The topic of the meeting was criminal justice reform. It was not a one-on-one meeting between Kanye West and Donald Trump.
But Kanye was a participant, and the discussion lit a fire under him to talk about some things in his heart – about the psyche of black America, of people in poverty and of the way the entire country looks at itself and various groups of people within its own population.
Kanye West in the Oval Office with President Trump
(Oh by the way, that’s NFL Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown sitting next to him with the cane.)
I have heard passionate, intelligent black people say the same kinds of things you hear Kanye say here. You will hear them in churches, in community organizations and on the streets when people are discussing how to overcome the challenges of life. Kanye isn’t content to just parrot the usual talking points for public consumption. He wants you to know what’s in his heart at a very deep level and he really isn’t concerned about boiling it down to a series of three bullet points of whatever.
You want to hear his heart? Then settle in and listen:
What you’re hearing about this from the media is that Kanye went on a “rant.” They’re describing it as “rambling” and “incoherent.”
It was nothing of the sort. Kanye is expressing something very involved about the struggles people experience within their own minds and how they keep falling into the same self-destructive habits over and over again.
A lot of people are having a hard time with his comments about the 13th Amendment. Why would anyone, let alone a black man, want to abolish the amendment that abolished slavery?
Kanye’s argument is that the 13th Amendment didn’t end slavery so much as it just changed its form, because it provided a road map to put people back in chains merely by finding a way to convict them of a crime. I don’t think I entirely agree with that, but I think his larger point is that you never really escape slavery as long as you have the mindset of a slave, and too many people who should have long ago moved beyond that mindset have not yet done so.
Also interesting: You might recall that Kanye said during Hurricane Katrina that President Bush didn’t care about black people. A reporter asked him about that in this meeting, and Kanye indicated he felt that at that time he was still caught up in a mentality that was obsessed with racism. Apparently he thinks differently now.
Finally: Kanye says he believes liberals manipulate the pride and emotionalism of black people. Hmm.
A rant, huh? Or was it simply a lot deeper and more substantive than our media friends know what to do with?
The topic of the meeting was criminal justice reform. It was not a one-on-one meeting between Kanye West and Donald Trump.
But Kanye was a participant, and the discussion lit a fire under him to talk about some things in his heart – about the psyche of black America, of people in poverty and of the way the entire country looks at itself and various groups of people within its own population.
