Kanye West deserves far worse than losing his Adidas contract for his anti-Semitic words 

Earlier this month, Kanye West declared on Twitter that he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” What followed was an erratic series of anti-Semitic statements that emboldened neo-Nazis nationwide to freely and publicly project hatred toward Jewish people.

Unaired footage from West’s interview with Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson came to light in early October, revealing a slew of nonsensical and bizarre anti-Semitic comments made by the rapper. In response, West has been kicked off social media and dropped by his agency as well as fashion partners the Gap, Balenciaga and, after considerable public pressure, Adidas.

But the damage had already been done.

Last Saturday, demonstrators gave Nazi salutes and hung a large banner reading “Kanye is right about the Jews” on a Los Angeles freeway overpass. Anti-Semitic flyers distributed in the L.A. area spread more hateful lies, accusing Jewish Disney executives of “child grooming” and claiming that “every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish.”

Meanwhile, a number of Republican politicians have gleefully followed West’s lead. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a video from a prominent British anti-Semite claiming that “Zionist supremacists have schemed to promote immigration and miscegenation.”

Prominent party figureheads like former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have failed to denounce such anti-Semitism, and Jewish hatred has also been a significant part of the culture surrounding the QAnon conspiracy theory, which has become part of the Republican base. Last week, former President Donald Trump blamed American Jews for not fully supporting his policies on Israel, saying they need to “get their act together” before “it is too late!”

The Sacramento region has been haunted by periodic outbursts of the kind of anti-Semitism now being promoted on the national stage. Area Jews still remember the night in 1999 when white supremacists firebombed three Sacramento synagogues on the night of June 18, 1999. In Roseville last year, school board member Heidi Hall posted Facebook comments comparing COVID restrictions to the Holocaust.

UC Davis and its community have struggled for years with anti-Semitism. Most recently, in September, banners hung on a highway overpass on campus stated that the “Holocaust is anti-white lies” and “Communism is Jewish.” In the last month, swastikas have been found at both UC Davis and Sacramento State.

West’s anti-Semitism is significant and dangerous. Like Trump, he has a wider reach than most of the haters spreading anti-Jewish nonsense.

The rapper’s harmful outbursts and erratic behavior have been a problem with insufficient consequences for years.

“Before Kanye West was ‘the face of Anti-Semitism,’ he was one of the hip-hop faces of misogynoir, anti-Blackness, Trumpism, and slavery-denial,” journalist Ernest Owens wrote on Twitter. “And y’all still gave him contracts, documentaries, endorsements, clothing deals, and millions that became billions.”

In 2016, West revealed he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Since then, his fans have wrongly used that diagnosis to excuse many of his most dangerous remarks, including his claim that slavery was “a choice.” People who are bipolar are not inherently racist or anti-Semitic. West has chosen his beliefs, and he must be held responsible for the hate crimes his words have incited.

While elected leaders, corporate executives and school officials can denounce anti-Semitism and declare that hate has no home here, anti-Jewish ideology and white supremacy is right here in our backyards. It’s in our politics, on our campuses and on our social media pages. The Republican Party has an anti-Semitism problem, and Sacramento does, too.

There’s no easy way to eliminate the kind of hateful thinking that killed more than six million Jews during the Holocaust. But recognizing that it’s an ugly and pervasive problem that exists here is the first step.

Kanye West is a bigot whose anti-Semitism has put innocent people in danger. His comments can’t be excused, rationalized or tolerated. He deserves to lose all of his major sponsors and his lofty perch in American popular culture. He can either change course and atone for the harm he has caused or join a long list of anti-Semites in infamy.

This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 12:00 AM.