Ye and AntiSemitism: Play For Control Or Message Skewed By Ambiguity?

By now, we’ve all heard about the rapper/producer/fashion designer called Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, publicly sharing disparaging comments about Jewish people.

More specifically, Ye was sharing his personal account of his claimed unfair dealings with people of Jewish heritage in the music business. But is the artist actually targeting Jewish people, generally, or Jewish Hollywood music execs he’s encountered, specifically?

It seems that it’s the latter, clearly. His (now deleted) tweet about going “Death Con 3” on Jewish people sounds more ominous that it actually was. Clearly, what Ye had meant to write was “Def Con 3,” and not DEATH con 3.

If you don’t remember or weren’t yet alive, back in the 80s, there was a movie called WarGames (starring a Jewish actor named Matthew Broderick) that was wildly popular at the time. We were deep in the Cold War years, and nuclear conflict was in every American’s subconscious.

In the movie, Broderick’s lead character hacks into a mysterious Department of Defense AI supercomputer. The ensuing chaos resulted in the nation raising it’s Defense Condition, or DEFCON, in response to the weird phantom fighters that the AI machine was simulating. This is probably where most Americans have heard the terminology in use.

There are five defense conditions, with DEFCON1 being the most severe: It’s referred to as “cocked pistol” and means that nuclear war is imminent, or in progress. DEFCON3, called “roundhouse” is described as an “…increase in force readiness above that required for normal readiness.”

Was Ye trying to say that he is assuming a defensive posture against his Hollywood Jewish associates, men whom Ye claims “screwed” him in business dealings? This appears to be the case.

However, writing about Jews and death in the same cryptic tweet could easily seem like Ye is planning (or “merely” condoning) murder, or encouraging (inadvertently or otherwise) others to commit mass murder. For a group of people who were systematically genocided in Europe in the twentieth century, this comment rightfully raised concern amongst Jewish people and, really, most people.

When asked to explain this tweet in an interview with Pierce Morgan, Ye claimed that he owed no one any explanation for his words. However, the artist’s words were unclear and seemed threatening, so some explanation was in order. If one is going to make public statements that are ambiguous, one should do one’s best to explain away any confusion, if communicating is the goal.

So, did Ye mean that he is planning a genocide of Jewish people or looking forward to a modern-day pogrom? It’s hardly likely; it seems that his gaffe might have conveyed this sentiment, though it’s unlikely that this was his intended meaning.

Ye’s children, all born of Kim Kardashian – a Jewish woman – are also, by Jewish law, considered Jews.  No doubt the artist born as Kanye West is well aware of this. He also recently reiterated that he loves and respects Ms. Kardashian, as she is the mother of his children, all of whom he adores.

However, these comments could easily render his ex-wife and children’s lives more difficult in future, as anti-Semitism is real and alive, and kept thriving by hateful rhetoric. One should rightly wonder if this was ever Ye’s intended result, or in actuality the result of a lack of familiarity with the term DEFCON, simply.

Was this all a publicity stunt? Presently, many are participating in a “sneaker burn,” that is to say, Yeezy sneaker owners are lighting their kicks aflame. Is this akin to a “coin burn” in the crypto world, where the total supply of coins is reduced to raise the value of remaining coins? It is, indeed, possible. In the end, we may see his sneakers increase in value due to scarcity. Such a shrewd business move, however heartless! Was it all done at the cost of his ex-wife and children’s safety? That would be heinous.

Or, did the artist formerly known as Kanye West realize he could get out from his contractual obligations by writing outrageous and unclear tweets targeting a group of people he knew would respond with their own (justifiable) defensiveness? Is Ye trying to grab a bigger slice of the pie by going around his business partners, realizing his name alone could sell anything, and that they are now merely a hindrance? Are his business associates, then, failing to realize that they’ve taken the bait and done precisely what he had hoped? It is a distinct, however unlikely,  possibility. Ye is a master marketer, clearly. But would he stoop so low? Would such actions be in keeping with the person he has shown the world to be, or would such furtive motivations seem far out of character?

