Opinion: Black Is The New Orange: Why Do Rappers Trust Trump?

It’s the day before Election Day, do you know if your favorite rappers are woke or asleep?

There is so much confusion. COVID-19, long lines, hurricanes and people stocking up on food and supplies like it’s the #zombieapocalypse. And then there are the #BlacksForTrump

Black in 2016, Trump’s campaign slogan to “the Blacks” was “What the hell do you have to lose.” Four years and thousands of lives lost to COVID-19 later, Trump’s dismissive and condescending pleas to Blacks in the wilderness are backed up with a “Platinuum Plan” which is thinner than one square of one ply toilet tissue.

But do you know any “Blacks” that would for this fake Rolex or Birkin of a president?

Meet the Combovers 

Lil Wayne, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Kanye we SEE you..

We SEE your need to shock and stay relevant but not shine a spotlight on actual SOLUTIONS to 400 + years of BLACK ISSUES. 

The 2020 election is the most BLURGENT (black + urgent) in our lifetime and while many Black celebrities from sports to reality TV back Biden, the aforementioned hip hop legends flirt with Trump. 

But why? 

Why are Black male A-List Hip Hop royalty drawn to Trump like moths to a flame? Yes there’s Candace Owens, Diamond and Silk, Stacy Dash, Omorosa and we can’t forget the Republican Black Barbie from Baltimore- Kimberly Klacik, but honestly there are no high-ranking Black women backing Trump. 

Imagine if Queen Latifah, Nikki Minaj, Missy Elliot, Lauryn Hill and Megan the Stallion, publicly endorsed TRUMP?

Well as if 2020 wasn’t insane enough..

Welcome to the Taxonomy of NWM (Negros with Money)

Exhibit A: Lil Wayne (needs rehab) 

“I don’t feel connected to a damn thing that ain’t got nothing to do with me.”

Weezy’s Black and forth regarding the #BlackLivesMatter movement is well documented but little mention of him being saved by a Sheriff Newell Norm, cop when he was 12 and shot himself. Not only did Norm have a terrible record of police brutality and calling suspects the N-word while tasing them repeatedly, he threatened to file criminal charges against his boss who fired him.

Exhibit B: 50 Cent- King of Petty 

Like Weezy, 50’s childhood was rattled by drugs and guns instead of riddles and nursery rhymes and now as a grown man he’s the ultimate petty predator attacking anyone including an actress on his own show about her hairline.

Exhibit C: Kanye- pray for him! (No further details needed)

So to a certain degree we can give them a slight pass, however Ice Cube…

We are not letting you off that easy.

Is this the same “Ice Cube” that almost 30 years ago in his manifesto“No Vaseline” boldly exclaimed “I’ll never have dinner with the president”? So maybe now in 2020 he’s become gluttonous, savoring crumbs with Trump?

Black in 1991, Cube fantasied about lynching your own people stating “Easy-E, you’d be hanging from a tree” and now you are bedfellows publicly supporting the commander in THIEF, Trump who stole millions of lives during COVID-19 while eerily remaining silent about at least six lynchings in the wake of George Floyd’s death and deliberately refusing to make lynching a felony in the US.

Maybe you yourself sir (Ice Cube) are “on a permanent vacation off the massa plantation”

While all these rappers rose to fame at different times, they have all succumb to Trump’s #wokewashing – when institutions and individuals/politicians act like they care about Black issues all while #whitewashing our Black pain for the all mighty dollar. 

Beyond the outrage and being dragged on Twitter, these rappers supporting Trump is a wake up call to address the unresolved trauma in the Black community. Their collective deliberate support of Trump reiterates and magnifies the amount of unresolved trauma that supersedes socio-economic status. In the wake of deteriorating race relations and police brutality in this country spanning  400 +years, they are using their collective Stockholm trauma syndrome to project their collective inadequacies and need to have proximity to whiteness onto the Black community. Instead of using their respective platforms to usher the movement forward, they are utilizing it for photo opps and cash advances from the Trump administration.

Recognizing that these men are in it for the money is easy, but resolving intergenerational trauma is a complicated process. 

The first step is to acknowledge that trauma does indeed exist and it cannot be bought off with money, cars, sneakers, etc. Proceeding in denial of this truth further perpetrates trauma. 

Second, they must accept the fact collectively that they want to be unconditionally accepted by white society; to the extent they feel the plight of racial barriers/brutality is no longer applicable to them since they now are in the top 10% of wealth in this country. 

Third, they must understand that acceptance of our Black in AmeriKKKa trauma does not exonerate nor vindicate our oppressors but merely provides a theoretical framework to begin to unravel how this deep rooted systematic racial trauma affects every atom of our Black existence. It is quite apparent that their sense of collective BLapathy (Black + Apathy) towards the black community is evident in the retraumatization that is being passed generationally; more specifically they are identifying with their oppressor (Stolkholm syndrome) and denying that Blacks are still being victimized because it’s not specifically happening to them (because they are RICH) or their heirs (children). 

Lastly, to have a collective cathartic release these rappers must first have self approval, by mitigating their trauma and stop gaslighting the Black community. These goals can be achieved through intensive therapy, not a huge deposit in their Cashapp or diamond chain. Therapy is a tool that breaks the chains of oppression and equips you to communicate your needs and explore the root causes of self-destructive behavior.

Until they address their trauma individually, they cannot speak for the Black community, with which they are all clearly out of touch. Perhaps all that GREEN makes them blind to being Black. 

These rappers collectively need to be held to a higher standard because they’re in a position of power driven by money and fame. Younger Black Americans are looking up to them. They need to mirror their voice to be reflective of the Black issues. They have an individual duty and command to use their voice responsibly for their millions of fans and followers.

This is a desperate call to Ice Cube and hopefully all the others who support or are being used by Trump. Please use your voice for something more than personal, financial and political gain. Albeit, if you choose the latter, then speak only for yourself and not on behalf of  the Black community. Ice Cube, 50, Weezy and Kanye you need to #SayLess

Complacency, apathy and progress cannot sit at the same table. 

So which table will they take a seat? A table serving solutions or crumbs? 

#complacentApathy #BlackLivesMatter #TrumpsBreadCrumbs

Co-written by Kizzie McKay: Mental Health and Substance Abuse Practitioner in Washington DC, Howard Grad, activist and CashApp receiver $kaymckay