President Trump says he has a "Platinum Plan" to help the Black community. But, as LA Times columnist, LZ Granderson has tweeted, the president also appears to want to stop counting votes from predominantly Black voting hubs. That message got a strong reaction from rapper Ice Cube.
There were 30 million Black voters eligible to vote in this presidential election and 8% of those voters supported President Trump this year, which is up to two points from 2016.
"Donald Trump is being rewarded for trying to court the Black vote. And, you saw similar uptakes in other aspects of other demographics. Latino voters are up, and LGBTQ votes are a little bit up. For all the things that Donald Trump has done that have garnered criticism, he must also be acknowledged for the fact that he went after these groups, and he made a little improvement,” said Granderson.
Late in this election cycle, President Trump unveiled the Black Economic Empowerment "Platinum Plan."
"My understanding is that Ice Cube went to both the Democrats and Republicans with a plan he felt should be implemented to help the African American community. And, he should be applauded for using his platform and his resources for trying to do that. According to Cube, Democrats wanted to discuss the election, but Donald Trump's people said, 'Let's sit down and have a discussion.' And, because of that, Ice Cube found himself in a tweet from one of Trump's African American surrogates, shouting out Ice Cube for working with Donald Trump on his plan. And, there was a backlash on social media because of it," added Grandson.
One congresswoman from Florida believes Ice Cube was used as a political prop and that everything that was promised in the "Platinum Plan" is just "fairy dust."
"No one that I have spoken to —no elected official, community organizer, or just random person in the street believes this is real. And it has nothing to do with Ice Cube it has everything to do with Donald Trump. This is a man with a long history of empty promises," said Granderson.
Questions have been raised about whether the Democratic Party has taken Black voters for granted and whether they should have communicated with Ice Cube.
"I don't know if the Democratic Party should have met with Ice Cube—Ice Cube perhaps didn't knock on the right door. I know from communicating with his son we learned that he never actually met and sat down with Donald Trump about the Platinum Plan, it was someone from his campaign. Now you have a promise of half-a-trillion dollars from a surrogate, and Ice Cube never sat down with the President to talk about this plan. So, it's one of those things when you feel bad for Ice Cube because he's getting it from both sides when he started to do something that I felt was good for his heart," added Granderson.