Either way, it’s now obvious that his focusing more on his business partners’ shared religion, rather than their alleged egregious action as individuals, has not helped his image in popular media or spread any coherent message. Perhaps it’s more true than false that Hollywood is a weird place, and that music executives (of all backgrounds) prey upon artists? It’s possible. Actually, quite likely.

Perhaps Ye was, in fact, attempting to focus our attention only on Hollywood executives claiming Jewish ethnicity he’s specifically dealt with and had bad experiences with. Alright; it is a distinct possibility considering his telling of his experiences dealing with music execs. This is also quite different than making blanket claims about requiring a defensive posture toward all “Jewish people.” (Does this defensive posture also apply to his children? Likely not…) However, because he focused on the executives’ shared background, and not the details of their alleged “crookedness,” the world now identified Ye as an anti-Semite.

Instead of bringing unfair contractual practices to light, and thereby helping other music artists avoid the traps he was snared by, Ye has only succeeded in turning off many people to his message. It’s about time that Ye explain this tweet and stop with what is either rampant trolling of the media and the American populace for monetary gain, or a genuine disdain for Jewish Hollywood executives based on his personal experiences that has spilled over and has taken on a hateful life of its own in his thinking.

Ye also claimed that he can’t be anti-Semitic because “Black people are also Jew,” to borrow from his own words. There’s no denying, however, that Ye was not, in fact, referencing Black (in his words, Jewish) people in his tweet (definitely not referring to himself, a person identifying as a Black Jew), but rather meant the more commonly socially accepted definition of Jewish, meaning people who either practice Judaism, or at the very least, carry Jewish surnames and have a family history of Jewish ancestry. More often than not, these are not people of color. And so, this was a disingenuous response by Ye, trolling the interviewer, as it were.

If we’re to be totally honest, Ye probably meant Jewish executives in Hollywood, none of whom are actually Black. And so, this defense is without merit. It matters little whether these executives are religious or secular in outlook; either way, Ye would have been better off writing that he was going to go “DEFCON3 on Hollywood music executives,” and left it at that.

Is it true that all Black people are descended from Jews? This is a theory put forward by the Black Hebrew Israelites  and other groups. It is certainly possible that some Black people are descendants of Jewish people sold into slavery, however, Africa is an immense continent with many distinct peoples, and the Jewish nation never numbered as high, in terms of population, as the total number of Black peoples in all of Africa. (I say peoples because Africa is HUGE, in terms of land mass, and there are several distinct peoples, including the !Kung San, the African Pygmies, and several others. At one time prejudiced 20th century researchers considered these groups as distinct “races.”)

The “curse of Ham,” as explained by Middle Age-era Christians, was the (racist) reason commonly expounded as to why Black people have darker skin, however, in the Biblical text, race or skin color is never mentioned alongside the curse of Ham. It was a complete fabrication, therefore. (That did not stop it from gaining traction, we should note!)

There are many theories that have been put forth about how Black people fit into the Biblical accounts, however, many seem fallacious, or at the very least, inaccurate.

Finally, we have to consider that Ye is an avowed Christian, and Christians are implored to consider Jews as equals, a people blessed by the Creator. In 1 Peter 2:9 ESV we find it written, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light…Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

Other scriptural passages suggest the same. In Genesis 12:3 ESV it is written, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And, the last Biblical quote detailing how Christians show consider Jews follows: In Romans 11:1 ESV we read, “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.”

In summary, it’s fair to say that Ye has been making statements that require clarification, absolutely. True; he does not owe anyone any explanation, as he emphatically stated. At the same time, he should realize that perhaps his statements are overbroad and did not quite hit the mark, and that, really, footnotes are a necessity at this time. And, so, perhaps his public explanation regarding these unclear writings should be shared, at the very least, for the benefit of his own children’s welfare, and for the benefit of a world confused by Ye’s lack of clarity.

After all, how would Ye live with himself knowing that he (unknowingly and unwittingly) contributed to making his kids’ future lives less safe from violence, hindering their hard-won equality and social acceptance as Jewish-Americans, all because he was unclear and then did not explain what he had originally meant?