Mr. West and Mr. Trump

I've taken a bit of a sabbatical from writing, but I just can't stay away any longer.

Kanye West

I've recently been watching this whole Kanye and Trump thing play out, and there's much food for thought.

Firstly, Kanye West is a numbskull most of the time.  Actually, I already knew that.  What I didn't know is that, sometimes, like a blind hog finding an acorn, he sometimes hits on something worthwhile.

To be clear, even when Kanye is finding his truffle, it's shrouded in all kinds of nonsense, but, nevertheless, he did come up with a valuable pearl 'tween his teeth recently.

And here it is:



“Free thinkers don’t fear retaliation for your thoughts. The traditional thinkers are only using thoughts and words but they are in a mental prison. You are free. You’ve already won. Feel energized. Move in love not fear. Be afraid of nothing.”

Trump and West

Here's another:

“You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him.  We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”

And another:

"I love when people have their own ideas. You don't have to be allowed anymore. Just be.

Love who you want to love. That's free thought. I'm not even political. I'm not a democrat or a republican."

Honestly, I can't believe I'm saying this, but, "Thank you, Kanye." 

I thought I should get that done before he shoots himself in the foot again. 

Also, what is dragon energy?

Of course, before I could even get around to writing this, he messed the whole thing up when he started tweeting about slavery being a choice, etc., but that's the sort of lunacy we've all come to expect from him.

Just because he's usually a nut, however, doesn't mean he's wrong all of the time.  He's sort of the opposite of me: just because I'm usually right, doesn't mean I don't make a small mis-step here or there, right?  I can't think of any off-the-cuff, but there's probably something, somewhere.

Enough about me.  Let's talk about the freedom of thought that Kanye is espousing.  In this instance, he couldn't be more on point.

As Americans, and I mean the vast majority of us, we like to divide ourselves into neat little camps.  Camps that are well-defined and easy to articulate.  Bumper Sticker categories, if you will.  Republican, Democrat, Right-to-life, Pro-choice, Black, White, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Straight, Gay, Non-Binary, etc.

The assumption is that, if I know your category, I know all there is to know about you.  But that's very misleading, and most of us know it.  It is especially misleading when it comes to a race label.

Why should we look at a black guy or a white guy and assume that we know his political beliefs?  Honestly, it's absurd.

I've had some vigorous arguments with some white guys, guys who looked kind of like me, who were diametrically opposed to everything that I believe.

Another problem with labels is that we sometimes identify with a label without thinking much about what it actually means.

My favorite example of this is the black community's commitment to the Democratic Party.  Here in the south, most blacks identify themselves as Democrats.  And they vote that way.  But, if you don't mention political parties in a conversation, and only mention concepts, you'll find that the black community is quite conservative.  Ask about abortion.  Ask about school choice.  Ask about personal responsibility.  Do this, and you'll find a community of people who have diverse opinions, but who also have some bedrock conservative ideals.

I love talking to my fellow Americans.  Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, whatever.  We're mostly here trying to make sense of our lives and our families and our jobs and regular stuff like that.  Mostly we're not sitting around plotting about how to advance the agenda of our race.

There are some, to be sure, who only view life through the prism of race.  By-and-large, those folks are the ones who are looking for someone to blame for their lot in life.  And, lest you think I'm only talking about black activists, rest assured, I'm not.  There are plenty of white folks who are angry at blacks (or Latinos, or Jews, or whoever is different than them) for their lack of success.

And that's really the point, isn't it?  Some white guys are great; some are jerks (or worse).  The same is true of black guys.

If we like someone on account of their race, that's just as bad as hating someone because of their race.  If we're really going to be race-blind, we have to be blind in both of these ways.  In other words, when I meet a dude, I'm looking to see if he's a quality guy or not.  I'm not trying to force a favorable or unfavorable view of him based on his race.

I believe that this is what Martin Luther King, Jr. had in mind when he said that he dreamt of a day when we would be judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin.

I also believe that Kanye was highlighting a corollary of this maxim when he suggests that our politics shouldn't be determined by our race.  Nor should our thought.

Chance The Rapper

Even Chance The Rapper, whoever that is, agreed with this sentiment when he tweeted:

"Black people don’t have to be democrats."

I don't know what Chance is, but I do know he's right about this.  No one has to be anything they don't want to be.  We all have the right to be anything we'd like.

That's the beauty of America.

TheCurmudgeon