Michael Jefferson.
Allow me to apologize in advance for giving credence to this particular subject matter. Experience dictates it is unhealthy emotionally to allow oneself to become consumed by the words and drama of ignoramuses, haters, idiots, etc. Particularly the opportunistic ones who crave attention and joyfully bask in the glare of the light that sometimes accompanies it.
But there comes a point, not often, when even the most disciplined among us must abandon restraint and forsake sound customary habits. A clear and present danger cloaked in celebrity demands a response. Here is mine.
In the sphere of music Ye (formerly known as Kanye) West is a generational talent. I’ll give him that. He possesses a unique talent, a special gift. Something he was born to do. Success has provided him with a platform.
Sadly, he has chosen to use it as a springboard into the abyss.
His recent tirade against Jewish people is merely another example of Ye’s propensity for pseudo-intellectual rants, devoid of any meaningful purpose other than to feed an insatiable ego. What else can it be? Enlightenment?
Consider these enlightening quotes from Ye: “People write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books.” Here’s another, “I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.”
Here’s his take on rap music: ”I don’t even listen to rap. My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in.” He goes on. “I don’t like walking around with people thinking I’m doing uncool shit. Because there’s nothing I’m doing that’s uncool.” And recently he boasted, “I can say anti-Semitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?” He was dropped by Adidas.
In 2015 he said, “Racism is a dated concept.”
“It’s like a silly concept that people try to touch on to either … separate, to alienate, to pinpoint anything. It’s stupid,” he went on. “It’s like a bouncing ball in a room with two cats, or something, when you don’t feel like playing with a cat. Let them literally fight over the bouncing ball. And the bouncing ball has nothing, no purpose, anything other than that: It bounces. That’s racism. It’s not an actual thing that even means anything. … It’s something that was used to hold people back in the past … but now there’s been so many leaps and breaking of the rules that it’s like it’s played out like a style from the 1800s or something.”
Ye is quoted in 2018 as saying, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sound like a choice.” At the October 2022 Paris Fashion Week, Ye and several of his models donned “White Lives Matter” shirts. He also paraded right-wing pundit Candace Owens and Saleh Marley, daughter of R&B artist Lauryn Hill and grand-daughter of the legendary musician Bob Marley, on the catwalk dressed in the WLM shirt. In an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News fame Ye said, “I thought the shirt was a funny shirt. I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny.”
So there you have it. A self-proclaimed “proud” non-reader of books. A man who refers to racism as “dated” and boasts of his power to make anti-Semitic comments. A man who believes slavery was “a choice” and wearing a “White Lives Matter” T‑shirt in a very public forum is “funny.”
Why anyone believes Ye is worth defending is beyond me. The man is a fool, a dangerous one. He has entered a dark place and has aligned himself with legions of like-minded, soulless creatures hell-bent on fomenting hate and division.
Ye should have been stopped long ago. The delay in doing so is the fault of all people of good will.
This nation has now reached a precipice. The republic is faltering. America is in trouble. Clearly, this isn’t Ye’s fault; he’s merely a symptom of the internal rot that is quite visible to the keen observer. While we can’t remove Ye from the body politic or impound his twisted ideas, we can form an impregnable united front against those who wish to divide and conquer us. Time is of the essence. Winter is coming!