As a lifelong Kanye West fan, it pains me to see his recent outbursts. Now, you might ask, which one? In the last couple of years, Kanye has made headlines from rants on slavery, meetings in the White House with former President Trump to violent imagery of his ex-wife’s boyfriend Pete Davidson. I supported him throughout all these media frenzies. Okay, maybe supported isn’t the right word, but I continued to jam out to his music and rock shoes from his Yeezy brand.
Mr. West is undoubtedly an otherworldly talent drenched in charisma. He has always been brash and outspoken. These are the types of qualities that have made fans, such as myself, fall in love with him. Record-breaking albums and a whole new spin on fashion made him a role model in my teenage years. But as I age, and Kanye’s charisma grows more and more impudent, I can only reminisce.
Kanye has continuously been one to push boundaries. His downward spiral that has eaten up headlines and consumed social media platforms is pushed only by increasingly damaging rhetoric. He recently was removed from Instagram for posting unhinged content. Kanye decided to hop over to another popular platform — Twitter, which has been under the magnifying glass for social media free speech. Elon Musk, a potential buyer of Twitter and free speech supporter, put out a special message for Kanye, Tweeting “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!” Kanye was removed from Twitter two days later after Tweeting that he was going to go, “…death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”, as well as a series of other harmful Tweets towards Jews.
Coming from Jewish heritage and having recently celebrated Yom Kippur, our most holy of holidays, it was disturbing to see one of my favorite artists spread anti-semitic language. It irked me in the pit of my stomach and left me wondering how many more of these outbursts I could take. Should I donate my shoes and delete his music from my library? I don’t know if I could do life without “The College Dropout.” For now, the music stays. But wow, Kanye is walking a tightrope and somehow still surviving, perhaps because of people still attached to nostalgia like myself. Maybe it’s time to reconsider.
