Kanye Said What!?
Kanye Said What!?
A note on Kanye West's recent controversial remarks.
Kanye West––entertainer, Chicago native, and former billionaire according to Forbes––has been in the news lately as he’s made some bold and frankly weird public statements concerning Jewish people.
The month of October has been a crazy one for Ye due to his careless decision to make a series of statements on social media platforms like Twitter as well as in recorded interviews on podcasts and comedy shows.
In a tweet made on October 10th, he claimed he was going to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” in what appears to be a midnight, bipolar rant. Mental illness would certainly explain the musician and fashion designer’s public support for Republican politicians over the years, his attempt to run for president of the United States in 2020, his divorce and family turmoil, and his involvement in the white lives matter controversy amongst other things.
On a Drink Champs podcast episode that aired earlier this month, Kanye espoused conspiracy theories about attempts by Jewish businessmen to control certain industries. He even claimed that Jewish people “owned the black voice” and played a role in Black Americans’ sufferings––all while claiming to be Jewish himself. See what I mean about illness? At one point in the interview, he claimed that the whole of Jewish people came into their wealth after WWII when Jewish lawyers began to divorce people because Catholics refused to do so. Huh? To top it off, West repeatedly complained about “Jewish media” and its alignment with the “leftist agenda.” Sounds a lot like another sick person I know: fuc…I mean TUCK-er Carlson.
While Kanye’s display of unfounded anti-semitism is weird, divisive, and plain ignorant, there is a question all progressive people should be asking Jewish people and that is: when will the state of Israel be dissolved? According to an Orthodox Jewish group known as Neturei Karta, “Zionism has created rivers of blood...this is against the will of the Almighty and this is not what it means to be a Jew.” The founding of the state of Israel following WWII required the shedding of blood and forced removal of the region’s Muslim Palestinian population in the name of religion and politics. Today Palestinians continue to live in a state of apartheid under the hand of a people who claim to be holy. When will this end? Instead of using his platform to hurl baseless claims at Jewish businessmen, West should have been using it to call for the freedom of the Palestinian people and for the dismantling of the Israeli state which was founded through violence and is supported financially and politically by the United States. Every American interested in expanding human rights has the responsibility to condemn their government’s involvement in perpetuating oppression and virtually signing the death warrants of Palestinian men, women, and children.
