America's "Prince" Problem: How Black People -- And Art -- Became 'Devalued'

America's "Prince" Problem: How Black People -- And Art -- Became 'Devalued'
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 08: Recording artist Prince speaks onstage during The 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 8, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/WireImage)
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 08: Recording artist Prince speaks onstage during The 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center on February 8, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/WireImage)

Near the end of the 2015 Grammy Awards, which aired on Sunday, musical icon Prince presented the Grammy for Best Album, with this preamble: “Albums still matter. Like books and Black lives, albums still matter.” In just over ten words, Prince reminded us that the Black Lives Matter movement that captured our attention in the last five months of 2014 is having the necessary consequence of sparking a new chapter in our national artistic imagination. A long-held tenet of our liberal American credo is that art is integral to politics.

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