N.W.A rapper Ice Cube faced all kinds of backlash from democrat-leaning members and some in the black community after it was made public that he had met with members of the Trump Administration. His goal was to unveil his Contract with Black America; a blueprint of ideas to reach economic equality amongst Black Americans.
But somewhere along the way I think the intention behind what he did was misconstrued. And I think those who consider themselves to be liberal played a huge role in it.
Oct. 14 Ice Cube tweeted that both democrats and republicans had contacted him about his proposal and would like to meet with him. But republicans said they would meet with him that week, and democrats said they would wait until after the election.
It didn’t help that the next day a Trump aid tweeted that Ice Cube had “stepped up” and met with advisors to show off his plans. Her message was the only one heard, and soon there was a swarm of people saying Ice Cube was switching over to the republican side, or that he was going to support Trump in the election.
The backlash forced him to take a press tour to further clarify his goals. He made a proposal of ways the government could help black americans, and republicans were ready to meet with him right then. To me, it would seem Democrats missed an opportunity to address systemic racism in their country with a more-prominent figure. And republicans seized it.
This isn’t the first time a prominent celebrity of black stardom has been called a sell-out for supposedly meeting with Trump. When Steve Harvey met with then president-elect Trump back in 2017 it took over the news cycle and the social media hatred came quickly. And we’re not going to forget when Kanye West actually met with the president are, we? He adorned a MAGA hat and took pictures with Trump.
Now Harvey was already under hot water for some controversial comments he made about Asian-American men, and West was also facing backlash for controversial comments at the time, which many attributed to his mental illness. Nonetheless, West, Harvey and Cube to me received similar backlash, but should they?
If you follow him on Twitter, you know Ice Cube has been growing more involved in politics in recent years. What sprung on his sudden activism is not a fair question to me. He’s a black American man who grew up during the 80s crack-era that plagued black communities in California. He was apart of one of the most influential rap groups of our time, and he was considered controversial then. N.W.A’s blatant refusal to praise the police was evident, their pride in being Black men was clear.
It’s those ideas are always considered controversial in America. Too often when Black people ask for anything, or say they don’t like the system there’s suddenly an uproar. But Ice Cube did what Harvey, West and recently Lil Wayne did not, he brought forth a plan that would benefit people way below his tax bracket. We should stop assuming we know what the ideals of black people are because of their race. Black people are conservative, they are liberal, they are independents.