I’ve sort of come around on Sean Combs/Puffy/Diddy. I used to loathe him and truly believe that he was over. But he stuck around. He kept working. He kept succeeding. He’s still an empire, he’s still making a lot of money (he made more $$ in the past year than Jay-Z) and he’s still working every day. So is it cool to like Puffy again? I think it might be. He’s currently promoting his new documentary, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, about his life and the Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour. To promote the doc, he chatted with the Daily Beast about music, Nina Simone and politics. It’s an interesting read – you can see the full piece here. Some highlights:
Where he is politically these days: “Politically, the way my mind is thinking—I ain’t with no marching. If I come in the battlefield, I wanna be coming in the battlefield really ready. Also, honestly, that’s why you haven’t really seen me show up on certain things. I think that to be honest, we don’t really give a f–k about Trump, because [black people are] in the same f–ked-up position. So that’s not what we’re on. The tomfoolery that’s going on in D.C., that’s just regular everyday business to black folks. That’s not surprising. We’re turning CNN and all that sh-t off because we’re trying to get ourselves together. That’s what I’m about. I’m like, “Turn that sh-t off, let them deal with all that sh-t. We gotta start dealing with us.” So my thing is, I gotta keep showing the dream. I gotta keep magnifying that and keep it focused on that self-love that we need to give our race.
His personal journey through this complicated time: “It’s things like opening up the charter school in Harlem. I’ve also been studying Stokely Carmichael and James Baldwin—you have to get yourself ready and make sure you’re empowering yourself. So when I’m ready to start speaking about political things, I’ll be ready. It needs to be represented the right way. I think some of us get out there and start talking about things, then don’t finish no job. No job’s been done. So for me, until I have a job I know I’m gonna finish, I’m just getting myself ready.
Black lives mattering and Philando Castile’s death: “I didn’t really understand the new normal until the day before yesterday when [the cop who shot] Philando Castile was acquitted. I was like, Instagram’s not even jumping about this. This is such the new normal that it’s not even a major thing right now. The way his mother expressed herself, she put out a very clear warning to us as a people. I think it fell on a lot of deaf ears. I feel like it’s really at the point where it’s a tragedy that has to stop. I mean, this is the new normal: the cop got off, but like we have to go to work tomorrow. Because we know how this goes. We march, we do this, the press isn’t even talking about it because they’re talking about Trump.
The PTSD of being black in America: “Like, it’s not right to have to live in those conditions. It’s a major human rights issue, how it affects somebody that’s not like us. Somebody that lives in the inner city and they have to see that? Because that is news to them. That’s another thing to make them have PTSD. And people don’t understand that constant issue. Here’s the president talking about no issues that you’ve been having, then you see yourself getting killed and you see people getting away [with it], and you see marching and you see it happening over and over. There comes a breaking point. The breaking point is not being covered by the mass media. I think America is getting to a dangerous point where they’re letting our hearts be pushed into. I hope and pray people wake up. There’s gonna come a day when you can’t keep killing our kids.
I was prepared to nitpick about “I ain’t with no marching,” but I understand how he explained his position – he’s preparing himself for the larger battles to come, and maybe he doesn’t believe that participating in a march will help much of anything (which is his right, to feel that way). Everything else he says is really dead-on, and I think this should be a t-shirt: “There’s gonna come a day when you can’t keep killing our kids.” That made my heart hurt. It’s true and it’s brutal that this is our world.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I understand everything he is saying. But I dont understand how it can help to not care about how the country is run. It all matters, and your voice needs to be heard in washington too. More black politicians, more black people on senate and so on. It can only help. And VOTE.
I can see what he’s saying about marching. He’s starting a charter school and putting his money where his mouth is, educating the next generation. Good for him!
[Also, lol at his use of the word ‘tomfoolery.’]
I’m Black and I do care about politics and 45.. and ALL my Black friends do as well. We are living ordinary lives so we do care. We don’t drown on mullah and sipping on Vodka in a bathrobe on the marches of the MET, bro’. WE FREAKING DO CARE.
Great answer. I do wonder just what battle he’s saving himself for? When enough is enough for him?
it sounds like he’s bracing for the battle where his being black will overshadow all the green he has
yes, the world was far from great or safe for POC prior to Trump but, with the rise of the right-wing anti-intellectual religious wingnuts (of which Trump is one of the latest and nastiest symptoms, not the cause of) over the past 15 years, the country under Trump is exponentially worse for anyone who isn’t a heterosexual White Christian man, especially if you’re not a rich one. And if it’s worse for other people who have the privilege of being/passing for white, it’s that much more worse for POC. The fact the GOP is, by and large, still protecting Trump shows the damage Trumpism has done and the danger he poses to folks who aren’t white/Christian/straight/cis-gender/male
Thank you! We do care.
I get what he’s saying, albeit inelegantly. Yes, I know POC who aren’t freaked out about Trump and company because the institulionalized hatefulness these goons represent is not a revelation to them. In other words, they see people freaking about it being exposed, but they knew it was there the whole time. There’s a lot of black people who have very very low expectations of white people. I’m related to some of them. So the beat goes on and they see their mission as continuing to persevere rather than pearl clutch and lament America’s decline. I get that.
I, too, came here to nitpick, but after reading the context, he makes a lot of sense. I think he’s got a point. I know for me, personally, I’m trying not to overwhelm my friends/family with too much politics right now but you better BELIEVE that when mid-term elections come around I’ll be drumming up support for taking back seats in the 2018 elections to anyone who will listen.
