Lil Yachty is using his sizable Twitter platform to shine a light on the chaos currently taking place at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.
On Wednesday (January 6), hundreds of mask-less Trump supporters stormed the building in an effort to stop the electoral vote count, leading to the evacuation of both the House and Senate.
Upon seeing this, Yachty fired off a tweet to his 5.2 million followers that read, “R.I.P X fuck da news, If black people raided the Capitol we would all be dead.”
While Yachty may be stating the obvious, it’s a sentiment that’s resonating with countless people. After all, the numerous Black Lives Matter protests last summer saw an onslaught of police force and violence. Even when they were peaceful demonstrations, law enforcement deployed tear gas and rubber bullets, bruised faces and bodies and even shoved an elderly man to the ground.
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But as the mostly white Trump supporters marched to the Capitol and broke into the building, law enforcement was notably absent. While the National Guard eventually did show up, many people believe the response time and amount of force paled in comparison to what the BLM protests saw last year.
Bay Area Hip Hop vet Paris, who has built a career addressing racism, police brutality and other socio-political issues, admires Yachty for weighing in but knows that’s just a small part of it.
“What he said is true and it’s cool that Lil Yachty has formed a political opinion and is speaking on something other than the usual topics in Hip Hop,” he told HipHopDX. “It’s easy to blast younger generations for not speaking out, so I applaud him. But we have to be sure that the public figures we pay attention to — and often look to guidance from — are up to the task and are informed about issues that should concern us all.
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“Randomly saying something because it feels good at the moment doesn’t do anyone any good if there’s no knowledge behind the sentiment. Clout chasing can come in many forms. So while it’s great to see people’s consciousness activated, it’s important that we have more than a surface level of understanding.”
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For Paris and every other Black American, this is nothing new. When asked what’s going through his mind as he watches the madness unfurl on the news, the Safe Space Invader MC replied, “Not a goddamned thing.”
He added, “It will be back to business as usual in America soon enough. Back to war for profit, back to zero police reform, unresolved income inequality, political divisions and rampant racism, among other things. I can’t bring myself to care about the shit at the Capitol knowing about this country’s racist history toward my people regardless of who’s in office. I can’t.”
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According to NBC News, a woman who was shot inside the Capitol by a member of law enforcement has died and D.C. has been placed on a curfew. D.C. police recovered five weapons and arrested roughly 13 people, none of them residents of the district.
