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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Grow up, Mr. West

Kanye ‘Ye’ West’s antisemitic rampage has been swept under the rug and overlooked

Kanye West used to be one of my favorite musicians and personal role models. 

Now, I see him for what he is: a disgusting, antisemitic fool. 

Granted, I still listen to some of his music. But when I do, all I can hear are excerpts from his interviews with Alex Jones and Piers Morgan. I’m not saying you’re a bad person if you listen to Kanye West. There’s something to be said for separating the art from the artist. But if you agree with his statements about Jewish people, you too are a disgusting bigot. 

In his interview with Morgan, West repeatedly tries to justify his claims about Jewish people and doubles down on his prior antisemitic remarks. Morgan references a tweet West posted that said “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 on Jewish people.” 

“Defcon 3” is a military term for “defense readiness,” a reference to war. After Morgan asks West if he regretted tweeting that statement, for billions of influential fans to see, Kanye repeatedly replied with, “No, absolutely not.”

Various Kanye fans have recently commented on his Instagram, saying that the rapper has “opened their mind” and calling him some sort of secret genius for making these remarks about Jewish people. Many of these comments claim that West is “doing God’s work.” 

These revolting comments are a direct result of Kanye’s repeated, blatant manipulation of his immense Christian following. 

A common belief among Christians is that if one accepts the lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved. Since Kanye is a devout Christian, his religious fanbase looks past his tornado of hate.

In his last tweet before getting deplatformed on Twitter, Kanye posted a picture of the Star of David with a swastika worked into it. His caption for the post said “Well everyone, we had a nice run, Jesus is King.” 

Kanye tends to chalk his actions up to his faith in God, and his hate-inducing tweet with a swastika-involved Star of David followed with “Jesus is king” is no exception. 

In his interview with Morgan, Kanye responded to a question about whether he regrets his anti-semitic remarks by saying, “Nah, not really. Because the things I say are on behalf of God.” 

Perhaps the most blatant exposition of Kanye’s antisemitism was in an interview with Alex Jones where he claimed to “love a lot of things about Hitler.” He also claims that during World War II there were “a lot of good Nazis fighting for their country.”

Ever since, he’s been completely deplatformed on all social media outlets and dropped from his deal with Adidas. 

But West may be making a comeback. He’s reportedly been offered a BBC podcast as well as a documentary focused on his life. It’s also rumored that Adidas is in talks to re-associate and create a new contract with him. 

You’d think that Kanye would be labeled as an antisemite for the rest of his days after all of the hatred he’s spewed. But when you search his name on Google, you’ll only find articles about how the demand for Yeezy Boosts has skyrocketed since his so-called deplatforming. 

It amazes me how someone with such a powerful influence could openly spread violence and hate, especially in 2023. 

As a Jew, hearing these words come from a celebrity, an influencer, with billions of fans makes my stomach churn. The fact that his fans are mindlessly praising his incitement of hate lowers my faith in humanity. 

He’s manipulated millions of people and scapegoated millions more. Kanye is living up to many of Hitler’s qualities, qualities he’s claimed to love. That alone should be enough to remove him from public life. 

Dylan Greco is the opinion editor and can be reached at dylan.greco@ubspectrum.com

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