Eminem's Performative Politics

I have some thoughts on Eminem. Truthfully, I’ve long had thoughts on Eminem. This guy has a long history of antagonism towards women and queer people. For this reason, I will always view him with a critical eye. In my opinion, he is also a mediocre rapper. He doesn’t hold a candle to the artist who propped him up in the first place: Dr. Dre.

Eminem owes a great debt to his predecessors in hip-hop—Black people. And his fans—most of whom seem to be white as well—do too. He has an international following as well that one could probably discuss in the context of antiblackness, but that is a larger task I am not taking on right now. For years, I’ve found Eminem’s voice conspicuously absent in the Black Lives Matter movement. I’ve heard he does philanthropic work for his hometown of Detroit and that’s great. But I expect people who’ve become rich and famous owing to the gifts they’ve been bestowed by Black people to engage in anti-racism work.

This anti-Trump rant was not anti-racist. It was strictly anti-Trump. To me, it was as disappointing as every other liberal take on the current president. Time and time again, the most privileged of critics in the United States express disgust and embarrassment over Donald Trump. They seem to believe that things would be better if only he wasn’t the president. Yes, he is embarrassing and worthy of disgust, but more alarmingly, he is the result of a culture that values celebrity, money, whiteness, violence, narcissism, rigid definitions of masculinity and femininity, cis male dominance, and American exceptionalism. The toxic systems that put this character in the White House are what has to change, but instead of standing with activists fighting to change those systems and safeguard their rights and lives and those of their fellow citizens, people like Eminem are choosing simply to distance themselves from this monster—this quintessentially American monster.

He acknowledged that some of his fans probably voted for Trump. I’m sure they did. Hyper-masculinity, misogyny, and LGBTQ-antagonism are things Eminem and Trump have in common that appeal mostly to certain cis males. As he did with Trump, he disavowed those fans. Okay… I guess that’s impressive to some people who covet wealth and think Eminem did a brave thing by potentially kissing off some income. To me, it doesn’t say anything.

The whole thing felt very performative to me. Eminem did not film a video for “The Storm” and launch it online to tell his white supremacist fans to f—— off; he went to the BET Hip-Hop Awards to tell a predominantly Black audience that he wasn’t okay with Trump and his Trump-supporting fans.  

Let’s look closer at the lyrics, shall we.

Got a plan and now I gotta hatch it
Like a damn Apache with a tomahawk
Imma walk inside a mosque on Ramadan

His so-called plan evokes war and uses terms taken from Indigenous people and appropriated for this violent, imperialist American lexicon. And he claims he’s going to enter a mosque during the holiest time in the Muslim calendar just to piss Trump off. As we know, Trump has been hostile to Muslims. So, Eminem is using Muslims here, rather than showing that he cares about what happens to them under this president.

And say a prayer that every time Melania talks
She gets a mou— Ahh, Imma stop

What does Melania have to do with this? I don’t know exactly what “mou—” was supposed to mean, but it wasn’t flattering, obviously.

And here’s some liberal nonsense:

But we better give Obama props
‘Cause what we got in office now’s a kamikaze
That’ll probably cause a nuclear holocaust

Lots of people miss Obama, especially those who aren’t aware of, or are indifferent about, the number of countries he signed off on bombing during his eight years in office. American imperialism is always preferred with a smile. And the possibility of Trump launching a nuclear war is indeed something that should have people terrified out of their wits. But when Americans talk about it, I never hear empathy for the Koreans who are going to meet the same fate the Japanese did when the United States caused the first and only other nuclear holocaust.

Trump, when it comes to giving a s—, you’re stingy as I am
Except when it comes to having the balls to go against me, you hide ’em
‘Cause you don’t got the f—ing nuts, like an empty asylum

And here we have Eminem making it about himself and being all Eminem-like, up in his macho nonsense.

Racism’s the only thing he’s fantastic for
‘Cause that’s how he gets his f—ing rocks off and he’s orange
Yeah, sick tan

As I said, racism is just one of the things Trump is about. The rest is likely lost on Eminem because he is a product of the same culture and he too is a white, heterosexual, macho, cisgender man. And the last part is the same unproductive mockery of Trump that we hear from liberals on a daily basis. *Yawn* Your mockery changes nothing.

The next lines are really a rehash of the election, Trump’s hypocrisy since then, and everything that has been in the news lately about the NFL and Trump’s negligence regarding Puerto Rico. To his retelling of the news, he adds more acknowledgment of racism:

From his endorsement of Bannon
Support for the Klansmen
Tiki torches in hand for the soldier that’s black
And comes home from Iraq
And is still told to go back to Africa
Fork and a dagger in this racist 94-year-old grandpa
Who keeps ignoring our past historical, deplorable factors
Now if you’re a black athlete, you’re a spoiled little brat for
Tryna use your platform or your stature
To try to give those a voice who don’t have one
He says, ‘You’re spittin’ in the face of vets who fought for us, you bastards!’
Unless you’re a POW who’s tortured and battered
‘Cause to him you’re zeros
‘Cause he don’t like his war heroes captured
That’s not disrespecting the military
F— that! This is for Colin, ball up a fist!

And it really is nothing more profound than acknowledgment. There is no call for anything to change in this either. Even his nod to Colin Kaepernick doesn’t include any specific mention of what his protest was about. He alludes to it, but this protest is about more than just giving a voice to marginalized people; it is about the people who continue to be murdered by the state.

And the next line is more of Eminem’s patriarchal rubbish:

And keep that s— balled like Donald the bitch!

Emasculating Trump—and using a term associated with women to do it—isn’t very productive. It’s just the same old toxic crap that leads to violence against cis women, trans and non-binary people, queer cis men, and all other men who don’t conform to some prescribed form of masculinity.

Finally, let’s look at the last few lines:

And any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his
I’m drawing in the sand a line: you’re either for or against
And if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split
On who you should stand beside, I’ll do it for you with this:
F— you!
The rest of America, stand up
We love our military, and we love our country
But we f—ing hate Trump

As I said already, he used this occasion to tell his Trump-supporting fans that he doesn’t want them. Did you know that Eminem is the top-selling hip-hop artist of all time? He can probably afford to lose some fans. But the last two lines really say it all for me. I repeat, this isn’t anti anything but anti-Trump. Eminem loves the imperialist U.S. military and the same white supremacist nation-state that he would like us to believe he was just critiquing. And he ends by confirming that this is indeed nothing more than an expression of dislike for Trump, the individual.

Hating Trump is not good enough. This was the height of performative politics. And I think it’s relevant that Eminem has an album coming out next month. Given all the accolades for this performance, I think Trump will be good for Eminem’s record sales.