►►► Subscribe free: From Motown and "The Cosby Show" to hip-hop and "Black Panther," America has long consumed Black culture -- even as our country's systemic racism sent a very different message.
But never quite like this.
In the weeks since the recent Black Lives Matter protests, Black-themed cultural media have been having a moment.
Books, music, movies, TV series and podcasts that explore issues of racism and the Black experience are topping charts and being newly showcased on streaming services. Black artists, inspired by what feels like a social movement, are releasing new music and videos that address issues of social justice or celebrate Blackness.
Meanwhile, artworks seen as racially insensitive -- or just downright racist -- are being banished. And white entertainers are apologizing for appearing in blackface.
Pop culture has always been quick to reflect shifting public moods. And Americans have grappled with cultural works about race and brutality since before Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit."
But Black scholars say there's been a sense in recent weeks that Americans' attitudes on race and culture are changing for real this time -- and that entertainers who ignore them do so at their peril.
"It is a long-overdue reckoning," says Karsonya Wise Whitehead, a documentary filmmaker who teaches African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland. "This is a moment to do a radical reshaping of how we are seen."
In several ways, it's already happening.
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There's renewed interest in Black-themed art and entertainment
Books about race have been topping the bestseller lists: This includes both fiction and nonfiction. At one point earlier this month, 15 of the top 20 bestselling books on Amazon were about race, racism and White supremacy in the US.
Demand for titles that help White people understand racism has spiked: Books such as Ibram X. Kendi's "How to be an Antiracist" and Robin Diangelo's "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" have sometimes been out of stock.
"We have been writing, singing and rapping about these societal ills for years," says Whitehead, the Loyola professor. "This is not new. It's just being finally noticed by the White community."Streaming platforms have been prominently featuring Black-themed content: Netflix has been promoting a new "Black Lives Matter" collection to customers in the US, featuring dozens of movies and series about racial injustice and the lives of Black Americans. Among them are Ava DuVernay's documentary "13th," about racism in the criminal justice system, and Spike Lee's new drama "Da 5 Bloods," about Black soldiers returning to Vietnam to find the remains of their fallen squad leader.
Interest in these and other Black-themed content has spiked. Demand for the Netflix series "Dear White People" has surged more than 446% over the past 30 days, according to Parrot Analytics, which measures the popularity of TV programming. "When They See Us," DuVernay's 2019 miniseries about the wrongly convicted Central Park 5, also got a sizable bump.
"New audiences appear to be turning to these stories as a form of education and understanding of the Black experience in America," says Ashley Alleyne-Morris an insights director at Parrot Analytics.
Audiences are turning to podcasts about race: In the world of podcasts, Apple's charts show audiences are gravitating toward the New York Times' "1619," about the history of slavery in America, and NPR's Code Switch, which features journalists of color talking about race.
Audiences seeking to channel their anger over police brutality and other issues raised by the George Floyd protests are seeking out non-Black content as well. Streams of music by rock band Rage Against the Machine, known for their revolutionary political views, have surged over the past month.
It's tempting to suggest that the newfound popularity of all this woke content will lead to meaningful social change. But Vincent Stephens, director of the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity at Dickinson College, urges caution.
"We must be careful to not mistake sales for social reform," he says. "Translating the knowledge and content from books and electronic media into everyday antiracist practices is the only meaningful way for this renewed attention to influence society."
People are reappraising racist or inappropriate cultural content
Hollywood has had an uneasy relationship with race dating back to "The Birth of a Nation," the landmark 1915 silent film that glorified the Ku Klux Klan.
Problematic content is being pulled: "Gone With the Wind," one of the most popular movies ever made,
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