Don’t feel sorry for Kanye West

Every time Kanye West does something stupid on Twitter or in real life, a slew of people come to his defence online, usually with a variation of the same phrase: “I feel sorry for Kanye, he’s not well.” Mental illness is an extremely important issue and it’s crucial that people seek help for it. At the same time, the majority of people who suffer from mental illness do not exhibit behaviour that is this hurtful to the public. While it’s not always possible for friends and family of mentally ill people to keep their loved ones in check, it is unfortunate that a family with such resources at their disposal aren’t doing a better job at protecting Kanye from himself.

Kanye West, in our opinion, is one of the most talented artists in history. His live show was one of our favourites of all time, and calling him a music (and even marketing) genius is not far-fetched at all. But a person’s statements and actions matter. You can’t simply excuse a musician’s irresponsible behaviour, which shows a complete lack of empathy to a number of marginalized communities, because you like their music.

Let’s put this another way: Could we legitimately use the same defence for Donald Trump? Trump does and says inexcusable shit every day, things that have prompted critics and opponents to repeatedly call for the 25th amendment (section 4) to be enacted. But not once have we read, “I feel sorry for Trump, he’s not well,” and understandably so.

Here are five instances where Kanye West displayed incredibly poor judgment:

Calling slavery a choice

On May 1, 2018, Kanye West was on TMZ live (in studio) and said that slavery sounded “like a choice” to him. For more details about slavery, please click here.

Running for President to steal votes away from Biden

Kanye announced that he would be running for president on July 4, 2020. It’s a right-wing talking point that Kanye running for President would take votes away from Trump and not Biden, but any thinking person knows that the vast majority of his votes would come from people who would normally vote for the Democratic party. There is of course a conspiracy theory that West has been recruited to split the Democratic vote, and while that sounds far-fetched to say the least, the end result is believable.

Insulting Harriet Tubman

At his campaign rally on Sunday, July 19, Kanye had this to say about Harriet Tubman: “Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, she just had the slaves go work for other white people.” Harriet Tubman is considered a hero for leading approximately 70 slaves to their freedom using the Underground Railroad. To say otherwise is extremely insulting to her legacy.

Letting himself be used by Donald Trump

West visited Trump on a number of occasions, both at Trump Tower in New York City back in Dec. 2016 (prior to Trump’s inauguration), and in the Oval Office, where their conversation was captured on video, with West wearing a MAGA hat. He has since denounced both Trump and the hat, but allying himself with the worst U.S. President in history is an epic gaffe. From Trump’s point of view, getting photo ops with West is little more than a celebrity edition of hiring Black actors to stand behind him at rallies and pretend to be his fans. Only 8 per cent of Black voters voted for Trump in 2016 and he is always eager to inflate his support with the Black community.

Defending Bill Cosby

On Feb. 9, 2016, Kanye tweeted “BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!” This was literally based on nothing. 50 women had already accused Bill Cosby at the time. And again last night, July 20, Kanye tweeted “NBC locked up Bill Cosby.” On Sept. 25, 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago. This was just one of the women who accused Bill Cosby of doing the same.

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