Kanye West Controversy

Ye, formerly Kanye West, is a Chicago, Illinois native rapper, songwriter, producer, as well as fashion designer. He was born on June 8th, 1977, to Ray and Donda West. Throughout his musical career he has accumulated twenty-one Grammys, making him the most decorated hip hop artist in the world, as well as countless other prestigious awards totaling more than seven hundred ninety nominations and over two hundred fifty wins. More than two hundred of his songs have made it onto the Billboard Top 100. Kanye West has also helped produce over ten Billboard Top 10 songs and multiple number one albums with other artists. In November of 2013, he partnered with the clothing and shoe brand Adidas to launch his wildly successful “Yeezy” line of clothes and shoes.

But, as I am sure many of you have already heard, Kanye West has gotten himself in a lot of hot water as of late. Much of the controversy currently surrounding him stems from the things he posts on a popular social media platform, Twitter. Within the last few months Kanye has been pushing a narrative to his followers, and the public, that the media, banks, government etc. are being controlled behind the scenes by people of Jewish backgrounds. These comments were met with immediate backlash from the public. Many people called for his Twitter accounts to be terminated. Kanye West fought these requests by claiming he was only exercising his freedom of speech on the platform. With the ownership of Twitter recently being transferred from Jack Dorsey to multi-billionaire Elon Musk, freedom of expression and speech on the app has been a hotly debated topic. Kanye West only worsened the situation by later tweeting, “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.” Many of the people that disagreed with Kanye’s statements once again called for his account to be shut down. They claimed that he had threatened the Jewish people, which is not protected under the first amendment right to freedom of speech and expression.

 

It seems that Mr. West simply does not know when to stop, as he recently took things to a new level in an interview with Alex Jones on InfoWars. During this interview Kanye expressed his belief that all people should be valued and that he loves everyone. While this may seem like a step in the right direction following his many antisemitic comments, he followed up this statement by saying he loved all people including Nazis. Nazis, or the Nation Socialist German Worker’s Party, was the politcal party in control of Germany at the time of the Holocost. The holocost took place during World War II and saw the death of over six million jewish people all across war-torn Europe. In this interview Kanye tries to mitigate the severity of the atrocities committed by the Nazi soldiers and leaders. He continues to say that he even loves Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of German during World War II, often considered one of the worst people to ever walk the earth. As if this was not enough to ruin what was left of Kanye West’s reputation, he posted a picture of the Jewish star of David with a swastika, the symbol used by the Nazis during World War II, shortly after the interview ended. This was the final straw for many people, including the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk. Kanye West’s account was suspended early in the morning on Friday of last week. Elon Musk made a statement that his tweets had violated the platform's terms of service by inciting violence. 

 

 

https://www.ajc.org/news/5-of-kanye-wests-antisemitic-remarks-explained

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nazi-party

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Kanye_West

 

What do you think about the situation?

Do you think that his account should be banned?

What do you think is going through his head?

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Replies

  • As we have seen many times, social media is a platform where most anyone can say whatever they want. However, celebrities are often criticized most for what they say on popular platforms. Kanye West is not the first celebrity to be the spotlight of the public and he will not be the last. Unfortunately, Kanye's words on social media have obviously offended other users. While he may argue it is protected free speech, threats and other violence should not, and will not be tolerated on apps like Twitter. 

  • I think that Kanye West’s Twitter account should be suspended. I believe this because what he said was in fact freedom of speech although, I do not agree with anything that he said in any way it was freedom of speech. He is also clearly a huge influencer on this platform, so there could also be a possibility that he is doing this so that he can get more attention on social media elsewhere.

  • I personally think that he is out of his mind. He doesn't feel bad about making anti-Semitic comments and has openly threatened Jewish people. It is honestly disgusting what he is saying, especially his comments about the Holocaust. That was a very awful event in History. The fact that he is praising Hitler, is just awful. 

  • I think the things he is saying is a result of his bipolar syndrome, as well as the death of his mother and his divorce with his wife. Rather than deplatforming him we should look more into his mental health because he obviously needs help. I've always been a huge fan of his music and I hope he gets better.

    • I totally agree with you that his declining mental state caused by the death of his mother and his failed marriage, as well as his pre-exsisting mental health problems are all major contributors to the crazy things he has been saying as of late. 

  • I think his account should be suspended not banned because it is freedom of speech. I do not agree with him on what he said. I want to know why he praised the nazis and what was going through his head to say those things. I think that by suspending his account he will learn not to say those things. 

    • I completely agree with you that Kanye West's account should be suspended, but not banned permenantly. I too completely disagree with the comments he has made and wish we could understand why he thought it was a good idea for him to make these comments. 

  • I think it was very dumb what he did and I have no idea what gave him the idea to want to say those things about jewish people and praise nazis. I think his account should be suspended for a while but not banned. if he gets banned hes just gonna make another account which will grow as big as the one he has now. I honeslty have no idea what is going threw his head making him want to say these things.

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