Pirate's Cove

At least it’s not an uber-white liberal elitist saying this, it is Peniel E. Joseph, the Barbara Jordan chair in ethics and political values and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, who has also written books on race, and he’s black. Oh, and my headline is actually the original headline at CNN, except for the “or something”. Either way, it shows that black people are committing Wrongthink if they dare think outside the Approve Dogma

Why Ice Cube’s political logic is so dangerous

Ice Cube, the legendary Generation X rapper and hip hop icon, last week said he’s open to working with the Trump administration on implementing his “Contract with Black America.” That is a huge mistake which hurts the entire African American community.

I love how elitists can declare what’s best for almost 13% of the US population. Perhaps individually blacks might have different ideas, considering that Democrats have worked hard to keep them down and in servitude to the Democratic Party since the civil rights era, when Dems switched from their KKK and Jim Crow, segregationist style to the “patronize them, give them stuff, keep them down and beholden” style

Cube sparked controversy after tweeting that the Trump campaign made adjustments to “their plan” for Black America after talking to him. Cube was referring to parts of his “Contract With Black America,” which features a preface written by Darrick Hamilton — one of the most respected and well known Black economists in the nation and calls for “a blueprint to achieve racial and economic justice” through polices that promote wealth creation, home ownership, small businesses criminal justice reform, and voting rights. Small parts of the “Contract” are reflected in what the Trump administration has dubbed its “Platinum Plan” with election time appeals to Black voters.

News of Cube’s seeming alliance with Trump’s anti-Black political empire set Black Twitter ablaze with anger and confusion; Cube responded by casting himself as a political maverick unafraid to go against the grain. In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Cube said he is willing to work with people on both sides of the aisle. “I’m not playing no more of these political games, we’re not part of a team … so I’m going to whoever’s in power and I’m going to speak to them about our problems, specifically,” Cube said, explaining that “our” is referring to Black Americans. “I’m not going in there talking about minorities, I’m not going in there talking about people of color or diversity or none of that stuff. I’m going there for Black Americans, the ones who are descendants of slaves.”

Black unemployment is at its lowest level under Trump. Black small business ownership was high. Wages within the black community are rising faster than ever before. Say what you want, Trump sees blacks as people, not a voting block.

Though he denounced Trump in 2016, Cube’s more recent foray into politics has been shaped by statements that regardless of political party, he wants change. The trouble with this approach is that it implies somehow that for Black Americans, both major parties are or could be interchangeable. The moral equivalency behind such rhetoric is untrue. For as flawed as the modern-day Democratic Party is on race matters it is, for better and worse, the party of anti-racism and intersectional justice in contrast to the modern day GOP. The contemporary Republican Party has become, purposefully in certain quarters, a refuge for the architects of racial division, scapegoating, and hatred that has evolved past the dog whistles of the Nixon era into the bullhorn utilized by President Trump and his acolytes.

Perhaps Cube put aside his TDS and gave careful consideration to the reality of Trump’s policies, that Trump cares, that he is willing to make changes which actually help the black community, while Mr. Joseph’s Democratic Party buddies showed up and started riots, looting, arson, and assault in so many minority areas in Democratic cities. It was not a white people area getting destroyed in Minneapolis.

Joseph goes on for a bit, hating on Trump and essentially calling I Cube an Uncle Tom for daring to have his own mind.

Black men’s pain, which Ice Cube’s scowling image from his classic first two albums — “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted and Death Certificate” — so brilliantly reflect, is real as reflected in their extraordinary rates of imprisonment, punishment and death. Black women’s pain is just as potent, as illustrated in their accelerating rates of incarceration, high rates of poverty and depressing levels of income and lower rates of wealth.

Which presidential candidate authored a law which vastly increased the incarceration rate of black men and which pushed hard for Congress to pass The First Step Act, which helps the black community?