Okay, okay, let's talk about Kanye

A layered discussion of Kanye West's Antisemitism

In his 2019 keynote address at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference, Sacha Baron Cohen, said that we have “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach”. He was discussing how different forms of media provide a platform that has allowed Antisemitism to spread like wildfire and that, too often, we are confusing the freedom to express our thoughts with a right to share them with the masses. 

Last week, Kanye appeared at Paris Fashion Week alongside Candace Owens, both of them adorned in “White Lives Matter” t-shirts that Kanye is apparently selling. The slogan “White Lives Matter” is attributed to neo-Nazi groups who began using it as a way to push back against the statement and movement Black Lives Matter. Then, on October 6, Kanye was invited to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show. During their conversation, Kanye stated that Jared Kushner’s motivation behind brokering the Abraham Accords was making money. If this statement brings to mind the horrible images from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; don’t worry, you’re not alone. 

The next day, Kanye posted a screenshot of a text conversation he had with Sean Combs (Puff Daddy), during which Combs implored him to stop wearing and promoting the White Lives Matter shirt. Kanye responded to Combs by saying that he would use him as an example of how he was immune from Jewish influence. Following this series of posts, Kanye’s Instagram account was suspended. 

But amazingly, Kanye wasn’t done yet. Cut off from Instagram and the rest of the Meta suite of social media platforms, he took to Twitter for a final threat that he would go “death con 3” on the Jewish people. The tweet was taken down several hours later for violating Twitter’s community guidelines. 

There is a lot to unpack about the tweet. And I’m going to take the time to do so, because it’s more even Antisemitic than it seems.  

In a post-cofefe world, it feels safe to assume that “death con” refers to Defcon, which is the American scale of defence readiness. Defcon 3 is the state in which force readiness is increased above normal levels. 

The statement that he “can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew”[sic] is not a reference to the many, many Jews of colour. It is actually a reference to the Black Hebrew Israelites, an often violent fringe extremist group who have interpreted the King James Bible to come to the conclusion that Jewish people like me are imposters and that they are the real Jews. I am yet to see a clear answer on where they stand with regard to Ethiopian, Ugandan, and other Black Jews. The movement is deeply Antisemitic, and its members have been involved in multiple violent attacks against the Orthodox Jewish community, primarily in New York. 

The last part, calls on probably the best-known conspiracy theory about the Jewish people. The assertion that Jews have “toyed” with him and “black ball” anyone who opposes the Jewish agenda is a direct reference to the imaginary Jewish cabal controlling the world. Rather than going further into something that has been the subject of countless books, essays, and articles, I will just save you time and say: it does not and could not ever exist. We are not that organized. 

Why are we defending Kanye? 

Almost as soon as I caught wind of Kanye’s tweets I began seeing defences of them. This isn’t terribly surprising. The trend when it comes to Antisemitism, more often than not, seems to be finding ways to excuse behaviour or refer to it as “alleged”, even when it is accompanied with flashing lights and fireworks (think back to the initial statements about the Colleyville Hostage Crisis). 

So I have to ask: why are we defending Kanye? 

For as long as I can remember, Kanye has not exactly been a person meriting a lot of public affection. From rushing the stage to take Taylor’s Swift’s 2009 VMA away from her and say it should have gone to Beyoncé to his vocal support for the worst parts of Donald Trump’s platform, to now, the continued widespread support for him is something I struggle to understand. Why not just let him fade into obscurity?

The danger of platforming Antisemitism 

Kanye has more than 30 million Twitter followers. For reference, there are approximately 14.8 million Jews in the world. This means that Kanye, through his social media, was able to promote vicious Antisemitism to more than twice as many people as there are Jews on Earth. But not only did he have the opportunity to promote these statements on social media, but he also had the opportunity to do so on television. 

When Kanye appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show shortly after Paris Fashion Week, he had a platform to make comments heavily reliant on Antisemitic tropes to an average viewership of over 3 million people, not to mention the ways his segment can live on and be viewed repeatedly for years on end through online platforms.

That spewing Antisemitism online and on television is a problem goes without saying. As does the fact that statements like this vilify Jews and reduce their safety in the world. But it doesn’t end there.

Kanye is a person in a position of power, and there are likely individuals who follow his word as gospel. That means that when he makes statements like these, they don’t question the logic of the statement and simply say that if Kanye says that we need to be on alert for the ‘evil Jews’, then they will do so. This is not the only message it sends. There is a likely larger contingent who will view not only Kanye’s language, but more specifically the minimal ramifications he suffered for it - one removed tweet and a suspended Instagram account, and interpret that as permission to spew their own Antisemitism or maybe even engage in violence. The more that Kanye is provided with platforms to promote Antisemitism, the increasingly dangerous it is for the Jewish community. 

Calling it out when it’s convenient

Credit where credit is due…sort of. As stated above, Instagram did suspend Kanye’s account following the post about Sean Combs, and Twitter did remove the death con 3 tweet. Additionally, we have seen a spate of politicians, pundits, and famous individuals ranging from Ben Shapiro to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have tweeted calling Kanye out and condemning the Antisemitism in his tweet. 

