Not many black Americans support our current President, but one black man in particular, seen recently sporting a MAGA hat and a Colin Kaepernick sweatshirt, has left the others scratching their heads.
Kanye West has openly supported Trump for some time now. More recently though, his outbursts and comments have left many Americans, both black and white, very concerned. While some people may question a “regular” black man for supporting Trump, the issue lies in the magnitude of Ye’s platform.
With 28.5 million Twitter followers, 4 million Instagram followers and a wife who has a combined following of 177 million on both platforms — the rapper reaches more than a lot of people.
In the past few months West has made polarizing comments, many of which have been aimed at or have had repercussion for the black community. In May, he went to the TMZ offices and made one bold statement after another, including “slavery was a choice.”
Ye openly supports President Trump, who doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to those of a different race than him, yet the “Stronger” singer once said that former President George W Bush doesn’t care about black people.
More recently, West was seen out with a MAGA hat along with a Colin Kaepernick sweatshirt. Those two views cannot coexist. Trump has attacked Kaepernick and the NFL for ongoing protests, while the football player has repeatedly stated the protests are not about the flag or military, but about police brutality. The two narratives contradict each other therefore can not and should not be supported simultaneously.
In a tweet, on September 30th, Kanye calls for the abolishment of the 13th amendment- the amendment that abolished slavery.
He then reiterates and says amend rather than abolish.
Kanye’s sporadic rants, while attention grabbing, are detrimental to the black community. A black man calling for a repeal of the 13th amendment gives racists a leg up in their arguments. It also starts to harm and undo all the hard work civil rights activists have done for decades.
While there’s no doubt Kanye has been discriminated against because he’s a black man, he is a privileged black man. Majority of those who look like him don’t have the position, the money or the fame that he does. Instead they live in fear every day, they don’t get jobs they are qualified for because the color of their skin, they sit in jail cells for being wrongly accused of a number of crimes. Kanye’s words and actions are hurting black Americans who don’t get to sleep in a $20 million estate, those that can seriously be hurt by repealing the 13th amendment and those whose fear for their life has escalated since the man Ye is endorsing has taken office.
While some say his comments are just calculated PR stunts, they hold serious consequences for the rest of black America.
Do you think Kanye is detrimental to the black community?
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