Kanye West’s Antisemitism
Whether you’re a fan of him or not, you’re definitely familiar with some of the scandals West has gotten into. Much of the time, his fans still forgive and defend him. But it seems that he has gone too far this time, and people aren’t really making excuses anymore.
On Saturday, he tweeted, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on Jewish people,” continuing to say, “the funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also you guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone who opposes your agenda.” His Twitter account has been suspended for hateful conduct, which goes against the platforms’ guidelines. His Instagram account has also been locked for the same reason.
All of this is occurring just over a week since his ‘White Lives Matter’ shirts at Paris Fashion Week. The rapper spoke up about his shirt on FOX News, saying that, “my dad is an educated ex-Black Panther, and he put a text to me today saying, “white lives matter hahah.” And I said, I thought the shirt was a funny shirt; I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny. And I said, ‘Dad, why did you think it was funny?’ He said, ‘just a Black man stating the obvious.’”
He also said that the shirt was a setup. It appears that many of Ye’s messes are just that; setups, bait to get people talking about him. Many people also attribute it to his bipolar disorder (which he has refused help for). Some fans believe that since the death of his mother, in 2007, his mind hasn’t been the same, and pity him instead of holding him accountable.
While it is safe to say that Ye has had some tough times, an explanation is not an excuse. It seems that he has gradually stepped from stirring the pot with drauma to spreading truly harmful rhetoric.
For some perspective on his antisemitism, there are about 14 million Jewish people in the world, making up .2% of the population. Kanye West has 31.4 million Twitter followers, meaning that in terms of numbers, he has a bigger influence than the collective Jewish population.
It goes without saying that some of the things he has said and done recently may seriously influence young people or people who are already extremists. Most people are just disgusted with him, which is more than a reasonable reaction.
Based on the broken words in his Tweets, he may not be in a good headspace. Which he deserves help for, and there’s not much of a debate that it would be good for him to establish a professional mental health team. But, being unstable does not excuse discrimination. Ye has never been one to apologize, even when he’s in the wrong, but one can only hope that he’ll regret his anti semitism.
