Celebrities & Politics

There’s been an outcry either supporting or condemning rapper Ice Cube and his apparent collaboration with the Trump campaign. I’m not sure the subject deserves the amount of attention and media exposure it has, but I’ll heap one more coal on the fire.

First, celebrities and high-profile individuals must be careful when presenting themselves as if they speak for all Black/African Americans. They should present their ideas as just that, THEIR ideas and not representative of an entire group unless they represent an organization or particular movement. Ice Cube's “Plan for Black America” is simply his personal idea on addressing issues related to the Black/African American community which may or may not reflect the community at large.

Second, to approach a political campaign close to election time to pitch a plan is naive. Both parties probably would be glad to find a "spokesperson" who could provide them with ideas to incorporate into their campaign rhetoric. Biden's campaign, however, did the right thing to tell him they would talk after the election. If they jumped on his ideas, one of two things would happen, (1) they might appear, as the Trump campaign did, to be pandering to him and Black/African Americans; and (2) only after someone is elected will ideas be viable and useful, other than that, they are only campaign promises.

In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Ice Cube said he had taken his ideas to Trump because “he is the president.” Again, naïve, it will take the Congress to write and enact laws related to the types of issues he raises in his plan. Right now, Congress can’t even agree on COVID-19 relief let alone introducing new legislation this close to an election. In addition, even if Trump could put some of his ideas into action, there is no proof that would happen; in fact, just the opposite is probably true since Trump rarely acts on something unless it has a direct benefit to him. The best Ice Cube could hope for from Trump is lip service.

Finally, Ice Cube ended up being played by Trump since the campaign quickly announced he had helped them write their “Platinum Plan for Black America”. Trump’s people are not above invoking misleading information much as they did with Dr. Fauci’s comments that were taken out of context yet used in their campaign ads as if an endorsement of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Even though Ice Cube contends he didn’t help write the plan, the Trump campaign insists he did, and that’s all that counts.

Here’s my take, politics is a dirty game that requires seasoned professionals to navigate the terrain; Ice Cube would have done well to hire a political expert to steer him through that treacherous landscape, or better yet, stick to the entertainment business where he is probably more astute.