In the piece, Ice discusses details of how he engaged with both campaigns, each campaign’s reaction to his Contract, the differences between Republicans and Democrats, what’s changed since “Fuck Tha Police”, and much more.
In the preface of the Contract With Black America that Ice Cube published in late August — amidst the ongoing global civil-rights uprising — professor and economist Darrick Hamilton wrote about what the 22-page document hoped to accomplish. Encouraged by the reinvigorated movement he’d seen around the world, Hamilton wrote that “younger generations and social movements may be redefining economic good to embrace the principles of morality, humanity, and sustainability,” and that “This Contract with Black America is a patriotic pathway to promote our shared prosperity and achieve racial economic justice.”
Read the full interview here
On what he did exactly with both campaigns:
I had a Zoom call with the Biden campaign. People on the call from Congress, to people working directly with the Biden campaign. They actually said that they agreed with 85 percent of the Contract With Black America. They [said that they] basically want to win the election, and then they would bring me in to discuss it and try and get things pushed through. Basically a seat-at-the-table situation.
Then we got contacted by the Trump administration. They said, “We saw your Contract with Black America, and we have a Platinum Plan. We’d like to pump up our Platinum Plan” — because we all know “minority” is a trick word, try to direct some of these things directly to black people. So we did that. You know, it got to a point where they actually wanted to sit down.
On the adjustments each party actually make to their plan based off of the Contract:
Both Democratic and Republican plans are light. There’s language in both plans that needs to be made better for black Americans. That being said, [Trump’s] plan was pretty thin — and they boosted it up in several areas. Because the problem with all these plans, they say “minority,” “people of color,” “diversity,” and “urban,”and all these words that don’t necessarily mean money going into the hands of black families. They mean money going in a big old pot, and we still got to get our scraps from the bottom of that pot.
On focusing on helping black people in America:
Whoever becomes the president has to focus on black people specifically. I love all minorities, but we have to pinpoint things to go specifically to us because we are the specific reason the country’s in the situation that it’s in, with the turmoil and the huge wealth gap that’s now a Grand Canyon between black families and white families. I believe anybody who becomes the president has to refocus on us as a people.
On if people in both parties are working equally towards solutions for black Americans:
No, of course not. People are looking like they fixin’ the solutions, but they’re actually making it more confusing. They’re actually making it where the money still doesn’t reach the bottom. They still have their tricks when it comes to language. “Minority,” “diversity,” “people of color,” and all these words that they use, and we think we get a big chunk of that, and we don’t. So both parties are guilty. But let me just ask you this because one party we’ve been very loyal to: What’s worse, if your enemy does you wrong, or your family do you wrong?
On black Americans getting seats at the table or gaining power:
We may have a seat at the table, but we still don’t have the power — and we don’t have the power because we don’t have any money. We don’t have equity. We don’t build enough anything. All we got is basically, for lack of a better word, black ass. That’s all we got, is being black and maybe an opinion or two.
On if he thinks the Trump administration is trying to take advantage of his willingness to make a good faith effort at speaking with all sides in this equation and improving the lives of black Americans by speaking with Republicans about this issue:
I mean, it’s politics. Both sides are taking advantage of whatever little piece of information they think could swing something. So it’s like, has Biden taken credit for everybody that’s running out to vote for [him]? So who knows? They doing it. That’s politics. Not concerned with those games.
On the differences between Democrats and Republicans:
I think it’s good cop, bad cop, man. You know their game. They both cops. They both will lock your ass up quick. They both got the power to lock you up. One mean, one nice. Okay? But it’s still the same thing. This is what we dealing with.
On ‘Fuck Tha Police’ and if he’s seen any changes in our systems:
We did a song called “Fuck Tha Police.” Everybody was mad at us. When we did “Fuck Tha Police,” people were mad at me. All kind of elders calling for us to be censored. The FBI came after us. Everybody said we was the worst thing in the world.
Police were never held accountable. If you was on trial against an officer, if he pointed at you and said you did it, [then] you did it. Nobody questioned the officer’s character at all or his motives or his attitude on that day or his procedures. At the end of the day, I saw years later, when Rodney King got beat up and it got caught on film, that these cops was now on trial? They didn’t get convicted, but they were on trial. Now they were being questioned. Now people was asking their motives. Now people had them on trial, the police was on trial. Even with O.J. Simpson — police again on trial for their motives and tactics and procedures.
So now, you have police going to jail for murder, you have police getting fired, you have police being held accountable in all different areas. So, that’s what I see. From doing that song, it put emphasis on a problem in America and it kept you right there. It just manifests itself in the country. It just took a long time.
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