weren't fair. Our president managed to take his education and complain about this rather than praising the contributions of Norman Borlaug, and this is shameful.
Take some time to step away from the foolishness of the VMA's and learn what a true hero looks like, and regardless of your skin color, emulate him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug