Kanye West Clarifies 2020 Plans: 'To Say That the Black Vote Is Democratic Is a Form of Racism'
Kanye West is pushing back against Democrats who take the black vote for granted, reserving special disdain for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
West, who said on the Fourth of July he would run for president in 2020, gave a free-flowing interview to Forbes this week that covered everything from abortion to China. During the interview, West said his plans to run were moving forward, but still fluid.
The rap artist said that a black American running for president does not, as some claim, automatically split the African-American vote away from a Democratic candidate.
“To say that the black vote is Democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy,” West said.
If Kanye West actually runs and pulls in 10% of the black vote, the Democrats are finished as a party forever.
— Errol Webber For Congress (CA-37) (@ErrolWebber) July 5, 2020
He also reiterated that point in another part of the interview, saying: “That is a form of racism and white supremacy and white control to say that all black people need to be Democrat and to assume that me running is me splitting the vote. All of that information is being charged up on social media platforms by Democrats.”
“I was told that if I voted on Trump my music career would be over. I was threatened into being in one party. I was threatened as a celebrity into being in one party. I was threatened as a black man into the Democratic Party. And that’s what the Democrats are doing, emotionally, to my people,” West added.
“Threatening them to the point where this white man can tell a black man if you don’t vote for me, you’re not black.”
West made it clear that a comment from Biden in May claiming that anyone not voting for him in November is not really black stuck in his craw.
.@JoeBiden: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” @cthagod: “It don’t have nothing to do with Trump, it has to do with the fact — I want something for my community.” @breakfastclubam pic.twitter.com/endvWnOIV2
— America Rising (@AmericaRising) May 22, 2020
“A lot of times just like political parties they feel all blacks have to be Democrat. This man, Joe Biden, said if you don’t vote for me, then you are not black. Well, act like we didn’t hear that? We act like we didn’t hear that man say that? That man said that,” he said.
West said he would be fine with Biden and President Donald Trump both leaving the race for the White House.
“I just gracefully suggest y’all bow out — Trump and Biden, gracefully bow out. It’s God’s country, we are doing everything in service to God, nobody but God no more. I am in service of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and I put everything I get on the line to serve God,” he said.
The theme of faith returned over and over during the interview, particularly when West talked about prayer in public schools.
“Reinstate in God’s state, in God’s country, the fear and love of God in all schools and organizations and you chill the fear and love of everything else, so that was a plan by the Devil to have our kids committing suicide at an all-time high by removing God to have murders in Chicago at an all-time high because the human beings working for the Devil removed God and prayer from the schools. That means more drugs, more murders, more suicide,” he said.
West’s faith has led him to seek the White House, he said, noting that “God appoints the president. If I win in 2020 then it was God’s appointment. If I win in 2024 then that was God’s appointment.”
“God just gave me the clarity and said it’s time,” West added.
“You know I was out there, ended up in the hospital, people were calling me crazy. I’m not crazy. Between all of the influences and the positions that we can be put in as musicians — you go on tour, you put out all these albums, and you look up and you don’t have any money in your account. It can drive you crazy, through all of that I was looking crazy because it wasn’t the time. Now it’s time.”
West, who at one time supported Trump, said the current president “is the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation.”
He said that he wore a Make America Great Again hat to illustrate his contention that black voters are expected to be herded into one party only.
“One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the black community,” West said.
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