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Ice Cube Talks Race, Injustice In Penn State Q&A

Rapper, movie star, and entertainer O’Shea Jackson (better known as Ice Cube) held a virtual Q&A session with Penn State students Tuesday night.

The event was hosted by Penn State’s Paul Robeson Cultural Center and its director, Caleb Wiley.

Jackson specifically talked about his Contract with Black America, a 13-step document that explains his ideas to help “rebuild” the Black community in the United States. The document discusses issues such as prison and police reform and more representation opportunities for the African American community, as well as other ideas. You can read the whole document here.

As Jackson has made headlines for stating his willingness to work with President Trump, the entertainer opened up the evening discussing working with the Trump Administration.

“I know a lot of people exclusively wanted me to work with the Democrats. And you know, I thought I would be exclusively working with the Democrats,” Jackson said. “But when you really look at it and look at the broad problem, I started to believe this was actually a non-partisan issue that both sides have to address.”

While addressing the opening topic, Jackson also commented on Trump’s “Platinum Plan,” a project to help African Americans that includes making Juneteenth a federal holiday and help Black-owned businesses. Jackson stated his issues with the proposal, adding that it was not Black-specific and any plan to help the Black community moving forward should be aimed exclusively to help them alone.

The entertainer shared that he started writing his Contract with Black America following the police killing of George Floyd. After searching for a plan, document or bill that dealt with not only police brutality but issues that effected the African American community as a whole, he found nothing that fir what he was looking for. After discovering this, he decided to take matters into is own hands.

“You can cry about it, you can complain about it, or you can do something about it,” Jackson said. “So I set out to try and find some of the smartest minds, people like Rob Jones, Darrick Hamilton, Dr. Claude Anderson. These are people who we were seeking out to not only help us with some of the data, but also to help shape how we approach this, and to also to give those history lessons that we all need to know on why we’re in the situation we’re in.”

Jackson explained that the document is not perfect and is still being worked on with revisions and subtractions. He said he wants the conversation to grow about the document so that more ideas on how to revise it may come into view.

“I don’t want it to be ‘Ice Cube’s Contract with Black America.’ I want it to be our contract with Black America,” Jackson said.

Jackson is known for his activism for equality for Black people and expressed his willingness to work with either side, as both current presidential campaigns have approached him to talk about the contract.

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About the Author

Charles Reinert

Charles Reinert is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. He hails from Norristown, Pennsylvania and is an avid Philadelphia sports fan. He loves playing his guitar, the color blue, and Tetris. If you feel the need to give him any positive or negative feedback, you can follow him on Twitter @charles_rein10 or email him at [email protected]

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