By the time this article is published, it might have been old news. Maybe It will continue, maybe it will confirm his quasi-anticipated presidential run. Whatever happens at this point, I don’t think Kanye’s tweets about his support for Donald Trump needs any introduction.
Now, I seldom pay attention to anything at the intersection of celebrities and politics, simply because their wealth is an ultimate barrier between them and common people. Sure, there’s Oprah with #MeToo or Natalie Portman with Palestinian liberation, but in most cases, I have nothing to say about what celebrity says what about politics.
Then Kanye tweeted this, and I got more irked than I should have:
Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
Trump supporters usually use this line as a talking point to discredit Democrats. On that point, they're not necessarily wrong.
But my problem is that people who use this line often use it to make it seem like as if they care for Chicago's marginalized communities.
Chicago is a town that I have called home for a great amount of time, and with that, I have become more educated on issues that primarily concern marginalized communities here in the city.
Can Kanye tell me anything about the fight for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council and Chicago Public School board? What about justice for the countless civilians wrongfully killed by the police or fighting against a city ordinance that will make it a hate crime to protest such injustices?
If I were to sit down with Kanye, would I be able to have a constructive conversation with him about how gun violence in Chicago is rooted in a lack of funding of public schools and mental health centers in predominantly black areas of the city?
Unfortunately, I can't really say yes to any of these questions. Kanye is a wealthy celebrity, living hundreds of miles away in California and married into a family that could not care less about what's happening here in Chicago. And perhaps when I say I don't care what celebrities think politically, maybe this is why: because they don't care in return.
Kanye is a Chicago native, and just as how his fellow artist Chance the Rapper is helping the city, then maybe he should consider doing the same.
Instead of following in Trump supporters' footsteps and perpetuating tone-deaf claims about Chicago's problems, Kanye has a opportunity to show that maybe he does love his city after all.
Until then, well, I'll probably stay off Twitter.
