The majority of the scalding smoke has cleared for O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson.
After making his rounds first with the American born Afrikan media and then finally to Chris Cuomo’s CNN program, Cube has managed to clear up most of the confusion surrounding his political position.
The Trump campaign seized upon his want for a national adaptation of his Contract With Black America to polarize the vote even more and sow discord among American born Afrikans.
Although Cube is right in his analysis that either Joe Biden or Donald Trump will win and they both need to have a better plan specifically for Black people, there is something he is leaving out.
With America having reneged on every promise it has made Black people, it is time for him to hold his celebrity counterparts and the Afrikan collective at large to a reimagining of the Black experience in America.
It is time to reintroduce the Greenwood-Rosewood effect from within, a mass movement to invest and serve the communities where Black people live virtually exclusively.
Self-Sufficiency Was Step One
There are many different versions of America.
Descendants of white settlers came to establish their power structure outside of the pre-established monarchy of Great Britain. Immigrant communities believed in the promise of America because the words “freedom” and “equality” were marketed so well.
However, those who built the country through chattel slavery were never compensated, as promised, to balance the scales from the setbacks experienced.
Concessions that dealt with the “Black problem” ranged from Abraham Lincoln’s administration seeking another country to export former slaves to the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that was vehemently opposed by President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor.
Every other community began to gel within society and benefit from the American dream from political advancements and other non-Black related advantages.
However, these different versions of America have always worked on the premise that everyone plays within the same system. As America became a two-party majority structure and Black people switched from Lincoln Republicans to JFK Democrats, neither party provided anything to American born Afrikan people except lip service.
Then Jim Crow enabled an unintentional benefit for Black people: increased self-sufficiency.
Separation and redlining forced American born Afrikans to own their communities, build businesses, and develop deep connected communal roots.
Then the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma was razed to the ground by jealous white onlookers. Then Rosewood, Florida became yet another victim to white angst.
Black people succumbed to fear and fought for equality via integration. Once granted through the hard-fought efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and others convincing then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to fulfill John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy’s governmental wish.
That’s when the problems started.
The Real Contract With Black America
The Black Panther Party understood the true issues facing the Black community required exclusion from the status quo.
A surgical examination and eradication of the ills that have been placed upon Black people were executed and programs and protection were created from within.
Police had to check in with armed community leaders. Food programs were developed for families with an emphasis on children.
Then FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover understood that the biggest threat to white supremacy was the Black Panther Party. He then set up systematic programs to dismantle the grassroots organization and effectually destroy any future impetus to recreate the movement.
Then the illusion of inclusion era began.
President Bill Clinton felt like a President who was Black enough buoyed by a period of economic prosperity. Barack Obama became President and for eight years it felt like finally, the American brand had a Black face.
But the chasm of Black wealth has only grown. Obama was Jackie Robinson, not Willie Mays.
Now there needs to be a return to internal economic concerns and a disqualification of industries not serving the needs of Black people.
Ice Cube needs to align with the American born Afrikan billionaires and other economically prominent Blacks to develop banks and stimulate economic growth in key industrial and regional sectors.
Although Ice Cube has been more political than most lyrically, we need him and others to discontinue the glorification of gang violence and crime storylines that have permeated commercial rap music.
The seductive nature of American-born Blacks committing crimes and reporting it back over lyrics can be misconstrued and it is not needed unless to direct a change in outcome at the end.
While Ice Cube is using this time to negotiate a contract for Black America, he needs to orchestrate a jumpstart for Black economics on his own.
Having built a successful entertainment and sports enterprise, he understands relationships and the creation of opportunity pipelines.
Let that extend into the grassroots and community level where the highest concentrations of Black people are while negotiating a national deal.
Unfortunately, Cube, Donald Trump is incapable of any quid pro quo with Black America. His sins are unforgivable and his base is white supremacy.
Focus on the community first and big government second. Black people are forgiving and we saw that your intentions were from a place of care.
Just redirect it to those who care about you, not just your popularity.