I agree with many things he says and applaud him for saying it but it’s wrong to say Black people don’t care about Trump. It takes the “these politicians are all alike stance” which is not true. There is no moral equivalence between the Trump administration and any other administration. Without Trump we would not have Sessions. Sessions’ goal is to reverse all the civil rights advances that Black Americans died and marched for. He wants to go back to the world where Black people are not allowed to vote, the Justice department has reversed its stance on prosecuting for minor drug offenses which usually disproportionately affects Black men, locking them up for life on a minor drug charge. Less Black men in the workforce, less Black men in college. Brain drain.
HUD is being dismantled before our eyes. There is an increase in the boldness of White supremacists. Being pulled over at a stop by a cop is being brushed aside more than when you had President Obama as head of state. Everyday Black folks feel the difference in Trump’s America.
Not to mention the many lives that are now being lost due to Trump’s rules that AIDS clinics in African countries lose funding if they perform abortion services. You want to tell a young girl raped and infected with HIV that she cannot get an abortion so you keep your funding?
Make a list of how much Trump’s policies have affected Black America as opposed to any other Republican or Democrat. There are *levels* of suffering. Puffy might not “feel” it because he is far removed from the lives of everyday Black people but I know the difference every single day of my life. Soon the Supreme Court will be packed with anti-abortions rights judges affecting the lives of poor young Black women. But he doesn’t have to feel it, his job is to talk about bigger issues that Black Americans with his money and power can help out with. I am happy he is at least speaking out.
This comment is so damn on-point. Thank you. Honestly, if you are LGBTQ, a woman, a minority or any combination of those things, NOT being involved in politics is probably one of the worst things you can do. Otherwise, (a lot of) white, racist, homophobic old men control the conversation. The more people pretend that “all politicians are the same!” or “politics don’t really matter”, the easier it is to rig the game so that most people CAN’T get ahead, economically or in any other way.
Excellent post.
My first thought was “how can you say that when 45. Say my first thought was “how can you say that when Sessions has been given such power and seeing what he’s trying to do with it?”
And as you so perfectly stated, there are many more other programs, departments and things at stake too.
Agreed, 100%. I’m Canadian and Black but I know for damn sure that if I was American, I couldn’t afford NOT to care. Maybe from where he’s sitting with his wealth and security, it’s easy to say that but from where most working-class people are positioned within society, you better care and especially if you’re Black.
If you don’t take a seat at the table, you never know what they’ll be serving for dinner and sooner or later, it’s bound to be your Black ass if you aren’t paying attention.
Thank you 😊. I have nothing to add, you stated my feelings exactly. Also thank you Elizabeth 🌹, Lucy 2, and vaultdweller
Hmmmm. Please don’t speak for all black people, Puffy. Until you’ve met every black person, you can’t speak for us all. I’m a black woman with a black family, and none of us have ever met you. We sure do give a f–k about Trump stuff! So do most of my black friends. Not all of us “turn off CNN and that sh-t.” If someone truly cares about their country, they’ll do what they can, but most aren’t rich people who don’t have to worry about what’s happening and how we’re going to take care of lives.
I can see where he’s coming from.
Some issues are closer to his heart than others. There’s noting wrong with that.
I understand his perspective and I see it both ways in the community. There are black people who do not care about 45, they are not shocked at the hateful shenanigans of the racist white people in charge. The idea is that these people have always been this way and now they are being public with it. I also agree with his point that black people rely too much on politics and that is an arena that can only move us so far. We were stronger with group economics and that is where we lost the battle and gave up too much of our control and interests– we would do well to move back towards those concepts. I am disappointed that a man who dropped out of Howard University is just now studying about this aspect of our history and figuring out what he can do. Everyone contributes to the cause in different ways and he is finding his way. Marching and protesting seem played to a lot of black people because they are not seeing the benefits or strides from those actions, they believe something else needs to be done. In other words, we are not a monolith who believe in the same exact goals and the same exact path to achieve those goals. That is perfectly normal, and I’m glad that another opinion on the matter is being presented.
I think I get his perspective. All he really means is that 45 is just another president in a long line of presidents, who work for a system that’s invested in screwing over black people. He’s really not that much different, and a lot of the things that people complain about seeing in the future (voter suppression, wrongful incarceration, the silencing of journalists, abuse of power on a governmental level, cover-ups, etc.) are all things that have factored heavily in the history of black people in the USA. So for him, it’s nothing new. It’s new to see the extent of these ideas expressed so openly, in a way that targets all Americans and not just black people, but truthfully, this is nothing new.
I’m really intrigued by the fact that he’s reading up on Stokely Carmichael and James Baldwin. Wow. Good for him for trying to get a better perspective, I think that’s very important to educate yourself first and foremost, and I appreciate that he’s doing that.
Being an elderly black woman i get what he is saying. Blacks have never let who was elected president stop them. We have fought inequality through many presidents, But it has never stopped us from achieving and neither will Trump
A friend of a friend worked with him once, he was told not to look Diddy in the face, that his electronics might not work, r act strange, around Diddy, and Diddy sleeps about 4 hours a day. P. Diddy is either a machine or an alien.
everything he said is spot on as a 20’s something black woman and how i am feeling today….