With Kanye West I believe we are getting it all wrong. As everyone knows Kanye West media icon and world-famous Hip-Hop star has met with President Trump on a few occasions. While the first meeting was held in privet the latest meeting between the two was held in the Oval Office of the White House. Unlike Trumps meetings with the Russian heads of state this meeting was held in full view of the media and the public. The meeting lasted a little over 50 minutes with Mr. West dominating the speaking time which is no small feat considering he was seated across from. President Trump one of the world’s biggest loud mouths seem almost intimidated by Kanye West’s ability to control and dictate the minutes of the discussion. The fact that Kanye was able to dominate the airtime in a meeting with Trump was a small metrical in itself. Trump is known for his domination of everything in the political relm from the news rooms to social media Donald Trump towers over everyone else when it comes to talking tweeting and lies.
I personally wasn’t aware of the press conference it was a friend of mine who called an informed me of the press conference. My friend called and was yelling into the phone that Kanye West is on TV embarrassing black people. He went on to say Kanye was a total sellout and he needed to sit down somewhere. After hearing this I popped on the news and I caught part of a CNN broadcast where anchorman Don Lemon was taking Kanye West to task over Kanye’s meeting with Trump. Lemon suggested that Kanye was coming unhinged and need mental help services. He went on to say West was embarrassing himself and black people. In all my years of watching Don Lemon I have never seen him display such a disregard for journalistic integrity. I thought the job of the reporter was to report the news and facts as they are and not to involve his or her own personal opinions.
All though the day I was bombarded with calls text and social media post from my friends and family. Keep in mind that at this time I still had not had a chance to see to entire press conference so I was unaware of what Kanye had actually said during his visit to the White House. After listening to Kanye’s statements in their entirety and with full understanding of the context I didn’t get what had people so mad at Kanye. Outside of the fact of who he was talking to and the maggot hat I could not find any wrong in what Kanye had said. First let us understand that Kanye is no Dr. King, nor is he a James Baldwin or any of the other great speakers of our time. Dr. King and Baldwin were some of the most brilliant orators and thinkers of the modern era.
To judge Kanye as if he were King or Baldwin is disingenuous to say the least. Kanye has a creative spirit so many times he speaks like a creative and being a creative myself I get why he jumps from topic to topic so quickly. Other creatives should fully be able to get Kanye but after the meeting the only thing people seemed to be getting is upset with Kanye. People said thing like “Kanye is in the sunken place” or “Kanye is a coon” and to me he was getting bad rap from ignorant people who are led by the news media’s agenda to sensationalize everything that has to do with Donald Trump. The liberal media was attacking a black man for his briefs and that to me seemed just as racist as any of Trump’s racist rant about people of color. If I had the chance to ask Don Lemon CNN and all of the people hating on Kanye one question. I would ask, is it right for the so-called friends of people of color to dictate how people of color fight their fight? I could only imagine what they might say in response but I sure whatever they came up with wouldn’t a good enough answer for my question.
Yes, Kanye did sit down to talk with one of the most disgusting men in the world but if we judge him as a sellout solely on that fact, I fear we have missed the greater message of love that Kanye is trying to bring to the White House. Kanye is taking a chance to talk to a man he knows more than likely doesn’t give a dam about him or his people. In spite of those facts Kanye has suffered his pride and reputation to get into the room to be heard and that’s a lot more than I can say for elected officials and the people calling Kanye a coon. Kanye not only took message of love to the White House he also talked about things that are needed in the community and ways to heal some of divides we have in our country. He even suggested to Trump that his idea about the hat (Make America Great Again) was wrong and should maybe undergo a makeover. Kanye then offered Trump a new hat that reads “MAKE AMERICA GREAT”. He went on to explained that the issue for many people may have been with the word again because of America’s past history with people of color.
In all of this Kanye seems to be the only one thinking with a level head. People have become so bent out of shape over Donald Trump’s presidency that fail to see the strategic reasoning behind trying to deal with Trump head on. Yes, we could all stand outside the gates of the White House yelling and screaming but what is the likelihood that anyone would pay attention to us? As I said earlier the news cycle is dominated by Trump’s every little tweet and even the liberal media allows Trump to dominate the news cycle. So, to get in a word or open up the conversation we may have to go into the proverbial lion’s den. That means that Kanye is not a fool sellout or coon, given the facts Kanye may very well be the smartest person in the room. Kanye a media icon has figured out what all of the life wing progressives and liberals have yet to see. They have not seen that you can’t fight hate with hate and the only way to beat a bully is to stand face to face with he in love to expose him for what he is. Kanye should be commended for his efforts and not shamed for finding better ways to fight back hate and bigotry.
As for all of the celebrities who have joined the hate Kanye bandwagon, I would advise you to take a step back and realize that the actions of a great number of you could be considered as the actions of sellouts. Some of you in this era have donated money to police departments in spite of the fact that there has been a significant number of unarmed people murdered by police. To me that is even more egregious than someone who meets with known bigots to discuss jobs for the black community. The fact that a man would knowingly sit with people who hate him and still be able to maintain his love for everyone is truly remarkable and we should be thankful to the man for this demonstration of love. This man has human traits that we all should aspire to have especially those of us claiming to want to build a better world. Kanye West has shown a way to defeat Trump but I fear we are just to blind and hateful to see the doorway that has been open. Please, by all means go on hating Kanye if that is what you must do but remember you are hating the very man who is speaking of love and peace.
Sengbe Ben Yosef
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