As someone who spends so much time trying to get people to pay more attention to the rising tide of Antisemitism, what I’m going to say may come as a bit of a surprise. 

Kanye, without doubt, needed to be called out. Even if there are individuals and media outlets continuing to defend and diminish his behaviour, there has been a strong social current in favour of calling him out. His behaviour is blatant, and it preys on a type of Antisemitism that most people are pretty comfortable talking about and calling what it is. He didn’t make statements about Israel. He relied on tropes about Jews and Jewish power that go back to the days of Abraham in the land of Canaan. And he directly promoted violence against the Jewish community. 

Calling out Kanye in this moment carries almost no possibility of political blowback from the Left or the Right. It’s an opportunity to virtue signal. And there are many who seized on the politically convenient moment. We need to be wary of when individuals who have previously been silent, or worse complicit or active in propagating Antisemitism suddenly jump on the band wagon of condemning a singular individual when their actions make headlines. 

It is easy to stand with the Jewish community when it’s convenient to do so. Right now, is an easy moment to make a statement about the evils of Antisemitism and call out Kanye for what he said. We need to look past this particular instance and not allow it to became a bandwagon of absolution of past and future complicity in Antisemitism. 

When you see a politician or other public figure calling out Kanye, ask yourself where they were and what they were saying when the last war between Israel and Hamas resulted in marches and violence against Jewish living far outside of Israel. Ask yourself where they were when defending the Jewish community was less in vogue. This doesn’t mean that people can’t change. The goal of much of Jewish and Israel advocacy is to try and get them to change. But if the only step they appear to be taking is calling out Kanye and tomorrow they go back to referring to Jews in Israel as White Supremacist, settler colonialists, then they aren’t taking steps to change, they are just seizing a moment to try and win some brownie points. Some examples of individuals who have participated in this behaviour in the last week include AOC, Mark Ruffalo, and Bella Hadid. 

Mental Health

A significant portion of the defence for Kanye’s statements has come from those saying that they are the result of his mental health condition. Kanye has bipolar disorder, a diagnosis he received after a psychiatric hospitalization.

Bipolar is a serious mental health diagnosis, and not one that I look to make light of here. But it is also not an excuse for Antisemitism. There is a big difference between paranoia that is the result of bipolar and believing that Jews control the media and are out to get you to the extent that you need to be battle ready. They’re just not the same thing. 

But if this really is about Kanye’s mental health, and he really is in such a deteriorated state, then where is the accountability to Fox News? 

At present, there does not appear to be much we can do about what is posted on social media. What we are witnessing is actually a rare example of these companies enforcing their policies around hate speech and racism. But Fox News invited him to be on the Tucker Carlson show. And if his mental health has truly made him such a loose canon, then bringing him onto shows like Tucker Carlson is exploiting his mental health condition in the hopes that he will make good television. 

So if this is truly a mental health issue as some seem to be wanting to claim that it is - and to be clear, I fully believe that there can be both a genuine mental health crisis and deeply held Antisemitism happening simultaneously - then where are your hashtags calling out Fox News for exploiting Kanye’s mental health for viewership? 

How can we respond?

Shortly after Kanye’s death con 3 tweet went viral, the LA Holocaust Museum posted on their Instagram account that they have extended an invitation to Kanye to come to visit the museum and understand the impacts of Antisemitism. As pointed out by comedian Modi Rosenfeld, this is a pretty standard response to Antisemitism from a public figure. Holocaust education is very important, and statistics are increasingly pointing us toward the fact that students today know far too little about the Holocaust. But Holocaust education is not always the answer for how to respond to Antisemitism, and it certainly should not be the whole answer. In her book, People Love Dead Jews, Dara Horn talks about how focusing too much on Holocaust education can result in an inadequate understanding of the long history of Antisemitism that came before 1939 and the ways that it continues to be the most pervasive form of religious discrimination today. Holocaust education may be a good thing for Kanye. I could give him the benefit of the doubt that he truly doesn’t understand the implications of what he said. But I find that pretty hard to believe. 

A tour of a Holocaust museum does not equate to accountability for Antisemitism. We have seen time and again famous people lose opportunities as a result of their homophobic or racist speech and online activity. For better and worse, we have made a collective social commitment to hold them accountable in ways that hurt. And then it comes to the Jews. And suddenly, real, forceful accountability is nowhere to be found. 

Stop protecting and making excuses for Kanye. He promoted violent Antisemitism, and even if he agrees to go on a tour of a Holocaust museum, this should not be sufficient for us to let him back into our good graces. If the state of his mental health is truly so deteriorated that he believes Jews are after him, then he should not be appearing on television, and his social media accounts should be suspended, or control of them should be taken by his management until such time as things have been better regulated. 

Don’t let the other public figures and politicians use this as a moment to win some points by picking at the low-hanging fruit. That someone can call out Kanye after he said he will go death con 3 on the Jewish people does not make them an ally if they have failed to stand with the Jewish community in less popular instances, vilified Zionism, or engaged in other similar behaviour.