O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson stated he did not want his Contract With Black America to become a political football tossed around for clout by the Republicans or the Democrats. Yet, that is exactly what has happened in the final days of this 2020 election season.
Donald Trump’s team struck first by suggesting that Ice Cube helped develop the president’s Platinum Plan for Black Americans and implied that the Hip Hop legend was backing Trump for re-election. Eric Trump, Donald’s son and campaign representative, even tweeted out a fake, photoshopped image of Cube and 50 Cent wearing Trump hats.
Ice Cube denied formally endorsing Trump as a presidential candidate in 2020, saying he was only interested in advancing his CWBA regardless of which party is in power. Additionally, the N.W.A member replied to Eric Trump’s now-deleted tweet by posting, “N#### please.”
N#### please… https://t.co/1oPGAmzgvQ
— Ice Cube (@icecube) October 20, 2020
Ice Cube also stated that he was open to meeting with representatives of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. According to the Big3 basketball league founder, Biden’s camp told him they would have to wait until after the general election before discussing his CWBA.
Congressman Cedric Richmond [D-LA2] spoke to Joe Madison on SiriusXM about Ice Cube’s Contract With Black America as well as Democratic proposals such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the Jobs and Justice Act, and Joe Biden’s Lift Every Voice Plan for Black America. The National Co-Chair of the Biden campaign maintained that Cube’s recollection of the situation was not accurate.
“Let me be crystal clear. That did not happen. I met with Ice Cube. We had a Zoom call. So I’m not telling you what other people did, I’m telling you what I did,” said Richmond about Cube’s statements that the Biden campaign wanted to wait until after November 3 to discuss his contract.
Richmond added, “We also had an earlier call with D. L. Hughley, Chris Paul, Kenny Smith, Snoop [Dogg], Jeezy – all of them. We did the exact same thing. We talked to them about things they would like to see in our plan to see what their thoughts were. We took notes. We changed our plan where we needed to change it. We added stuff we didn’t have it in there. We did the exact same thing with Ice Cube.”
The Tulane School of Law graduate went on to say that he liked the fact that Ice Cube is engaging in policy and his Contract With Black America was a good foundation but very broad. However, Congressman Richmond also pointed out that the CWBA did not address some vital issues such as Black maternal health.
“Our plan is very thorough. I won’t say he has a skeleton plan, but he has an outline of things that should be done. It’s not as comprehensive as our plan,” said Richmond. “And so that’s what we told him, and the offer to stay engaged was not, ‘We’ll talk to you after the election.’ It went like this: ‘Here’s my cell number. Anything else you want to talk about on this plan or anything you think we need to talk about further, just pick up the phone and call.'”