On October 11, 2018 Kanye West met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office followed by lunch. Others were there including Jim Brown, the Hall of Fame Football Player and now Community Leader, etc.
I am impressed with Kanye West courage to meet with President Trump. I am impressed with his key points though his occasional use of profanity and his misunderstanding of the 13th Amendment and the American form of slavery are problematic. Clearly, he rightly seeks to improve the Black Community and America as a whole while consistent with the American capitalistic way to also improve his socio-economic posture.
I recognize this level of public engagement is new for Kanye. He presently lacks the polished speech and behavior generally expected in such stately environments; but, I think he will get better over time. The same goes for learning how to leave technical details to technical experts. Nevertheless, his key points are what is ultimately the most important.
I do take issue with his sometimes use of profanity words and calling the President “bro” in such a settings. But given the President’s sometimes problematic use of such language, it is the world we live in today though it be not proper. Nevertheless, all and all Kanye represented Black Americans and all Americans well with respect to what needed to be said to and in the presence of the President and other officials and before the nation as a whole, black and white.
More importantly, Kanye clearly does not understand the power, purpose, and necessity of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. For more information on the 13th Amendment and its importance see my article entitled The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution and Slavery and Imprisonment.
Below are two videos of the meeting. The first one is the complete meeting in the Oval Office. I include the second shorter video because at the end it shows President Trump and others wearing Kanye’s proposed adjustment to the President’s Make America Great Again hat as Kanye’s hat removes the Again word. Kanye explains the removal of the word Again as a compromise between the President’s goal and Black American’s problem with the word Again since some Blacks associate the word Again with the time when Blacks were brutally enslaved.
NBC News Today – Kristen Welker
