Rapper Ice Cube criticized members of the Democratic Party following this past week's convention, saying that despite all the fanfare, no speakers talked about "a contract with Black America."
The hip-hop icon and actor urged Black Americans to make both parties "earn that vote." Speaking on Instagram Saturday, he ridiculed speakers at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for only talking about voting President Donald Trump out of office in the upcoming election.
Ice Cube said small businesses with Black owners were left out of the trillions spent by Congress during the coronavirus pandemic, and he doesn't think Democrats have a plan for how to help struggling minority communities moving forward.
Warning: video below contains some language that might be offensive.
Ice Cube urged his social media followers to ask themselves: "Where's our f**king bailout?"
"A lot of people getting up [at the DNC] talking and everybody really eating it up, throwing their hands in the air like they just don't care — but what I didn't hear was: what's in it for us?" the rapper said in a video posted Saturday. "What's in it for the Black community? Besides the same old thing we've been getting from these parties. What's in it for us, for real?
"I didn't hear anybody mention a contract with Black America — and I don't know why because it's one of the most comprehensive reform documents that's come about in a long time that could really address the problem. But the way it looks, they don't have a plan," Ice Cube continued.
The California-based rapper, whose real name is O'Shea Jackson, said he heard numerous urgent calls to "get Trump out" throughout the four days of the convention. But he heard nothing from DNC figures about how to solve tangible problems. Democratic leaders ranging from senators to everyday Americans to presidential nominee Joe Biden were heard imploring supporters to vote in November, and to avoid the outcome of the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton.
But Ice Cube said that encouragement only shows a plan "for the first day" after the upcoming November 3 election.
"But if you get Trump out then now what? What do we get in the first 100 days? That's what we're trying to figure out, what do we actually get — things they could get just like that, overnight," he said. "They just pulled $3 trillion out their a** and gave it to their friends. That's American taxpayer money. That's your money that they just gave away."
Ice Cube noted surveys that found 42 percent of black-owned businesses are closing and he questioned how congressional members of either the GOP or Democrats can claim the country has no money for average citizens.
"Where's our f***ing bailout? Where's the bailout? Not the PPP loan that they didn't give us, where's the bailout? I don't want to hear about deficit, I don't want to hear about what our generations going to have to pay — if we don't have s**t, they ain't going to have anything to pay nothing."
Newsweek reached out to a representative for the rapper as well as the DNC for additional remarks Saturday afternoon.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
