Celebrities under fire for anti-Semitic comments; Fans, social media respond to remarks

 In a matter of days, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has had his accounts on Instagram and Twitter suspended following a slew of anti-Semitic posts. The artist has a history of making controversial comments and society responds swiftly.

     The most recent comments were posted on Twitter late November. One of them included him saying, “when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE…The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semetic (SIC) because black people are actually Jew also… (SIC) You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball (SIC) anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

     Ye’s anti-Semitic beliefs seem to stem from his conspiracy theory that “Jewish media ” and “Zionists” are the cause of misdeeds against him. He believes “the Jewish community, especially in the music industry…they’ll take us and milk us till we die.” The rapper continues to take interviews bashing the Jewish community.

     In an interview with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation, he references the “Jewish underground media mafia” and claims that “every celebrity has Jewish people in their contract.” Ye continues by detailing how his life was “threatened” by his Jewish managers, lawyer, and accountant due to his political beliefs.

     Junior Roger Carey believes that Ye “wanted [this] to happen.” Carey finds the artists’ actions to be purposeful, opposing some peoples’ assertion that Ye is mentally unstable and in need of help. The student thinks Ye “knows what he’s doing.” 

     The artist recently posted a snippet of his upcoming song, “Someday We’ll All Be Free” on Instagram which seems to be about the incident. One line in the song says, “tweeted def con, now we past three” in reference to his comment on Twitter.

     According to Adidas, The comments have prompted the company to “terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products, and stop all payments to Ye and his companies.” The famous design company finds Ye’s “recent comments and actions [to be] unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous” which “violates the company’s values of diversity and inclusion.” Other companies have parted ways with the artist including Balenciaga, Gap, and his own talent agency, CAA (Creative Artists Agency).

     Professional Basketball player Kyrie Irving is also under fire for posting a link to an Anti-Semitic film on Twitter. According to the New York Times, Irving refused to apologize or acknowledge the controversy for a week, “prompting the Nets on November third to suspend him indefinitely.” The basketball player eventually apologized but this did not stop Nike from ending its relationship with the athlete.

     Many people, including the NBA commissioner Adam Silver, don’t believe Irving to be Anti-Semitic, but also don’t think it excuses “the damage caused by the posting of hateful content.”