A Timeline of Kanye West’s Antisemitism
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The post A Timeline of Kanye West’s Antisemitism appeared first on Consequence.
Kanye West has gone off the rails once again. After publicly feuding with Gap and Adidas all summer over his dissatisfactory partnerships with the companies, he kicked off October by wearing a “White Lives Matter” sweater at a surprise Yeezy fashion show.
The message received strong pushback from many celebrities, including Diddy. West made their heated exchange public by posting screenshots of their texts on Instagram, including one message in which he implied Diddy is controlled by Jews.
His account was then restricted by Instagram, after which West jumped to Twitter for the first time in two years. Following an unrepentantly antisemitic tweet in which he threatened to go “death con 3” on Jewish people, he was also locked out from Twitter.
Just days later, it was revealed West made several disparaging comments about Jewish people during a sitdown with Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson that were edited out of the two-part interview that eventually aired.
This antisemitic behavior isn’t anything new for West. There are at least three other instances in the past when he has either put Hitler in a positive light or perpetuated negative stereotypes against Jewish people.
See a timeline of West’s troubling history of antisemitism below.
August 6th, 2011
Midway through his set at Big Chill Festival in England, West compared himself to Adolf Hitler, saying that he felt as hated as Nazi dictator. “I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m fucking insane, like I’m Hitler,” he said. “One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did.”
November 26th, 2013
During an interview on New York hip-hop station Power 105.1, West referred to the age-old stereotype that Jewish people control the government while explaining why then-President Barack Obama wasn’t able to enact policies.
“Man, let me tell you something about George Bush and oil money and Obama and no money,” he said. “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… We ain’t Jewish. We don’t get family that got money like that.”
The Anti-Defamation League later shared a statement explaining why West’s comments were so problematic. “There it goes again, the age-old canard that Jews are all-powerful and control the levers of power in government,” said the national director Abraham H. Foxman. “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.”
In December 2013, West told Chicago radio station B96 that his comments were taken the wrong way. “I thought I was giving a compliment, but if anything it came off more ignorant,” he admitted. “I don’t know how being told you have money is an insult.” He added that he would like to officially “take that statement away.”
May 1st, 2018
West allegedly said he “loved Hitler and the Nazis” during an infamous visit to TMZ when he also said “slavery was a choice,” according to media personality Van Lathan, who worked for the website at the time. Van Lathan spoke about the edited-out comments on his Higher Learning Podcast following the rapper’s recent string of antisemitic statements.
“I knew that [antisemitism] was in him because when he came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview,” Van Lathan recalled. “If you look at what I said at TMZ, it goes from me saying like, ‘Hey Kanye, there’s real-life, real-world implication to everything that you just said there.'”
He continued, “What I say after that — if I can remember, it’s been a long time — was, ’12 million people actually died because of Nazism and Hitler and all of that stuff,’ and then I move on to talk about what he said about slavery. The 12 million people part is not in there because they took it out, and the reason they took it out is because it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis, which he said when he was at TMZ. He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.'”
October 6th, 2022
While sitting down with Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson for a sprawling two-part interview, West made antisemitic comments later obtained by Vice’s Motherboard that were edited out before it aired.
At one point, West once again referred to the stereotype that Jewish people control financial systems while saying he would prefer his kids were taught about Hanukkah instead of Kwanzaa because “at least it will come with some financial engineering.”
He also referred to the belief that Black people are the true Jewish race, which is often used to promote antisemitism against non-Black Jews. “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,” West said. “This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief.”
West added that he thought Planned Parenthood was created in order to “control the Jew population.”
October 7th, 2022
After West wore the “White Lives Matter” sweater, the rapper was rebuked by many celebrities, including Diddy. West shared screenshots of a heated exchange between the two of them on Instagram. The conversation devolved into threats of physical violence and eventually led to him implying Diddy is controlled by Jews.
“This ain’t a game Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me I told you this was war Now gone get you some business,” West wrote in a since-deleted post.
Soon after, he was restricted from using Instagram.
October 8th, 2022
Kanye West, photo by MEGA/GC Images
Unable to use Instagram, West returned to Twitter for the first time in nearly two years to post a photo of him and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg along with the caption, “Look at this Mark — How you gone kick me off instagram.”
That evening, West responded to an article calling him antisemitic by going nuclear with a post that read: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
The post was removed and by Sunday morning, West was locked out of his account due to “violations of Twitter’s policies.”
October 12th, 2022
West told Page Six he was “happy” to have crossed the line into antisemitism after JPMorgan Chase cut ties with him for unspecified reasons.
“Hey, if you call somebody out for bad business, that means you’re being antisemitic,” he said. “I feel happy to have crossed the line of that idea so we can speak openly about things like getting canceled by a bank.”
October 16th, 2022
West doubled down on his antisemitic rhetoric during an appearance on Drink Champs. “Jewish people have owned the Black voice,” West said. “Either it’s through us wearing the Ralph Lauren shirt, or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney. I respect what the Jewish people have done, and how they brought their people together.”
West also lashed out against “Jewish Zionists” for “putting the crazy narrative out there” and “calling him an abuser.” Additionally, he recalled how Dov Charney, the Jewish founder of Los Angeles Apparel, encouraged him to visit the Holocaust Museum, to which West told him to visit Planned Parenthood, “our Holocaust Museum.”
And yet, West pushed back at the idea that was being antisemitic. Once again referencing the 12 lost tribes of Judah, West said, “We’re all semites, we’re Jews. So I can’t be anti-semite.”
A Timeline of Kanye West’s Antisemitism
Consequence Staff
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