Since his now infamous Instagram post and tweets targeting Jews, reasonable people have condemned Kanye West’s clear antisemitism. Fellow antisemites have of course defended him.
Then there are those who somehow excuse his behavior or suggest Jews who took offense are being dishonest. People like conservative commentator Candace Owens.
Others have suggested it was just the rants of a mentally ill individual, and he meant nothing by his posts.
Regarding Owen’s theory that West may have felt slighted by the headlines calling him an antisemite following the Tucker Carlson interview, West had actually made more, unaired antisemitic comments in the interview – before the backlash.
The other footage that didn’t air specifically includes numerous asides about Jewish people.
—
In his interview with Carlson, Ye said that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, a “known eugenics,” as he put it, created Planned Parenthood with the KKK “to control the Jew population.”
“When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are,” Ye added. “This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief.”
The statement mashes up a few different claims. Sanger was indeed a racist and eugenicist, a stance the organization has since denounced; claims that Planned Parenthood exists to kill Black infants in the womb are common across several different conspiratorial spaces. Ye was also referring to the claim, unsupported by historical evidence, that Black people are the “real” Jewish race, which is often used to promote antisemitism. (The Southern Poverty Law Center has a broader explanation of this particular tangled claim, which is often, but not always, associated with the Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement that originated in the 19th century; some Black Hebrew Israelite sects believe that non-Black Jews are impostors or usurpers of “true” Jewish identity.)
These comments accord with the Farrakan-eque suggestion in his Tweet that Blacks are the Jews.
But there was more.
In another aside about Jews that didn’t make it to air, Ye used a strange metaphor when talking about Black people judging one another, telling Carlson, “Think about us judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something.” He paused. “I mean, that’s probably like a bad example and people are going to get mad at that shit.” A few moments later, he added, “I probably want to edit that out.”
And if that wasn’t enough:
At another point, when complaining that his children are going to a school that celebrates Kwanzaa, Ye added, “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.” (The belief that Jews control the financial system is one of the oldest and most deeply-rooted antisemitic claims. It’s unclear if that’s what he meant by “financial engineering,” a term generally associated with the creation of exotic financial instruments.)
Since then, West has been interviewed on the street about his comments. He has had time to reflect and even apologize for them. Elon Musk has, after all, claimed the rapper had taken things to heart after he had spoken with him about it.
But no. West has doubled down.
While I have no doubt there are wealthy Jews in Hollywood who do not act nicely or honestly, this is in spite of their Jewish identity, and not because of it. Generalizing about all Jewish people because you have been treated badly, or slighted, by some is antisemitic. I am sure Black people have been treated badly by non-Jewish people in Hollywood and elsewhere too – their religion does not come into it, nor should it. For instance, the head of the bank that just cancelled West is Greek Orthodox.
The fact West has been invoking the Farrakhan talking point of Blacks being the real Jews (Farrakhan actually says we are not really Jews at all) shows that his latest manifestation of antisemitism is probably deeper than him just lashing out because of Hollywood Jews, or being off his meds. He seems to have taken on Farrakhan’s theology, which colors the way he sees the Jewish people.
Update: JPMorgan Chase was reportedly ending its business relationship with West prior to his antisemitic comments.
