With the election nearly one week away, the number of early voters has already exceeded that of 2016, a result of tremendous efforts to get people registered early and to the polls. But in the midst of the election’s commotion, many have long forgotten how celebrities like Sean “Diddy” Combs and Ice Cube used their platforms to suppress the Black vote.
Just a few months ago, Diddy suggested in an interview with Naomi Campbell that Black citizens should withhold from participating in the 2020 election.
“We want to know very clearly. Just like Trump made it clear that he wanted to build a wall, Biden needs to make it clear that he’s gonna change the lives and quality of life of Black and Brown people,” he said. “Or else he can’t get the vote. I will hold the vote hostage if I have to.”
Diddy’s original criticism of the Democratic candidate came after an interview on the Breakfast Club with Charlamagne Tha God, where Joe Biden stated very clearly that any Black person who did not vote for him “ain’t Black.”
This concept, while it is notable in theory, is foolish in practice. Withholding his vote–and encouraging others to do the same–is simply voting in favor of the man he despises. It also serves as a stab in the back to every Black activist who died fighting so that the Fifteenth Amendment, which allows him to vote, could be enacted.
Most importantly, however, the Black community holding their votes “hostage” would not have the intended effect by any means. In fact, 46 percent of non-voters in the 2016 election were BIPOC, and the Black voter turnout rate fell 7-percentage-points to 59.6 percent from the previous presidential election. As a result of their refusal to vote, Trump was elected as the president of the United States and is now up for reelection.
This country was created on the backs of slaves and racism is ingrained in this country’s founding documents and institutions. To this day, voter suppression still exists; as a member of a marginalized community, by forfeiting his vote, Diddy would simply be succumbing to the desires of the oppressive majority. If he and others acted within their rights and declined to vote, there would be no need for voter suppression–all the dirty work would have been done for them.
Months after threatening to withhold his vote, however, Diddy reported that he was endorsing the former Vice President Joe Biden, and supporting the launch of a new political organization, Our Black Party, a non-partisan political party developed to advance the social and political plight of Black people.
“Couple of months ago, I told everybody, ‘Hold their vote hostage,’” Diddy said. “It would be irresponsible of me to have us hold our vote hostage but it would also be irresponsible of me to just let this moment go by. The world is watching—and [I’m doing] everything I can to make sure that going forth, that we’re a part of the narrative. That we own our politics.”
In a similar manner, Ice Cube adopted a self-proclaimed role as a spokesperson for the Black community.
Donald Trump’s senior advisor, Katrina Pierson, said last week that Ice Cube had met with the Trump administration to help discuss and develop the campaign’s “Platinum Plan,” intended to advance Black Americans. The announcement was met with intense criticism, and Ice Cube has since been accused of attempting to suppress the Black Democratic vote.
I’m willing to work with both teams, but I’m just working with whoever is willing to work with me,” He told CNN. “For us not to engage with both sides of the aisle to fix what I think is an American problem … is not going to help us in the end.”
It is important to note that engaging with both sides is appropriate at the beginning of a term, not the end. It is also important to note that engaging with both sides is appropriate only when an administration does not blatantly endorse white supremacy or try to erase racial sensitivity training or publicly state that any acknowledgement of racism within institutions is an insult to American society.
The use of their platform is not the problem–it’s how they use it. Neither Diddy or Ice Cube has any background in politics, yet they both advocated for the Black community to hold their votes hostage, which begs the question: why does the Black community allow Black celebrities like actors, rappers, or producers to influence life-altering decisions?
In a 1963 interview at UC Berkeley, Malcolm X addressed this very point.
“Show me in the white community where a singer is a white leader or a dancer or a trumpet player is a white leader,” he said. “These aren’t leaders.”
While Diddy and Ice Cube have branded themselves as leaders in the Black community, they simply are not. They lack the tools necessary for true leadership, and it appears they are more concerned with their own personal agendas than that of the entire community. In truth, to better advance the Black community, their contributions should have been strictly financial and their platforms should have been used to encourage others to vote.
