Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
By Jasmyne Cannick
What do Snoop Dogg and Caitlyn Jenner have in common? No, this isn’t the setup for a bad joke—it’s a tragic reality. They’ve become poster children for the misguided belief that cozying up to power structures that openly despise them will somehow buy them a permanent seat at the table—or at least a pat on the head from the same people pulling the strings. Spoiler alert: it won’t.
Take Caitlyn Jenner, for example, who’s stanned for Trump who continues to actively work to push legislation that threatens her very existence. While she’s off applauding his presidential win, the ink is barely dry on his executive orders mandating she be referred to by her birth name, Bruce.
Rather than taking a stand against these policies, she’s leaned into her wealth and privilege, banking on it to shield her from the harm those same policies inflict on the trans community. Why? Because she’s rich and insulated from the struggles and discrimination most trans people face. She can retreat to her Malibu mansion and comfortably tune out everyone else’s reality. Because as long as Trump is coming up with ways to keep her rich–that’s all that really matters. Newsflash: privilege isn’t bulletproof, and proximity to power doesn’t erase the hate aimed in her direction.
Then there’s Snoop Dogg and his ilk, rappers who once stood as cultural titans now bending over backward to cozy up to the Trump tax bracket. After years of using the community to build their stacks, they are perfectly content to throw the same people who put them in their comfy tax bracket under the bus for a front-row seat at a table that was never built for them. They’ve swapped authenticity and influence for the illusion of inclusion, all while pretending the check is worth it. It’s not–they know it, we know it. It’s the reason at the domino table we say, “All ain’t good money.”
What they don’t seem to realize—or flat-out refuse to—is that their proximity to whiteness (in the case of Snoop and company) or wealth and privilege (in Caitlyn’s case) doesn’t shield them from
the systems they claim to have transcended. Those systems will gladly facilitate (and celebrate) their selling out while continuing to dehumanize and disenfranchise the very communities they come from and should be fighting for. It’s not respect they’re earning—it’s betrayal.
It’s not just disappointing—it’s dangerous when public figures like Snoop Dogg or Caitlyn Jenner trade their influence for proximity to power, they’re not just letting down their communities–they’re actively legitimizing the systems that harm them. They’re showing the next generation that progress is negotiable, everyone can be bought, and that fighting for equity can take a back seat to personal gain.
There’s a gut-punch of disappointment we feel after building up people like Snoop, only to watch them back systems that harm their own. And the pity for someone like Caitlyn, who thinks her money outweighs her self-respect. We need to hold folks accountable—mark this date on your
calendar. So when these celebs inevitably flip-flop and come crawling back for the community’s support–be it a new album, reality television series, film–whatever–we remember, decline the call, and leave them on read.
Selling out isn’t just a choice for them—it’s become their brand.
Singing the hook to Chris Brown’s “Loyal,” “Aww, these h–s ain’t loyal.”
A member of hip-hop generation, Jasmyne Cannick is based in Los Angeles and is an award-winning journalist and political commentator who speaks and writes to challenge, critique, and hold the culture accountable.
