The president recently granted Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z and his wife, R&B diva Beyonce Knowles, an unusual up close and personal tour of the White House’s Situation Room. While the issue at hand regarding the room is one of impropriety, the budding relationship between the most powerful man in the world and hip-hop’s potential first billionaire, is one that should receive further scrutiny.
Jay-Z, Beyonce in the White House Situation Room
Jay-Z has been a huge supporter of the president’s since March of 2008, and recently declared that Britain needs its own Obama to cure its nation’s ills. Unfortunately, he–along with the majority of the Black community–has put blind faith in the president even though his political ideology and the America he intends to create in his image, completely dispels his belief that “Barack Obama ran so all the children could fly”.
First, Obama has been the most pro-abortion, pro-infanticide president in this nation’s history. As a legislator, Obama supported infanticide on a number of occasions, and as president he’s signed several pieces of abortion legislation including a repeal of the Mexico City Policy, which prohibited government funding to be provided to overseas abortion providers. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Black women have 37% of this nation’s abortions, and since the passing of Roe v. Wade, nearly 20,000,000 Black babies have been denied the God-given right to life.
Second, Obama has staked his claim as the Unemployment and Handout President. As such, he’s directing an agenda that is continuously squeezing the private sector. Individuals and families lack the resources they need to consume, and in turn, the lack of demand is forestalling the incentive for businesses to hire and make other expansive investments. As a result, the Black community has been hit the hardest by the nation’s prolonged, high unemployment problem; their unemployment rate is sitting at nearly double that of Whites.
Third, it was Jay-Z who said in his remix of Young Jeezy’s “My President Is Black”:
“no more war, no more Iraq, no more White lies, the president is black!”
As president, Obama has extended the Patriot Act, implemented Bush’s suggested surge strategy in Afghanistan, and his withdrawal plan for troops in Iraq isn’t what he advertised on the campaign trail, but you won’t find any records from Jay-Z decrying the president’s actions.
Lastly, with last year’s Omnibus Appropriations Bill, Congress ended the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides over 1,000 children–90% of them Black–with the opportunity to attend private schools instead of failing public schools in their districts. If Obama wanted these children to fly, he could have vetoed the bill, and he had two legitimate reasons to do so: one, the provision to end the program, and two, it violated his campaign pledge to not sign legislation filled with earmarks–there were thousands of them in the bill. But, voucher programs shine a light on the failure of the Teachers’ Union, and Obama’s allegiance is stronger to teachers than it is to children.
How can Jay-Z turn a blind-eye to this myriad of issues?
We must remember, as he’s rhymed in the past, “I’m not a businessman; I’m a business, man!”
Through his music, he’s continuously flaunting his accessibility to the president–who has an average monthly approval rating from Blacks exceeding 90%–which serves as a reminder of just how far he’s come from Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects.
But Jay-Z doesn’t seem to realize that the association between the rapper and the president allows Obama to use him to further solidify his own celebrity and street credibility, while his credibility wanes. He should be just as outspoken about the president’s governance as he was his predecessor’s because even though he will never be detrimentally affected by the creation of Obama’s America; unfortunately, many Blacks will.