With Rappers Kanye West, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and Ice Cube vociferously attacked and referred to as sell-outs and Uncle Toms for their association with Donald Trump’s political campaign, many African-Americans may be unaware that their support of the Western capitalist exploitative system defines them too as Uncle Toms, whether they are conscious of it or not.
I have been watching the American Presidential election with much interest. it has been specifically interesting observing African-Americans disagree vociferously over whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump represent African-American interests better.
African-Americans are tearing into rappers such as Kanye West, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and Ice Cube for even sharing a platform with Donald Trump, referring to them as ‘coons’ or Uncle Toms. (RT News: 30 October, 2020: ‘COON CHIP ACTIVATED’: Rapper Lil Wayne hit with racist backlash after becoming latest black entertainer to support Trump)
It is not for me or anyone to vilify another person’s political choice, however I will argue that supporting the American and Western political system in general is actually supporting the economic subjugation of black and brown people overseas. It is this system of exploitation after all that Martin Luther King condemned wholeheartedly in his sermon ‘Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence,‘ delivered 4 April 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City.
Before he was assassinated King exposed the roots of Western white supremacy by identifying the key factors of the capitalist exploitive system, and he said that the problem of racism, economic exploitation and war are tied together. What he referred to as the triple evils. In this context African-Americans who support either the Democrat or Republican party are still Uncle Toms because they are supporting the same system that enslaved our ancestors and continue to exploit black and brown people overseas.
The above point applies to people of African descent living in the Western world. It appears that we have lost focus on what freedom actually means as we have now assimilated into the same system of corruption and exploitation that King exposed.
Whether Kanye West, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and Ice Cube support Trump or Biden is irrelevant when you look at the bigger picture. So, we can argue over which European master will look after us better all we want, because deep down we are all living in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
For further Research:
https://www.rt.com/usa/505104-lil-wayne-trump-backlash/
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
