Ice Cube, a rapper who has been long known for his disdain of politics, was just outed for his role in the Trump administration’s proposed “Platinum Plan” for the Black community.
Trump senior advisor Katrina Pearson initially congratulated the rapper/director on Twitter, thanking him for helping to craft the plan. The plan promises to “increase access to capital in Black communities by almost $500 billion” by creating 500,000 Black-owned businesses, 3 million new jobs, and “access to better education and job training”.
Hours after the tweet, the “Everythang’s Corrupt” rapper (who released a single in 2018 called “Arrest the President”) went on the record to justify his role with the plan.
According to his rep, over the last few weeks, Ice Cube had offered to meet with both the Trump and Biden campaigns. He wanted to discuss an “agenda for Black Americans” and support for his Contract with Black America, which details over 13 different areas of improvement. Those improvements include bank lending, prison reform, and reparations.
Both campaigns also laid out their specific plans for the Black community, which can be found on Ice Cube’s site. He has made it a point over the last couple of months to point out what he believes are the hypocrisies in both political parties. Furthermore stating how he feels the Black community is only valuable when it comes to their vote. In a response to one of his fans on Twitter over their disappointment, he said the following:
“Every side is the Darkside for us here in America. They’re all the same until something changes for us. They all lie and cheat but we can’t afford not to negotiate with whoever is in power or our condition in this country will never change. Our justice is bipartisan.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: After taking the time to read the Contract with Black America and going over both of the campaign’s plans, I will not completely villainize Ice Cube for trying to start a dialogue with the American government. It’s one of those “closed mouths don’t get fed” situations. He felt like he needed to at least make an effort to be heard. And to be fair, he’s got the clout to where he can get his foot in the door and people of power will listen to him.
That being said, it has been apparent (for as long as I’ve been alive at least) that the President – and the GOP in particular – has a tendency to be very hypocritical in their regards to race (look no further than their 2016 campaign to deter Black people from voting). And now in a year where Black people are sick and tired of being sick and tired, the Trump campaign has tried its hardest to paint themselves as the ‘pro-Black’ party. They’ve been highlighting voices such as Candace Owens and Silk and Diamond to hammer home Trump is the reason Blacks are able to enjoy ‘the American Dream’. While Biden and vice president nominee Kamala Harris have been grilled for their history with African Americans. They do have a slight edge in current polling, which most definitely will make a difference in this election.
Another thing that Ice Cube may have wanted to pay more attention to – California, Georgia, and Texas. Within his home state, the Republican Party has openly admitted to installing illegal ballot drop boxes and has made clear they plan to defy any ‘cease and desist’ order to take them down (ironic considering that it was the GOP complaining of voter fraud).
In Georgia, you are seeing hours-long lines for people to vote – the same state where the then-GOP Secretary of State Brian Kemp (who was running for governor) oversaw his own election, hijacked drop boxes and closed voting centers in Black-dominated areas, and STILL only beat Stacey Abrams by 55,000 votes (.4 percent). Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has limited ballot drop-boxes to one per county; this is currently a state where Biden is gaining ground and almost saw the state turn blue back in 2018. These are just three of the bigger cases where the GOP has obviously made an attempt to silence Black voices.
Again, I’m not going to say that Ice Cube is in the wrong – his intentions were good and I feel like he has made an honest effort to put upfront the plight of Black America. However, the issue at hand isn’t about working with who is in power – the bigger problem is who that power is. And when that power has spent their entire life denigrating the existence of Blacks, they don’t get to sit and pretend they are our friends when it is beneficial. That is where he was misguided – not wrong, but misguided.
