Oh, there were more protests over shootings? The only other one that I know about is Eric Garner.

I am not talking about protests specifically but events that evolve around racism and police brutality against minorities.

Not to belittle police brutality, but it is kind of a drop in the bucket compared to segregation imo. Also, are black people incapable of comitting crimes that a police officer would shoot them for?

Context.

Just because pop stars in our current society aren't releasing "save the whales" type material certainly does not mean they aren't contributing major philanthropic gifts to social causes. In fact, I dare to say that many artists today are shelling out more. Information is extremely accessible. It's not the responsibility of artists to inform the public about social issues.

This is a good point. Back in the late 60s early 70s the artists felt like their audiences weren't getting all of the truth from the very limited media which compelled them to speak out through their music.

The problem is Ferguson is not a single event. These kinds of issues don't gain this sort of traction by being singular. There were several other events like it before it happened and since, and as recent statistics have shown Ferguson is a town with a history of this sort of discrimination plaguing it. It seems like the greater Saint Louis area may share this problem, but really it extends beyond that. Anyway, the primary point is even if you disagree with people who point to the Brown case as a problem (which honestly I do), or you think being angry with it is dumb, the fact is people are angry, and they believe there is a problem, and so the debate ensues. If there wasn't outrage, it wouldn't be spoken about, and then maybe we could say there is no civil rights debate these days.

Since I'm here, I do want to rekindle an old flame and agree with Trollheart mainly because you guys know I'm a Neil Young dickrider, but also because just last calender year he released "Who's Gonna Stand Up?", a song about ecological abuse, and so that is current and by a mainstream artist. However, I understand I may be missing the nuance of "newly established artists who are mainstream", which I understand if that is the point.

Besides that, let's see... I wanna say Beyonce's "7/11" references Ferguson with those lines about doing things with her hands up, but I might be reaching. Also it may have come out before that.

EDIT: Frownland I just have to answer this directly, about black people committing crimes to get shot over. Yes, of course they are capable. However, it also seems like they're not just seen as capable but more likely by a police officer, and so that gun gets jumped (pun not intended but woefully acknowledged) far too frequently and oftentimes without good reason.

Who says there's no debate? I said that I wouldn't consider it a movement, not detracting from the events in any way.

I just feel like the implication is that people discussing the events and gaining a new consciousness of certain ideas like police brutality and institutional discrimination (even though these things are of course not new) isn't in any way significant.

Not what I meant in the slightest. I think that the significance of the event will highly fade in comparison to the civil rights movement, but in the meantime it is definitely significant, just not what I would call a movement.

Not what I was implying at all.