Does Kanye West Hate Jews?

Photo of Kanye West at Campaign Rally. Credit: Nice4What

Kanye West has always been a complicated figure in the pop culture landscape. Early in his career, his outbursts were honest critiques of political figures that needed to be said. During an event like Hurricane Katrina, when black people were being gunned down for trying to get supplies because the government abandoned them, was saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” really that controversial? 

No. It was honest. 

Because of that honesty, despite the initial backlash it created, Kanye’s bravery was eventually celebrated by many. He became the de facto voice of the people among mainstream celebrities. People who never listened to “Through The Wire” were made aware of Kanye West for the first time and a new set of eyeballs that had little care for the world of Hip Hop got their first dose of the ‘Louis Vuitton Don.’ 

These days Kanye West is musically washed up. No amount of self-proclaimed “genius” he has will ever materialize into the classic records he used to put out that I begrudgingly still love. He wasn’t portraying himself to be a gangster, but a self-conscious art kid with little interest in conforming to the standards of the corporate world or college. He was kind of a bad ass back in those days. 

Modern Kanye is nothing more than a hack. Kanye’s music, which was honestly good in my opinion, has become less of a priority for him. Maintaining relevance at the expense of literally everything now appears to be his main goal. 

Beef and controversial statements have become Kanye West’s bread and butter in lieu of talent and creativity.

When Donald Trump announced he was running for President, he started his campaign with racist attacks against Mexican immigrants. The media rewarded him with constant news coverage. CNN, FOX News and MSNBC couldn’t go 5 minutes without a Trump story. Ever since then, Kanye has appeared to emulate this approach whenever he was about to release something. 

Beef and controversial statements have become Kanye West’s bread and butter in lieu of talent and creativity. When he’s not indirectly outing Drake for having a child, he’s posting personal screenshots between him and Kim Kardashian or he’s threatening to assault Pete Davidson in front of the entire world. 

His newest attempt for relevancy and clout is catering to the Republican Party. This isn’t a new strategy. Several artists have shilled for the Fox News audience in recent memory. Kid Rock used to be a white rapper with awkward cornrows; now he has confederate flags waving at his concerts and randomly rants about how much he hates Oprah. His newest single is just him regurgitating right wing talking points. It’s cringe. Kid Rock has always been cringe, but now he’s ultra cringe. 

Kanye West has some new clothes coming out and the clothes probably suck. Most of the fashion industry sucks and can be boiled down to rich people dressing like morons and spending too much to do so because legitimacy in the world of the wealthy is the assurance that the poor can’t participate. 

Modern Kanye is nothing more than a hack.

In order for Kanye West’s shitty clothes to be noticed he has to do something. So he printed shirts that say ‘White Lives Matter,’ a phrase that originated in white nationalist circles. 

He then starts attacking people and taunting Diddy to “do something illegal” to him and gets his account restricted. So instead of considering that he has violated community guidelines a billion times he remembered Mark Zuckerberg is Jewish and decided to go “Death Con 3,” on Jews.

Whatever the fuck that means. 

So does Kanye West Hate Jews? Probably not. He loves attention more than anything. And when he did this, what did we give him? An endless amount of coverage. Which is exactly what he wanted. If you want to hurt Kanye West, you have to stop talking about him. I know the rebuttal to that is going to be racism and antisemitism need to be directly confronted, but you’re not hurting him. You’re empowering him. Constant coverage of Trump, even if the majority of it was critical, made him President of the United States. Kanye understands this and until you just shrug and walk away, he’s going to continue.

If you keep going, Kanye might end up becoming president.

Is that what you want? If not, ignore him. Attention is the ultimate currency, and it’s time we froze his assets. 

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