Who Appointed Van Jones To Be Chief Ambassador Of The Black Delegation?

By Zack Lilly

Iā€˜m pretty sure there was a time when I used to likeĀ Van Jones. Iā€™m not sure when that was. It was definitely before he startedĀ urging Black peopleĀ to give Donald Trump his flowers because Trump ā€œdid good stuff for the Black community,ā€Ā even though he really didnā€™t. It was certainly before Jones blamed Black peopleā€™s ā€œlifestyle choicesā€ for why we were disproportionately vulnerable to COVID-19. I couldnā€™t have possibly liked Van at any time after heĀ attended CPAC and tap-dancedĀ to the tune of ā€œKumbaya, My White Nationalist Lord.ā€ It must have been well before Jones baby-sat former presidential senior advisor Jared KushnerĀ during an interviewĀ full of weak, softball questions as if Vanā€™s show was Fox News in CNN clothing. It was definitely before heĀ defended Melania Trump.

Or maybe Iā€™m wrong and I actually never liked Van Jones. Maybe I just dreamed that I liked him once. Either way, I donā€™t mess with him now, and I find myself wondering why he even thinks he is apologizing for antisemitism on behalf of Black people.

I just want to know who appointed ContemporaryĀ Aaron BurrĀ to the position of Chief Ambassador of the Black Delegation. Who fished this man out of the sunken place and told him he could be the senior cookout spokesman for the African American alliance? Who told the flip-flop king of slacktivism to stand before what was likely a largely white audience and declare on behalf of Black people that we apologize for being silent aboutĀ Kanye Westā€™s bigotryĀ against Jewish people, ignoring the barrage of Black media outlets and Black social media efforts that condemned Yeā€™s antisemitic antics?

Well, maybe Jones will pay closer attention now that Black Twitter has turned its sights on him because heā€™s revealed himself to have been out of touch with Black people for at least the better part of the last decade. (If he was ever really in touch.)

Just because there are Black people out there defending Ye and agreeing with his antisemitic nonsense doesnā€™t mean Van gets to go outside of the Black collective and treat us like a monolith that needs to be held accountable because he perceives us as ā€œsilentā€ when, really, he just hasnā€™t been paying attention.