I start with an admission. I used to quite like Kanye West. His music provided part of the soundtrack to my teenage years. I even went to see him perform live once. A lot of his tracks are really quite good – some of them still feature on my running playlist, spurring me on to yet another disapprovingly average 5K time.
A shame, then, that West’s musical talents have now been overshadowed by his vile antisemitism. A series of comments spread over several years should leave us in no doubt: this rapper is one of the world’s most high-profile Jew haters. Just in case there was any lingering doubt, West himself confirmed it earlier this year, writing: “I am a Nazi” and “I love Hitler”.
Sadly, a rump of Jew haters, cranks and conspiracy theorists like West will always exist. What is more concerning in his case is how his antisemitism, his Nazi-supporting tirades have been given so much attention by an all too willing media, both old and new.
Let’s start with social media, where most of these venomous, vitriolic outbursts have been posted. The companies that continue to allow this self-declared Nazi a platform to disseminate his poison need to be brought to heel – by law, if they continue to refuse to get their houses in order. Freedom of expression is one thing, allowing somebody to promote Nazi ideology to tens of millions of followers is quite another.
Ben Kentish
After his initial anti-Jewish rant in 2022, West was banned from Twitter and Instagram. The suspension lasted a matter of weeks.
He was then banned a second time by Twitter (now X) after sharing swastika images. Again, he was soon reinstated. In Silicon Valley, it seems, spreading Nazi propaganda is deemed worthy of little more than a slap on the wrist.
As a result, West still has an enormous platform from which to spread his antisemitic poison whenever he sees fit. Across X and Instagram he has over 50 million followers – more than three times the number of Jews in the world. Even he appears somewhat surprised that he can still get away with it, recently making a point of thanking X owner Elon Musk for ”allowing me to vent”, which he said had been “very cathartic”. When self-declared Nazis are expressing their gratitude for allowing them the space to spew Nazi slurs, it is probably well past time to update your editorial policy.
But if social media has given West a platform for his antisemitic outbursts, traditional media has amplified them, acting as a megaphone for his Jew-baiting. Rather than dismissing his rants as the hate-filled ramblings of someone who is racist, mad, desperate for attention or quite possibly all of the above, the press dutifully reports whatever outrageous slurs he has come out with most recently. Is it in the public interest for us to hear in minute detail just how much this particular rapper hates Jews? Is he relevant enough, important enough, for his racist attacks on Jews to be repeated as often as they are? I’m not so sure.
When self-declared Nazis are expressing their gratitude for allowing them the space to spew Nazi slurs, it is probably well past time to update your editorial policy
Some go even further, actively providing West with another major platform on which to promote his beliefs. Back in 2022, for example, Piers Morgan – perhaps the most famous British journalist alive today – invited West on to his popular YouTube show to explain why he had vowed to “go death con 3 on Jewish people” and why he believed Jews had undue influence over the media and the music industry. West defended his posts, repeating the points he was making. The interview has currently been watched 10 million times.
After West’s most recent declaration of “love” for Hitler and his self-identification as a Nazi, Morgan’s team tried it again. This time, the rapper walked out after 19 minutes, triggering a flood of headlines for Morgan and his show.
Yes, interviewing a self-declared Hitler enthusiast might bring you attention. It might get you YouTube views that many other media outlets could only dream of. But antisemitism should not be exploited for the sake of publicity. Jew hatred is not a PR tool.
Racist rapper Kayne West. Probably.
Morgan and others who allow West to air his views in ever greater detail would no doubt say that these interviews provide a platform to challenge him and confront him. But this fuels the idea that Nazism is somehow a legitimate view, worthy of being engaged with, discussed and debated. Having a lengthy debate about whether Jews really do brutally exploit people in the media for their own financial gain normalises antisemitism. Yes, free speech is important. Controversial views should not silenced. But we have to draw the line somewhere – there has to be a collective agreement that some views are so abhorrent that those who spout them will not be actively engaged with and even encouraged to continue to do so. “I’m a Nazi” and “I love Hitler” surely meets the bar.
Antisemitism should not be exploited for the sake of publicity. Jew hatred is not a PR tool
What’s more, West is, in many ways, irrelevant – or at least he should be. He does not hold elected office. He has no actual power. His musical career peaked years ago. Since then, he has done little of any note apart from post offensive things. He is influential, yes, but only because of the platform he is constantly given. In short, West is not someone whose views we need to be endlessly heard, or scrutinised or debated. He is a no more than a washed up rapper who has a hatred of Jews and a penchant for the Nazis that should see him banished from public life for good. We would do well to treat him as we would any racist conspiracy theorist we might encounter online or in real life: ignore him, deny him the attention he craves and leave him to shout into the wind for as long as he likes.
That this hasn’t happened is perhaps partly a result of the wider way in which West’s obvious Jew hatred has been dismissed. There have been endless attempts to explain or even excuse his bile. “He’s obviously just mentally unwell”, many people say, or “Oh he’s just going through some sort of breakdown.” This is apologism, pure and simple. If someone states that they are a Nazi then we should treat them as a Nazi, rather than watch millions of people trying to find a way to let them off the hook. Plenty of us have struggled with our mental health without finding ourselves expressing our adoration for Hitler.
The vast majority of people suffering mental breakdowns do not proudly themselves to be Nazis. No mental health conditions I am aware of list antisemitism as a symptom. It is dangerous to try to dismiss West’s obvious Jew-hatred as simply a medical condition for which he should not be held responsible, rather than a deeply-held opinion that he very clearly holds.
The treatment of West is a case study in how Jew hatred can be normalised. Social media companies must stop giving him the platform to promote Nazism and more traditional media outlets must treat him with the contempt he deserves.
Antisemitism is not an illness or an affliction. It is an ideology. Those who promote it do need not to be listened to and engaged with, but scorned and shut down, denied the attention they demand.
That is true regardless of someone’s musical abilities or how many social media followers they have. Now, time to update my playlist.
