The American Mind

Kanye goes to Washington

William Hillman

(11/2018) The other week, my social media newsfeed was filled with comments about Kanye West's visit to the White House. It seemed to have sparked a nerve with a lot of people. Some were thanking him for getting the President to move on prison reform while others like "news" outlet CNN were calling him the "N" word.

"For those keeping score at home," tweeted Tom Bevan, publisher of Real Clear Politics, "in the last 24 hours folks on CNN and MSNBC have called Kanye: 1) dumb 2) mentally ill 3) a house negro 4) a token 5) a minstrel 6) a white supremacist."

It was not always that way, when Kanye West condemned Republican president George Bush after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, Democrats and their media loved him. He served their needs and did what they expected of a black media personality. As long as he remained on the "plantation" the media loved him. But there is nothing so threatening to the Democrat Party than a prominent Black man like Kanye leaving the Democrat plantation and embracing a Republican.

Young people do idolize Kanye. The Democrats and their allies in the media do not want young people to wake up and realize the truth of what Democrat policies have done to the cities. Their policies have run the industries, which provide financial security to middle class families, out of the country. And the city public schools are little more than a funding stream for their political and personal coffers.

This is not the first time the media has attacked a prominent Black person who dared to leave the plantation. Public shaming techniques have been used on brilliant writers such as Shelby Steele, famous economists such as Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Candace Owens was harassed at a restaurant and on the public street when she visited Philadelphia. From the photos, the harassment came from a mob of white progressives, mostly women. How far we have come, white progressives telling a black woman she is not welcome in a restaurant. For those that do not know, Candace Owens, is a very articulate and intelligent Black woman who is a spokeswoman for "Turning Point USA", an organization that encourages Black Americans to challenge their allegiance to the democrat party.

As I write this, the phone next to me is vibrating with social media notices from friends who are attending the "Walk Away March" railing in Washington D.C. Yesterday some 400 young Black Americans spent the day at the White House with our President. My house does not get CNN, but I wonder if on that channel these young men were referred to as dumb, mentally ill, or house "n-word". As I recall, the media in general never blinked when Hillary Clinton referred to Blacks as super-predators.

When I talk to young Black Americans who are rejecting the democrat party, the two reasons that are repeated are: former President Clinton’s "3 strikes you’re out" crime bill, which the Black community credits with destroying their families. The second reason is Hillary’s speech back in the 90’s where she referred to young Black Americans as super-predators. And of most interest, it was Black Lives Matter that made this an issue in the 2016 campaign.

As John Grass put it, "It is clear that what’s important is not the content of one’s character, but how the color of one’s skin determines how one must vote. Those who use skin pigment to inform their politics are threatened by Kanye."

Back to Kanye.

I must admit that when it comes to much of pop culture, I am out of touch. I have only the very faintest idea who Kanye West is.

From what I read on the internet, he actually seems like an interesting guy. He climbed from ordinary beginnings to great wealth from his own work. I’m always impressed by people who can create an empire from nothing.

Kanye is not a dumb guy. He became famous for hip-hop and rap music. The internet is full of West’s songs and videos. It is not my taste in music. I actually find it panful to listen to. Anymore, I sound like my father when my sons put on the music they like. Why would anyone want to listen to this stuff when there is so much truly great music in the world?

Jane Austen wrote, "One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."

John Derbyshire’s, (who I find interesting to read but do not agree with on many issues including race) reaction to Kanye’s White House comments mimic mine, so in an act of pure laziness, I’ll give you a long quote:

"With an open mind, I watched the rerun of West sharing with us his view on politics and society.

It was all very confusing. West: "Let's stop worrying about the future, all we have is today." No, let's not stop worrying about the future. Worrying about the future is the essence of responsibility—personal, social, and political.

And again with his objections to the Thirteenth Amendment, which seem to be based on its permitting prison labor. What does he want, for prisoners to sit in their cells all day long playing Grand Theft Auto?

Reading that section again, West seems, in fact, so far as one can make sense of his words, to be opposed to imprisonment per se. Quote, referring to the Constitution: "Would you build a trap door that if you mess up, and you accidentally—something happens, you fall and you end up next to the Unabomber?" End quote.

What else should we do with criminals to protect society from them?

But he at least understands the problem concerning the Democrat welfare state that has destroyed the Black family, leaving generations of young men to grow up alone and fatherless.

There was an odd Nietzschean strain running through West's soliloquy, too. Quote: "All we really have is today. Over and over and over again." Quote: "Trump is on his hero's journey." Quote, referring to his MAGA hat: "There is something when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman." End quotes. What has the guy been reading?

So much for him being a verbal genius.

Then he revealed his cellphone password to the world. The password is 000000.

That puts the kibosh on West being a math whiz. I guess. So, while the guy must be some kind of smart to have got where he's gotten,

Whatever his failings in eloquence and password generation, Kanye West is by any standards a far better citizen than Al Sharpton. By June 2016, according to the White House visitors' log, Al Sharpton had called on President Barack Obama 57 times."

I was on the phone today with my friend, the great writer and founder of "Black Americans for a Better America:, Raynard Jackson, talking about these issues. To paraphrase him; Enough of the minstrel shows. When are we going to see our President sitting with black business leaders and entrepreneurs. The Presidents, (including President Obama) love to have their picture taken with Back entertainers and athletes.

All this is important politically because the shift in the Black and Latino community out of the pocket of the democrat party will be the largest deciding factor of the 2020 election.

More important them simple politics, improvement in the urban areas will not come until one party stops ignoring these Americans and the other party stops taking them for granted.