"We must wage what I have called total war against public enemy number one, the problem of dangerous drugs." Such is the rhetoric that began President Nixon’s War on Drugs in 1971. The war continues today, and some would argue, to devastating effect. Neill Franklin is a former Maryland state police officer and the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization of current and former police officers that work to redirect current drug policies.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has brought two separate lawsuits against two major companies: discount retailer Dollar General and car-maker BMW. The E.E.O.C. alleges that these companies used criminal background checks to screen out workers who have a criminal record of any kind. The suits were brought under the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against job seekers on the basis of race.

In the next few weeks, the Supreme Court will determine the fate of affirmative action in college admissions. Most Americans think of affirmative action as a post-Civil Rights Era phenomenon, but race has long played a role in college admissions. Fifty years ago today, Alabama Governor George Wallace made his final stand for segregation at the University of Alabama. That evening, in a landmark speech, President Kennedy called on Congress to pass comprehensive civil rights legislation.

Journalist Farai Chideya shares her beginnings and motivation to succeed in the news industry. Click here to watch the video interview.

You can join the conversation by sharing your comments about the interview or by letting us know who you would like us to interview next and why, as we strive to reflect the diverse voices found within the New York City and tri-state area.

Actress Jean Stapleton, who played the iconic role of Edith Bunker on TV's 'All in the Family,' died on Saturday, at the age of 90. For this latest episode of Micropolis, WNYC's Arun Venugopal examines the impact the show had on his own family -- who immigrated from India just a year before the show premiered, in 1971 -- as well as others trying to make sense of the era.

According to new federal data, about half of all drug arrests in 2011 and 2010 were for marijuana use. But even though usage rates for marijuana are similar among whites and blacks, black Americans, according to this data, were nearly four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. Carl Hart is professor of psychology at Columbia University and drug researcher.

A Cheerios commercial depicting a mixed-race family is stirring up controversy this week after responses in the comments section of the YouTube video turned vitriolic. The commercial, depicting a biracial young girl, her white mother and black father, has been viewed on YouTube 1.7 million times. The ad has produced racist backlash and then an even bigger supportive backlash to the backlash. General Mills has suspended the comments section on its website and fully supports the ad which it says will continue to run.

There’s a sense that the widening corruption probe is a sad end to what once seemed to be a promising moment for black political power in Albany.

According to The Root’s Keli Goff, black producers are “Halley's Comet rare” on Broadway. Goff joins Soundcheck to discuss the theater world’s production gap.

Anne Price, Program Director for Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative evaluates a proposal made yesterday on our program by Darrick Hamilton for baby bonds as a policy intervention to help alleviate growing income inequality in the US.

The New York Police Department stepped up security at hotels, landmarks like the World Trade Center site, Times Square and other locations Monday following explosions at the Boston Marathon.

Major League Baseball is experiencing an historic low in the number of African-American players. The league says about 8.5 percent of players on this year’s opening-day rosters identified themselves as African-American or black. That’s around half the number from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s.

Here at Soundcheck, we don’t jump on every trending Twitter bandwagon. Our fire truck doesn’t stop at every blogosphere inferno. But if you’ve been killing time on the Internet this week, you’ve probably heard about this …

Brad Paisley released "Accidental Racist" this week on his new album Wheelhouse -- and it's a song so provocative, for so many different reasons, that we just have to talk about it. With not just one person, but three. Joining us are: 

An employer may not judge an applicant by the color of his skin per say, but he or she may find more fault with a black applicant who fulfills certain stereotypes of African-Americans (an applicant who listens to rap music, for example), while a black applicant who seems to fulfill white stereotypes (listening to classical music, perhaps) is likely to be judged in a positive light.

Is the fight for gay rights really akin to the civil rights movement? On The Takeaway, a black pastor says yes and a gay scholar says no. What do you think?

In the past several months, President Obama has been making a quiet push to change the face of the nation's judicial system with a slow and steady stream of diverse nominees for federal courts.  In Florida, he's nominated the first openly gay black man to serve on federal district court.  In New York, he nominated the first Asian American lesbian. And in DC, he's nominated the first South Asian to sit on the US Court of Appeals.  Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund explains what hurdles these candidates may face and what potential these nominations represent.

New York Fashion Week, which just concluded, celebrates designers of color like Jason Wu and Tracy Reese, and the crowds are pretty mixed. But the runways are pretty homogenous: About 4 out of 5 runway models are white. Why?

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, WNYC visits Morningside Heights to see how the neighborhood is marking the celebration - from bookstore displays to playground conversations.

Randol Contreras, assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Fullerton, talks about his new book, The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream, in which he explores the complexity of the drug trade through research in the South Bronx neighborhood where he grew up.

Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" has sparked conversation and controversy over its use of violence, portayal of slavery, and more. Tricia Rose, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and author of The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop-And Why It Matters, discusses the film with Dana Stevens, Slate's film critic and co-host of Slate's Culture Gabfest, now airing on WNYC. Plus: how "Lincoln" and "Django" treat slavery differently.