Rapper Ice Cube announced recently that he met with the Trump Administration to discuss a plan that promises to invest billions in the Black community and Black-owned businesses. The “Platinum Plan” pledges to create 3 million jobs and increase capital in black communities by $500 billion over the next four years, according to a press release from the Trump campaign.
In a video titled “Don’t Shoot the Messenger,” Ice Cube, 51, says he met with both Democrats and Republicans to discuss racial and economic justice, Rolling Stone reported. The rapper says he met with both because “one of them is gonna win.” But he added in a later tweet, that Democrats promised to address the issues after the election, but Republicans made adjustments to their plan after speaking with him in August, he tweeted.
“I just know one of them is gonna win … I don’t know if it can really matter to us, we gotta just push whoever’s in there because ain’t nobody really solved our problems,” he says in the video. “People say we can’t take another four years of this — black people, s–t, we can take anything.”
“Joe Biden, the Democrats, I believe they owe us,” Cube added. “Will they do right by us at the end of the day — who knows?”
However, the rapper said he wasn’t endorsing any candidate.
“Everybody’s been mad at me, cause I haven’t been on the f**king-y’know-the gravy train of these candidates, especially Joe Biden and Harris,” he said in the video. “I don’t trust none of them. No president has done right by us (the Black community). So I don’t trust none of them.”
The Contract with Black America
Ice Cube has wanted both parties to agree to the Contract with Black America. The contract lays out the groundwork for how to make long-term, systematic improvements for the Black community, he said. The CWBA addresses 13 areas for improvement, Rolling Stone said. Those include bank lending, prison and police reform, and the elimination of all confederate monuments.
“The problems facing America are too deep and wide to simply reform one area or another,” the contract reads. “Long-lasting solutions demand a comprehensive thorough ‘rethink’ of America so that each new approach in each area supports the success of the others. This Contract with Black America will provide conceptual approaches in several areas.”
While neither Joe Biden nor Trump has agreed to the CWBA, Ice Cube said Trump did include some of its ideas in his Platinum Plan. Though, the rapper didn’t fully endorse the Platinum Plan, either.
Twitter reacts to news that Ice Cube is working with Trump
Katrina Pierson, a senior campaign advisor for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, tweeted out a thank you to Ice Cube for his willingness to work with the administration.
This kicked off a firestorm of tweets. Many were angry at Ice Cube for working with Trump.
Some people called Ice Cube’s move to work with either party as a pragmatic one.
Many used Ice Cube’s own words against him. As the rapper has made several comments about Trump over the past four years.
