Ice Cube visited Red Table Talk to discuss the 2020 election and the importance of his “Contract with Black America.”
Joined by author and attorney Van Jones, the rapper said on Tuesday’s episode that his contract addresses the root causes of racism in the U.S., while laying out a plan for better schooling, health care, and police reform.
“They try to make us think America is a household that’s broke and we don’t have the money to get the new Jordans this year because we broke,” Ice Cube said. “That’s how they make us think, ‘we ain’t got enough money for y’all because we broke.’”
He called on the U.S. government to invest more in the Black community. “The money is there to help the communities, we just got to push the politicians to do it,” he added.
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The rapper’s contract movement started this past summer, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
“Having a man scream for his mama, it just reminded me of stories I’ve heard of when a slave or somebody would get out of line and they would pull everybody around and show the discipline, and made everybody watch and live the horror,” Ice Cube told host Jada Pinkett Smith.
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The hip-hop star shared that the initial contract was written as a way to bring together the Black community and he urged people to think differently about the upcoming election. “Voting is great, but voting with a purpose is better,” he said.
Van Jones and former NFL player Brandon Marshall, along with Willow Smith, talked about their first time voting experiences. Marshall is also working to encourage other NFL players to get registered and become more politically involved.
You can watch the new episode of the Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk below.
