Lupe Fiasco has a message for white supremacists: There is nothing “supreme” about you.
The rapper used his Instagram account to post an open letter that began “Dear White Supremacy.”
“First of all you are not really that supreme,” he wrote. “While throughout history White Supremacy it must be admitted you have achieved some very dominant positions. These positions have been gained mostly through force or some biological agent such as disease that did a lot of the dirty work for you in advance.”
The three-part posting contained images of Dylann Roof, who has been charged in the slaying of nine people last week at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Fiasco’s note came amid news of a website containing a racist manifesto and 60 photos that have become part of the investigation into Roof.
“There is also nothing about you psychologically, philosophically, cognitively, academically, socially, architecturally, culturally or even financially that signifies a higher position above any other group,” Fiasco wrote. “And to be diplomatic, there is nothing about you that denotes innate inferiority as well. So what you really are is something in the middle. You are regular. White Regularity is congruent to all other forms of regularity i.e. Black, Brown, Etc etc.”
Fiasco pointed out that the concept of white supremacy is actually dependent upon other races.
“And if you wanted to get really ironic and meta about it, White Supremacy has to validate it’s own identity based solely on its relationship to other races,” he wrote. “I mean now that’s what I would call joined at the hip. Without us there is no white supremacy because there would be nothing to be supreme over!”
Some of the comments hailed the rapper for his thoughts.
“This is absolutely amazing- couldn’t stop reading this,” one fan wrote “RESPECTTTTT for all the thing you have shared and I think you have enlightened many! By far the best post ever!”
Fiasco, whose legal name is Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, has long been outspoken about his beliefs.
In 2013, he stirred controversy with his keynote address for a ceremony honoring a group of young black male high school graduates in his native Chicago. The speech included the line “Congratulations, you have graduated from one of the most terrible, substandard school systems in the entire world.”
That same year, he was reportedly escorted off the stage after making critical comments about President Obama during a private Washington event celebrating the President’s second term.
