We are living in an age of exploitative entrepreneurship, not that—that is new. I still stare quizzically at Warhol depictions, and I have a Mood Ring in a box somewhere in one of my closets. Men and women in this country have turned rags into riches ever since P.T. Barnum. Yesterday the NY Times revealed what those of us who have lived in the New York, New Jersey area have known for years, Donald John Trump is a fraud. His so-called amassing of a great fortune from his own brilliance and entrepreneurship is a ‘yuuge’ exaggeration.
So, it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump’s world is filled with grifters, frauds and apparently tax cheats. The latest of his public admirers who literally turned some expensive rags into riches is Kanye (or Ye) West [Check out the Yeezy clothing line]. West has given us some brilliant lyrical prose, full of… pathos, humor and irony, but recently he has just been… full of it. Let me first say I am not angry—at all, with any business-person that finds a way to make legitimate money. From pet rocks, to kids and adults chasing Pokémon characters through the streets of downtown big cities P.T. Barnum purportedly said, “there is a sucker born every minute.”
Ye’s name change may be his latest attempt to run away from ‘Con-Ye.’
One of the great challenges for Black men and women is to discern free speech from stupidity without sounding as if you are promoting monolithic thought. Recently Mr. West you talked about abolishing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, that is that little one about doing away with slavery. Sure, free speech (that is the 1st one, Ye) allows you to wear a MAGA hat and spout off on the electronic street corners, of any city in America. On your first attempt you told the world that slaves were just too complacent to free themselves from bondage. Now you are doing a “jig” trying to tap dance around a diatribe following your recent appearance on SNL advocating a reversal of the abolishment of slavery.
I believe you when you say that is not what you meant, and that is the problem, you do not know what you are saying or mean. The irony amongst all ironies is that the man who signed the order to free the slaves is quoted as saying, “better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Lost in your harangue was actually a good point about mass incarcerations of people of color becoming the new legalized slavery. I suppose I could even grant you some slack on your convoluted point bemoaning the sparsity of slave uprisings, (they were actually pretty prevalent Ye), it was just hard to win a battle against guns and horses, with pitchforks and burlap bags made for cotton picking).
Ye, congratulations on your business acumen, I understand your new CD drops soon, that is the American way. Be aware Ye, the tax dodger you have hitched your wagon to, would just as soon have you pull it, as ride in it.
Vote in ’18 for Change.