Why Are Some Black Men Supporting Donald Trump?

(Because they never meant us any good.)

Lil Wayne recently made headlines as the latest rapper to endorse Republican presidential candidate Donald J Trump. While many of us are scratching our heads over this latest phenomenon we’re going to take a stab at making sense out of it.

The first thing that has to be considered is the fact that these rappers are not people who’ve dedicated their entire lives to equality, democracy, and governance. Far from the conscience leaders of hip-hop legends like Conscious, Mos Def, or Q-Tip, the rapper who's come out in support of Trump come from a similar get rich or die trying kind of background. (See Video Above)

50 Cent has since backtracked on his Trump endorsement while Ice Cube says that his photo op with Trump wasn't misconstrued by the media. Publicity stunt or not there is polling data to suggest that Trump is growing his support with black men. In the case of the rappers mentioned above, they're likely merely following their financial interests. Systematically black men's conservative views towards LGBT issues, women's rights may be at the root. In fact, the very social net that democrats and liberals promote are often inaccessible to many black men because of criminal records.

Although most of America's progress is owed to the efforts of a coalition of sexual, racial, and gender minorities as well as liberal elites, black men have increasingly felt left out of this equation. For example, I've noticed a lot of frustration with the term "people of color" feeling like it obscures or takes away from the plight of actual black men. And some of them would even say by shared identities of being black but also gay separates me from a traditional experience. I'm not here to say that they're wrong as much as I'm here to say that this sudden divisive epiphany is not their own. If they were, they wouldn't of come right before the general election.