Jay-Z has been an open critic of Donald Trump, but the rapper does believe that the president has contributed to something positive.
In an interview with T Magazine published Wednesday the 47-year-old rapper discussed how he thinks Donald Trump has had a positive affect on the racial debate in America after the interviewer suggested the president revived it.
“The great thing about Donald Trump being president is now we’re forced to have the dialogue,” the rapper responded. “Now we’re having the conversation on the large scale; he’s provided the platform for us to have the conversation.”
(Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for ABA)
The hip-hop mogul first referenced how the NBA handled former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling a few years ago. Sterling was banned for life from the association after a recording of him emerged in which he made racist remarks about black people.
“I think when Donald Sterling got kicked out of the N.B.A., I thought it was a misstep, because when you kick someone out, of course he’s done wrong, right? But you also send everyone else back in hiding,” Jay-Z explained. “People talk like that. They talk like that. Let’s deal with that.”
“I wouldn’t just, like, leave him alone,” he added. “It should have been some sort of penalties. He could have lost some draft picks. But getting rid of him just made everyone else go back into hiding, and now we can’t have the dialogue.”
Jay-Z argued that the way people are talking about it now is a better way to handle it, but still criticized the president for the way he addresses the issues, such as the national anthem protest with the NFL.
“An ideal way is to have a president that says, ‘I’m open to dialogue and fixing this.’ That’s ideal. But it’s still happening in a good way, because you can’t have a solution until you start dealing with the problem: What you reveal, you heal.”