Photo: BIG3 basketball league founder Ice Cube, June 25, 2017, at the Barclays Center in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)/Photo: Real estate developer Rick Caruso, founder and chief executive officer of Caruso Affiliated, March 23, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
Back during the 2020 presidential election, hip-hop mogul Ice Cube went to social media and questioned why Black voters continued to be so loyal to Democrats, even though Democrats don’t seem to have the issues of the Black community at heart.
While Cube didn’t outright support President Donald Trump for reelection, he urged Black voters to demand Democrats take action to give Black Americans their due, such as reparations. If not, Black voters should look elsewhere, Cube suggested.
Ice Cube even collaborated with the Trump administration on its Platinum Plan for Black America. Some said Trump was using Cube to lure Black male voters in. But Black male voters had already started to drift away from the Dems.
Now, as Black male voters seem to be veering away from Democratic Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass in favor of billionaire and former Republican Rick Caruso, Los Angeles Times writer Erika D. Smith asked if this was the result of the “Ice Cube Effect.”
Legendary Long Beach hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg has also backed Caruso, as did revered music industry mogul Clarence Avant, an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama.
Roughly half of Black men plan to vote for Caruso in the June 14 primary election, according to a new poll of likely voters conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and sponsored by the LA Times.
While Caruso is now a Democrat, many critics say his proposed policies are more Republican and not as progressive as those of Bass.
The Republican slant is attracting Black men. Take Cube, who until 2020 said “he hadn’t paid attention to politics in a long time, he acted because Democrats weren’t doing anything to help Black men and, therefore, didn’t deserve any loyalty for votes if Republicans were willing to do better,” wrote Smith.
Black women are considered the backbone — even the savior — of the Democratic Party. While Black women have been loyal to the Dems, it is important to note that Black men, for the most part, have been just as loyal — yet they are often left out of the picture.
“The overwhelming majority of Black men did vote for Hillary Clinton [in 2016], but there was a difference. We’re trying to reduce that difference as much as possible,” Democratic National Committee member and former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, told Politico. “This election is going to be close. We know this. Every vote literally counts and must be counted. And we are not bulls****ing around.”
When Democrat Hillary Clinton was running for president in 2016, 82 percent of Black men voted for her. When Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008, 95 percent of Black men voted for him. That number dropped to 87 percent for President Obama’s reelection. Fast forward to 2020, 80 percent of Black men voted for Joe Biden, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Now, perhaps it’s Black men who are becoming the bellwether of the Democratic Party,” wrote Smith.
She added, “Because if you can’t convince a majority of liberal Black men in an overwhelmingly blue city like L.A. to vote for the former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, what hope do Democrats have in red and purple states?”
“That’s the ‘Ice Cube effect,’” Smith concluded.
Many on Twitter disagreed with this assessment.
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“They really calling it the ‘Ice Cube Effect’ cause Black men have the audacity to demand something for their vote. Y’all seeing that sh*t?” asked a Twitter user identified as america = hell on earth.
Moguldom Nation CEO Jamarlin Martin tweeted, “There is no such as the ‘Ice Cube effect’ on Black Men voters. Dem’s don’t have a real program for BA specifically. It’s lack of results from prior political investments, effect. For older, more conservative Black Men, the spread between the 2 parties closes fast, w/o a program.”
“I’m sorry, and this is not against you Erika, but the report you presented does not show, indicate, nor support the claim that Black men are voting republican. In fact, the data presented does not even disaggregate race and gender. We gotta do better,” tweeted political.education in black.
Photo: BIG3 basketball league founder Ice Cube smiles as he is introduced during Game 2 in the BIG3 Basketball League’s debut, June 25, 2017, at the Barclays Center in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)/Photo: Real estate developer Rick Caruso, founder and chief executive officer of Caruso Affiliated, sits courtside while attending the NBA basketball game between the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers March 23, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
