Kanye West may have a mental illness but I don’t know if that’s true. He once said he was bipolar but then retracted his statement later. If Kanye is mentally ill, then everything I write below is probably obsolete.
If Kanye is healthy, then I take umbrage with his affinity for Donald Trump. Kanye once said that Trump’s 2016 victory inspired him because it meant that anyone, including Kanye could be President. If that were all Kanye had to say, I would have no problem with that because his position would be very reasonable.
My issue with Kanye has to do with a very specific context that pertains to this tweet below:
Blacks are 90% Democrats That sounds like control to me 🤔
— ye (@kanyewest) January 1, 2019
Kanye is extremely smart. I don’t think Kanye is “book smart” though. He’s creative and his creative mind is unmatched by almost anyone on the planet. Creative people are masters at their craft but sometimes lack a real understanding of reality. Kanye’s brilliance is oftentimes philosophical but can get lost in translation because Kanye’s (like Trump’s) brain often jumps around to topics so his rants are often incomplete and impossible to critique.
This tweet however, is either contrarian or completely ignorant. Kanye likes to be contrarian because he can then say (which he did in another tweet right after this one) that he is not controlled by anyone or anything. Kanye’s thoughts belong to Kanye and Kanye alone. Kanye only has original thoughts. I think this concept would be paramount to any creative thinker and is really the foundation for their creative minds.
The tweet referenced above however, has nothing to do with creativity and everything to do with reality and that is why Kanye looks beyond ignorant. Assuming that 90% of black Americans are Democrat (I don’t know if its true but it should be higher in my opinion), they’re not Democrats because they are “controlled” as Kanye alludes. If you think about it, his tweet is quite insulting to African Americans.
Plenty has been written about the “black capture” by the Democratic party. I think there’s really some historical truth to that premise – especially during the times when a large majority of Democratic representatives were still white. [Also, please spare me the argument that the Democrats were pro slavery in the 1800’s]. Today’s Democratic party however, is doing more than ever before to help minorities, and frankly, many of the folks putting in the effort are, in fact minority representatives that belong to the Democratic party. Are the Democrats doing enough at a fast enough pace? Of course not! You want to know why? Because Kanye’s team is fighting like hell to slow that change so that you’ll probably be dead before common sense laws get passed.
Seriously. What does the other party offer? Well, the Republican party offers Kanye less taxes, which I am sure he likes. What else? I’ll wait. Kanye doesn’t feel the oppression from our “system” like less wealthier minorities. Kanye is more Bill Gates than Eric Garner. Shoot, Kanye is more Donald Trump than Colin Kaepernick.
What do I mean? Kanye hasn’t taken the time to read what Republican leaders (or perhaps Trump) have said about Black Lives Matter and police shootings. Kanye hasn’t taken the time to read about the GOP effort to gut the Voting Rights Act or how Republican led states do whatever it takes to make voting more difficult for minorities. Or how you probably cannot find one Republican who would vote for a minimum wage increase.
Ask a Republican candidate for President in 2024 what they will do for African Americans. I swear the only answer you’ll get is something about how they need to 1) pass corporate tax reform so that corporations can pay Black employees more money and 2) cut welfare to incentivize poor African Americans to get back to work to “cure them from their “‘government dependency.'”
It’s true that the Republican controlled Congress passed the First Step Act in late 2018 and the new laws would most certainly help African Americans. In fact, Kim Kardashian, Kanye’s wife [if you live under a rock], played a small role in getting the bill passed. I never saw Kanye voice any support for the Bill.
The First Step Act however, had massive bipartisan support and even if we want to give Republicans credit for something that helped African Americans, this legislation was the first time I had seen Republicans take real, affirmative steps to address an issue that truly and positively impacted a minority group in a majority kind of way.
In conclusion, I don’t get my politics from Kanye. I don’t even listen to his new music because it’s not very good and Kanye is a terrible person. No, the real conclusion is that Kanye thinks he’s super smart for choosing to fall within the 10% of Blacks who are not Democrats. But his justification is based on nothing of substance and clearly a misunderstanding of the alternatives. If Kanye were advocating for more African Americans to leave the Democratic party in favor of being independent, he might have a point. He doesn’t do that though. Kanye sent the tweet above during a rant that included praise for Trump and a promise to wear his MAGA hat at all his concerts.
His tweets, to me, imply that he is choosing a side and that side is Trump’s GOP. That’s ok I suppose because Kanye is super rich and super rich Americans typically benefit more from Republican policies than the policies put forth by Democrats. But Kanye has chosen MAGA GOP while still bringing his race into the equation. Kanye clearly doesn’t realize that the other 90% of African Americans identify as Democrats not because they’re on a “plantation” or because they’re “controlled” by their masters. The Republicans offer all non-wealthy minorities next to nothing as an alternative.
It makes no sense for a typical African American to follow Kanye’s lead and join Trump’s party. Kanye’s only expressed justification would be, “Because Kanye said so.” I haven’t seen him provide a coherent explanation. I’m not sure the embedded tweet qualifies. Kanye should spend some time understanding the real reason that most minorities are Democrats. Heck, maybe Kanye should go back to college.
The Reasonable Man Standard 