Ice Cube Reveals the Black Community is a on the Backburner for Democrats
/Rapper and actor Ice Cube made waves when Trump spokesperson, Katrina Pearson, revealed he worked to improve the president’s “Platinum Plan.” The Platinum Plan makes a few commitments to the Black community. The most notable is a promise to invest $500 billion.
Quickly, critics came against Ice Cube. Some noted Ice Cube stated he would never vote for Donald Trump. Many called Ice Cube a traitor. Some also claimed the president was simply using Ice Cube and peddling his influence on Black Americans to win an election.
We’ve seen Democrats touting out celebrities to influence elections in the past, and certainly today. After Biden hid out in his basement, doing minimal interviews besides a couple of softballs, he emerged to have an interview with rapper Cardi B. Considering the perverse nature of her current hit song WAP, you’d think a presidential candidate vowing to restore the soul of our nation would back away from such impropriety, but I doubt Biden’s a big fan. Of course, the interview wasn’t substantive. It was about Cardi B’s influence.
Ice Cube pushed back on accusations of being a puppet and revealed a much more interesting story.
Ice Cube put out a plan, a “contract for Black America.” He met with the Biden and Trump campaign because his plan would require both parties to come together and fix the issues. He never spoke to the president directly or met him, but the Trump campaign decided to make adjustments with their plan. The Biden camp, however, told Ice Cube they would get back with him after the election.
Ice Cube isn’t promising to vote for Trump or to vote at all. “I was the one saying, ‘you shouldn’t vote unless you get something for it.’” Ice Cube says he isn’t personally getting anything, but he wants to see an investment made.
“I’m trying to make sure all these trillions of dollars that’s being tossed around, make it to the black community,” he told TMZ. “Not to the minority community. Not to the community of color. Not to all these names that throw us in this big ole pot. But actually in black entrepreneurs hands, into black people’s hands, to create these jobs because black is gonna hire black.”
He then went on to say, “My thing is everybody’s mad at me, but nobody is asking the Biden campaign why didn’t they come up with $600 billion?”
The obvious answer is Biden’s team doesn’t need to. When Joe Biden told Charlemagne on The Breakfast Club, “You ain’t black,” if you have trouble deciding between him or Trump, it was clear Biden felt entitled to his vote. And to question him is to question your blackness.
The Biden team has an interesting strategy of waiting to see if they get elected to make plans. Biden has refused to give definitive answers on court-packing until after the election, so voters don’t know what they’re voting for. Biden even went as far to say voters didn’t deserve to know. If Biden won’t promise to hash out Black investment until after the election, how do you know it will happen at all? Obama-Biden didn’t fulfill promises like renegotiating NAFTA or moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Why would they invest in Black communities after pushing Ice Cube off to the side?
Some of Ice Cube’s critics are noting the timing and accusing Trump of not taking advantage of his four years. Well, the obvious response would be Biden had 47 years to help the Black community, and even hurt it. President Trump produced the biggest tax cuts in history that included creating opportunity zones and doubling the child income tax credit, he passed the First Step Act, funded HBCU’s, the SBA gave out hundreds of millions in loans to black women, and unemployment for minorities was the lowest ever recorded. This was a voting block that didn’t support the president in 2016, yet he still delivered.
Given the historical background of the two candidates, who would be a safer bet?
Ice Cube had a valid point. Black Americans need to leverage their vote, but so many Democrats make it unfashionable to even strike a deal with a president who wants to make a deal. Say what you want about Kim Kardashian, but she got Alice Johnson out of prison with a full pardon from the president. Why aren’t more people trying to use the president to further their agendas? Perhaps it’s because of the scrutiny. When Steve Harvey visited Trump Tower, the vitriol Harvey suffered was the most extreme in his lifetime from his own community. He was trying to make deals with Ben Carson, Director of HUD.
It’s at least worth having a conversation. Even firm leftists who dislike the president have acknowledged that $500 billion is far more interesting than anything else the Democrats have offered.
The fact that the Biden Team told Ice Cube that we’ll talk “after” the election, is revealing. Voting for Trump in 2016 was a gamble. He had no political record to speak of. Now, Trump’s voters know he does his best to keep or address his promises. Biden has a history of not keeping promises and blatantly lying about his record, even easily verifiable things such as being endorsed by the NAACP, attending an HBCU, his college record, and marching for Civil Rights.
Biden has also said women of color have never had a fair shot in America. That would mean for 47 years, Biden never created that opportunity for them to do that.
Trump or Biden doesn’t seem like a very hard choice to me.
