That’s pretty spot on. Someone @ Debra Messing.
Yeezy has talked about running for president for a number of years, and, much like his orange American idol, he refused to leave it at just that. Kanye, in his bid for “The West Wing” has attempted to enter the ballot in a number of states. Early reports indicated that high-ranking Republicans were aiding Kanye’s entry into the race and that Yeezy met with a senior official at the White House, Jared Kushner, shortly before that in August 2020.
Considering Yeezy’s outspoken, and nauseating, support of the incompetent nincompoop currently sitting the Oval Office, Kanye’s support from members of the Republican Party could be considered baffling. However, many people, including Debra Messing, reacted to the news of Kanye’s somewhat real run for president as a means to split the sizable following Biden has with Black voters and prove an advantage to Trump.
Black voters face a good deal of condescension. As a major portion of the voting bloc, political commentators devote a good deal of energy into deciphering, analyzing and criticizing the behavior of Black American voters. Oftentimes, these majority-white pundits posit insulting and patronizing generalizations of Black voters, oftentimes posturing as if they know what is best for Black Americans. This sort of underestimation of Black voters is not limited to professional commentators; it is mainstreamed into the beliefs of our popular leaders. Earlier in 2020, Michelle Obama’s Netflix documentary, Becoming revealed that in the wake of Trump’s 2016 election, she was disappointed in the lack of voter turnout amongst the Black community saying, “So the day I left the White House and I write about how painful it was to sit on that [inauguration] stage. A lot of our folks didn’t vote. It was almost like a slap in the face.” While Black votership did drop in 2016, it was somewhat in line with Black voter participation in 2004, returning to the level before the historic participation in 2008 and 2012. Additionally, Michelle Obama gave little consideration to the systemic barriers Black voters face, especially when compared to their white peers. Nor did she account for the disillusionment Black people experience with regards to politics, , feeling that very little changes in their day to day lives no matter which party is in power. Even in the face of those barriers, Black people historically have the second highest voter participation rates behind white people, with the exception being the momentous 2012 election year when Black voter participation surpassed white votership. In 2016, 65.3% of white people reported casting their ballots, while 59.6% of Black voters reported the same.
Michelle Obama at the 2020 Democratic National Convention also suggested that voters should avoid candidates like Yeezy saying, “This is not the time … to play games with candidates who have no chance of winning."
Political commentators at times use the term “identity politics” in a derogatory manner. Of course, the notion of representation is not all-encompassing, otherwise there would be no pushback at Kamala Harris’ prosecutorial record, and all the Black folk would be heading to the polls to cast their votes for the mind that gave us The Life Of Pablo. Still, it’s important that we’re empowered by representation, and all the more important that Black people feel that they will have representatives that are cognizant of the way policies affect Black people and begin doing the work of unraveling this ugly dark twisted society our system has shaped. A brown face simply occupying White House hasn’t and won’t accomplished all that we need to change about this country.
In fact, the assumption that Black people would redirect their support to Kanye is measuredly incorrect. Kanye currently has only two percent of support from Black voters, and his participation in the race hasn’t affected Biden’s numbers, but it has caused Trump’s poll numbers to drop. Apparently. it’s not Black Biden supporters giving the college dropout some political traction, it’s white voters, likely people like that one USC bro who won College Jeopardy! or space bro Elon Musk. Chance might also vote for him, but we’ve seen time and time again Chance’s idolization of Yeezy makes him do some foolish stuff. Black voters are not Chance, we have hit no intros with Kanye, and we refuse to let their next collab be a remix of “Hail to the Chief.”
Kanye, as a candidate is a trainwreck (see TimesKanye.com). Black people know better; to assume that Black people would cast their votes in favor of someone, especially someone as flawed and regressive for Black people as Kanye West, on the basis of their race is a denigration of the intellect and behavior of Black Americans.