Riding the fence…
This article is an opinion piece and reflects the personal views and experiences of the author. It does not necessarily represent the opinions of Baller Alert, its staff, or affiliates. All individuals are encouraged to form their own perspectives and engage in respectful dialogue.That is exactly what happened when Nick Cannon sat down with Amber Rose on his web talk show Big Drive and the conversation turned political. Cannon is not a new face. He has been in the culture for decades as the Wild N Out host, an America’s Got Talent staple, a father to twelve children, a man who has survived controversies that would have ended most careers and somehow always lands on his feet. He is, by design, hard to pin down. So when he started talking politics, it felt like classic Cannon, unfiltered, conversational, not particularly calculated.
He invoked W.E.B. Du Bois. He said he does not subscribe to either party. He called the Democratic Party the party of the KKK, a historically loaded claim that pulls from a real but incomplete reading of American political history, one that skips over the party realignment of the 1960s when segregationist Southern Democrats moved into the Republican Party following the Civil Rights Act. He framed himself as someone outside the system, questioning everything, loyal to no one.
On paper, that is the fence position. That is the outside the system argument. Du Bois is legitimate intellectual cover.
But then Cannon kept talking. He called Donald Trump someone who is cleaning house and doing what he said he was going to do. He praised the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And then he said flatly that he f***s with Trump.
That is not the fence. That is a lean. A public, quotable, documented lean, and people noticed immediately.
Cannon is not alone in this moment either.
Just this week, Rozonda Thomas found herself in the same fire, except hers was quieter and messier because she never said a word publicly about politics. Not one word. She was the silent type. Which is why what the internet found hit differently.
FEC filings showed that Chilli made 17 separate donations between April and November 2024 totaling nearly $900, with money going to WinRed, Never Surrender Inc., and the Trump National Committee PAC. That paper trail surfaced right as fans also noticed that her social media account reshared a debunked conspiracy post claiming Michelle Obama was a transgender man registered to vote in Illinois in 1994. Her follow list on X included Donald Trump Jr., Tomi Lahren, and Newsmax. The digital fingerprints were everywhere.
When she finally responded, Chilli said she did not read the fine print. She thought she was donating to organizations supporting veterans and causes against human trafficking, not a presidential reelection campaign. She closed by saying she is not MAGA and does not support policies that are causing harm to the American people.
Maybe. But her situation hits different from Cannon’s. He spoke. She stayed silent. And in this climate, silence plus a money trail plus a conspiracy reshare adds up fast. She is also not new to this space. Back in 2017, when asked about Black Lives Matter, she said all lives matter, while her TLC bandmate T Boz said she did not care about Donald Trump because God is her president. Even then, they were not aligned.
Both cases point to the same truth. The fence only works if you actually stay on it.
Because not picking a side is a position. In this moment, it is a radical one. Everyone has a flag. Silence reads as betrayal. Neutrality gets labeled as cowardice. Algorithms reward certainty and political campaigns reward loyalty. So refusing to give either side what it wants is its own kind of statement.
But the fence only holds if you stay consistent.
The moment you start signaling alignment, even casually, even on a podcast, you are stepping into the same system you claimed to stand outside of. And once you step in, people are going to look at what you are stepping toward. That is not unfair. That is accountability.
So put the record on the table. Not feelings. Not spin. Documented actions, because this is what people are actually asking about when they ask which parts you are co signing.
During his first term, Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as shithole countries in a 2018 Oval Office meeting on immigration. In 2019, he told four Democratic congresswomen of color to go back to where they came from, despite three being born in the United States. He pushed the birther conspiracy against Barack Obama for years. He called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five and never walked it back after they were exonerated. More recently, his social media account shared an AI generated video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes during Black History Month, and he said he did not make a mistake.
And then he got re elected.
Now the second term. Policies, not predictions. Within months of 2025, executive actions targeting DEI programs led to cuts across the federal workforce, a sector that has long been a key pipeline into the Black middle class. In majority Black counties like Prince George’s and Charles County in Maryland, that impact is already showing. Black unemployment rose to 7.2 percent by July 2025, up from 6.3 percent the year before.
The administration also pardoned roughly 1,500 people connected to January 6th, including individuals convicted of violence against law enforcement. A major budget package cut health coverage and food assistance while tariffs raised the cost of everyday goods. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program lost its entire staff. The Office of Minority Health was gutted.
An April 2025 executive order directed the federal government to stop recognizing disparate impact discrimination, removing a key legal tool used to prove systemic bias in housing, employment, and education. At the start of 2026, federal funding for basic assistance and childcare was withheld from states with Democratic governors.
That is the record sitting underneath a casual statement like I f*** with Trump.
So the question is simple.
Which parts?
The comments about Black and brown countries. The attacks on elected officials of color. The history with the Central Park Five. The policies affecting the Black middle class. The removal of civil rights protections. The cuts hitting families already stretched thin. The pardons tied to January 6th.
Because those are not small details. Those are defining actions.
Here is where the fence conversation gets real. Not picking a side has a history. Figures like Malcolm X openly challenged both parties. That skepticism can be strategy, not fear.
But the moment you lean, you are no longer just observing the system. You are participating in it.
And people are going to ask what exactly you are standing on.
Because you do not get to float above it and dip into it at the same time. Not in this climate. Not with this record.
Once you start leaning, people are going to look at what you are leaning toward.
And once they look, a real answer is required.
Which parts?
