On Saturday, Instagram restricted Kanye West‘s account after he posted a screenshot of an antisemitic message he sent fellow rapper Diddy. According to NPR, the message read, “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me. I told you this was war.” Although a Meta spokesperson declined to specify which particular post got Kanye restricted, all signs point to to the Diddy screenshot.
West responded to the restriction by heading back to Twitter, where he hadn’t posted since 2020, and immediately posting a now-deleted tweet that read:
I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda
He later followed up with, “Who you think created cancel culture?” The tweet presumably implies that Jewish people are censoring anyone who challenges a perceived Jewish “agenda.”
This isn’t Kanye’s first brush with antisemitism. In 2013, he claimed that Obama had trouble getting his legislation passed because “Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people … We ain’t Jewish. We don’t get family that got money like that.” More recently, West wore a T-shirt that read “White Lives Matter,” which is a popular white supremacist slogan.
Please, just stop
We could use this recent spate of antisemitic comments to talk about what a bad person Kanye West is, or speculate about his mental health. But let’s not! West, like other celebrities that have gone on antisemitic rants, are symptoms of a deeper problem. Antisemitism and other forms of bigotry have been on the rise for years, enabled by Trumpism and white supremacy. Even before that, though, antisemitism has always been prevalent in American culture, even if it’s not always immediately visible.
West’s recent comments aren’t a new development, for him or for other American antisemites. For every public comment, there are years of private conversations and a lifetime of indoctrination. West’s comments are just a reminder of the constant threat that Jews and other minorities face—not just of seeing cruel stereotypes being thrown around on social media, but of having someone go “death con 3” on us in real life.
(featured image: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
