Kanye West’s celebrity gives his brazen antisemitism a more toxic power, reach, and urgency
There are many reasons to question Kanye West’s sincerity in his praise for Zionism. But West’s actions, as well as his pronouncements, make clear that he now wields a newfound, and more chilling, influence on the Jewish people and their future.
This year, we have our first and only glimpse of West’s antisemitism, as he was photographed and filmed with a group of activists who were involved in a Jewish defense campaign. As you’ll recall, in 2013, a similar photo of West shaking hands with a white supremacist in the same room and standing with a group of Zionist activists who were protesting a pro-Palestine rally had caused a firestorm of controversy. West had apologized, but the controversy only deepened, and it was only in the past few months that we finally heard his rationale for the photo, which he said was an accident, or an “incident.”
At the time, however, it was all still a bit too close to home for him to be completely sure of his actions. Now, it’s a much more open question.
In this clip from “Oscillatory,” West makes comments very much in line with his now-popular “revolution” and his other “revolutionary” rhetoric that we’ve come to know as his “black power” comments. We’ve seen this before. There have been plenty.
West continues:
These are all people that are really struggling, and these are very powerful people and black people that are the ones that are really doing the hard work, and we as America, we have to remember that no one in America is better than us. These are tough times, but I can’t think why we’re in this situation. When I came up with these thoughts, I never thought that America would be the way that it is today. I had a certain idea that the black man was going to get everything, and now it’s happening. All people have the same rights. The black man is getting everything and