After raising eyebrows for working with the Trump Administration on his Contract with Black America, rapper/screenwriter Ice Cube has announced an imminent meeting to discuss racial injustice with the team of President Joe Biden.
Cube revealed the news during a Wednesday appearance on the radio program Ryan Cameron Uncensored (via TMZ.) He clarified that he hadn’t reached out to Trump, but rather, “They contacted me. They came at me.” Even so, he didn’t back down from earlier statements that “our justice is bipartisan,” and declined to criticize either Trump or his political base. When Cameron asked about the January 6th Capitol insurrection, the MC neither condemned nor condoned the mob, but merely said, “Everybody’s upset in America for something,” adding, “They’re pissed of for a whole ‘nother reason than what people in the streets for George Floyd is. I just let the politicians know they gotta do something to fix the situation.”
When it comes to the Biden Administration, Ice Cube expressed more skepticism than hope. “I know this new administration is really into helping all minorities,” he said. “But I believe Black people in this country are in a unique position. I think there needs to be things, as far as specialty programs — you know me, I’m all about reparations. It seems like a bad word to this administration but we gotta change that. And add some fairness to this system.”
Overall, he sees the left and right as being equally unwilling to help Black people. “I knew, at the end of the day, whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House, they’re still not looking at our agenda in the right way,” he said. “It really don’t matter. We still gotta get them to acknowledge and remedy the situation. So right now, they like to acknowledge, but nobody wants to do what it takes to remedy the situation… So that’s the part we need to get on these politicians about: actually fixing it. And they have the power to. They just won’t do it.”
He’ll have a chance to make his case. When asked if the Biden Administration had been in touch, Cube said, “Yesterday they reached out.” The meeting time has yet to be set, but, “I believe it will go down sometime this month. I don’t know exactly when. I’m available. I will make myself available.”
Ice Cube’s Contract With Black America specifically addresses 13 areas that need improvement in the US, including bank lending, prison reform, police reform, and the elimination of every confederate monument. He says it “strikes at the heart of racism and presents a blueprint to achieve racial economic justice.”
Last summer, Ice Cube landed in hot water when he shared anti-semitic and QAnon propaganda on social media. He later claimed to be unaware of the problematic associations.