Kanye is still a mess

OPINION: Kanye is back on social media, where he still has something dumb to say about Jewish people.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

I can’t with Kanye. The man can’t open his mouth without being offensive. Have you heard his latest one? On Instagram, he said, “Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump street made me like Jewish people again.” I want to facepalm so hard. Why couldn’t he have continued to remain silent? He does so well when he doesn’t talk. He just got finished ruining his gigantic Adidas deal, thus losing billionaire status, and he’s still like this? His antisemitism had real-world consequences for other people — the Anti-Defamation League counted “at least 30 antisemitic incidents that directly reference Ye.” Maybe Kanye has what my dad used to call foot-in-mouth disease. When you suffer from that, every time you open your mouth, you put your foot in it. 

There are so many things wrong with this little post of Kanye’s. It would be one thing if he said he watched “Schindler’s List” or “Triumph of the Spirit” or even “Jojo Rabbit,” and after one of those films took him deeper into Jewish culture or history than he had ever been, he would have gained a new perspective on what Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. But no, he’s saying he changed his mind because of a basic Hollywood bro comedy. That makes the whole sentiment feel flippant. He was exuberantly pro-Hitler just a few months ago, but watching Jonah Hill in a silly cop buddy flick has changed his mind about the entire community? What?

In the post, Kanye also said, “No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people.” True, but also duh. Kanye isn’t really doing that much better by letting one individual make him feel positive about a whole group. That’s problematic, too, yo.

When he says Jonah Hill made him like Jewish people, that’s not the compliment he thinks it is. You’re still judging the entire group because of one person. That dehumanizes the group. Imagine saying Kobe Bryant made me like Black people or Jackie Chan made me like Chinese people. He’s tying how he feels about the whole group of people to how he feels about one of them. Y’all are good people because Jonah Hill is funny. What? It’s a dumb way to look at the world. (Also, I’m sorry, was there one Jewish person who led to him hating Jews and loving Hitler? Wait, no, I retract the question. I don’t want to know the answer.)  

It seems like Kanye has bought into a “positive” stereotype about a group — Jews are funny! — which isn’t really better than buying into a negative stereotype. If a white person said he liked Black people because they are good dancers would that make you feel seen? Would that be empowering or would it be minimizing? Would you be proud to be lumped into a whole race full of good dancers? Not really. The supposedly positive stereotypes are dehumanizing an entire race of people just like the negative ones. 

This post from Kanye feels like he’s trying to say that he’s turning a corner — he’s finally decided that all Jewish people are A-OK. What? But then he finishes it with “No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew.” Oh, Black baby Jesus not this again. He’s still arguing the semantics of the word antisemitic? After blaring his antisemitism all over the place like it was part of his branding strategy? He said extraordinarily antisemitic things over and over like he was sending a message to his people. And they heard him. “Kanye was right” or “Ye is right” became an antisemitic rallying cry. Can you imagine your name becoming synonymous with anti-semitism and being a hero to white supremacists and neo-Nazis? And yet when a lunatic like Alex Jones tried to save him from himself, Kanye said no, “I like Hitler” as if he truly wanted the mantle of Hitler-lover. But he’s still arguing that he wasn’t antisemitic because… what? If you’re still making excuses for him — it’s mental health, it’s the hypocritical media, it’s… — then you’re part of the problem.

Kanye seems to have learned nothing from last year’s debacle. Michael Harriot says there are “7 kinds of Kanye,” and I know provoking people is part of his brand but this is way beyond provocation. He seems obsessed with offending people — not just Jews but Black people, too. He seems committed to being what the wrestling world would call a heel. This is from a 2017 essay about another heel, Donald Trump, called “The Art of the Heel”: 

The “heel,” in the argot of professional wrestling is, simply, the villain. The role of a heel is to get “heat,” which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred and generally involves cheating and pretty much any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior that will get the job done. The best heels, however, do not depend solely on “cheap heat,” such as insulting the crowd, often with racist or sexist taunts. There must be some art to it. 

Kanye wants to be hated. In a nation of trolling, he’s the king of the trolls. It gives him attention, and in the modern American attention economy, getting attention is everything. And Kanye, in his villain era, commands more attention than he did when he wasn’t being a provocateur. Heels are necessary to bring the audience in — everyone loves to hate a good villain. But heels are always hated. They can never be loved. And in the end, heels always lose.

Touré is a host and Creative Director at theGrio. He is the host of the podcast “Toure Show” and the podcast docuseries “Who Was Prince?” He is also the author of seven books including the Prince biography Nothing Compares 2 U and the ebook The Ivy League Counterfeiter. Look out for his upcoming podcast Being Black In the 80s.

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