Half the time, Kanye West has no idea what he’s ranting, and the other half of the time, he’s making broad and sweeping statements that come across as idiotic and close-minded. Yes he’s an a**hole. In his latest rant, during an interview with Power 105.1, he made some comments that didn’t sit well with most people.
Kanye’s thoughts on politics or any topic other than his mindless fiancee famewhore, the “perfect bitch” Kim Kardashian, have never really been coherent, but it really gets out of hand in this interview when he says, “Man, let me tell you something about George Bush and oil money and Obama and no money. People want to say Obama can’t make these moves or he’s not executing. That’s because he ain’t got those connections … Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black people don’t have the same connections as oil people.”
Sure, some blogs are shockingly (and hopefully unintentionally) serving as apologists for Kanye – saying that what he said is not anti-Semitism, it’s just Kanye being Kanye. But that’s EXACTLY the kind of statement that is anti-Semitism and fosters anti-Jewish sentiment. Kanye clearly stated that Jews get treated better and have special power and that starts leading to rifts and hatred, an us versus them mentality.
This insidious and obviously false idea – that Jews have a special secret power that allows them to get ahead and control society and manipulate non-Jews – has been around for centuries. It has led to mass murder and genocide – it was also similar to some of what Hitler said and part of his rationale for attempting to exterminate the Jews. So I don’t care what Kanye was “thinking” and what he “really meant.” What matters is what he said. When Paula Deen used the N- word it didn’t matter how she meant it or the context in which it was used. She was slammed, banned and burned in the media and across the entertainment industry.
Now I’m not equating Kanye to Hitler by any means – but his comments were unequivocally anti-Semitic and he needs to take ownership of that and apologize publicly. He might not have meant to come off that way – because he is as dumb as a rock and doesn’t realize what he’s saying most of the time – and is incapable of clear communication in English all of the time. If he meant to say that political lobbies and the Congress in Washington, as well as power players in Hollywood are more likely to be Jews than African-Americans then that too is anti-Semitic and racist. It is racism plan and simple whenever someone attributes qualities to an identifiable group, stereotyped qualities especially, and speaks of those people as an identifiable group. It is called racial profiling.
The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that attempts to stop anti-Semitic behavior and speech, was as certain as I am that what Kanye said was anti-Semitic. A spokesman for the organization, Abraham Foxman, said about Kanye’s rant, “This is classic anti-Semitism. There it goes again, the age-old canard that Jews are all-powerful and control the levers of power in government. As a celebrity with a wide following, Kanye West should know better. We hope that he will take responsibility for his words, understand why they are so offensive, and apologize to those he has offended.”
What do you guys think? Was Kanye being merely ignorant and arrogant as usual or is he a genuinely racist anti-Semite? In either case he is a repulsive buffoon who needs to apologize and quickly. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.