RACISM + MUSIC

Kanye West, one of the most famous producers in the music industry, decided to wear, promote, and sell "white lives matter" shirts during fashion week in Paris. In 2015, the Anti-Defamation League declared "white lives matter" hate speech since white supremacist organizations repeatedly used it to denounce the Black Lives Matter movement. So the irony shouldn't be lost on any of us that Kanye West transitioned from accusing George Bush of "not caring about Black people" to throwing shade on Harriet Tubman, claiming "slavery was a choice," and rocking a "White Lives Matter" shirt. It's as if the Kanye that once was is gone, and the one we have now is determined to spread white supremacist propaganda like a fashion statement.

Yet it seems like Kanye’s defenders are insisting that if we don't accept hate speech, we're trying to put a cage on Blackness or limit Kanye's uniqueness. It's as if Kanye West forgot that Hip-Hop was founded by five percenters who considered themselves poor righteous teachers, not Christian capitalists like himself. "Our people need some leaders and some positivity," the Poor, Righteous Teachers chanted in 1990. But Kanye has become self-centered, straying from the days of early Hip Hop, where conscious rappers gave a positive message to the Black community. Now that Kanye’s risen out of the financial hardship that defined his youth, he’s pretending as if racism no longer exists. But, Kanye thinking racism is irrelevant is like a man traveling around the world by sea and claiming that land is irrelevant.

Kanye West embraces individualism in a way predictable for Black conservatives. They always seem to think that Black people who live in low-income communities or face the brunt of racism are somehow guilty of bringing it upon themselves. But, let us remember most African nations embraced collectivism rather than individualism. So, the more rappers like Kanye West focus on their wealth and not the well-being of the community, the more they embrace white supremacist ideology. It's no wonder that Kanye West felt okay wearing a "white lives matter" shirt. He's so detached from the Black community that he's starting to see, Black people as the enemy and siding with racist White Americans.

Those critical of raw, unchecked capitalism have long warned about this fixation on individual success as the remedy for racism. For instance, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned in 1967 that "The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and the evils of racism." Months later, he doubled down, urging the community to "recognize that we can't solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism are all tied together… you can't really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation, and [we] must put [our] own house in order."

The problem with Kanye West is that his rhetoric is antithetical to the Civil Rights Movement. Wearing that "white lives matter" shirt was like a slap in the face of the Black people fighting for racial equity. And it's high time people stop blaming Kanye West's anti-Black messaging on mental illness. In LEVEL, I wrote, "For some, rationalizing Kanye's white supremacist talking points is easier than accepting that his worldview has shifted over time."

One thing’s for sure. We must take a stand against racist, white supremacist talking points wherever they pop up, no matter who is spreading them. Huey P. Newton once said, "The task is to transform society; only the people can do that — not heroes, not celebrities, not stars." Hopefully, our society can overcome its obsession with celebrities like Kanye and focus more on the experiences of everyday Black people. Currently, in America, "Every dollar of accumulated wealth that white families have, black families have just one cent," and Black people are nearly three times as likely to be killed by police compared to White people. Black lives should matter, but racist propaganda will always insist otherwise.

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