Kanye West Understood the Assignment
He is one of the few Black persons who really understands that excessive victimhood is ridiculous, has never helped and must be stopped.
At the beginning of October, Paris Fashion Week is in full swing. A host of celebrities and models were there to attend the numerous fashion shows of the biggest fashion brands. And among the guests was the American rapper Kanye West — accompanied by the controversial African-American right-wing activist and political commentator Candace Owens.
On October 3rd, Owens posted a picture of herself and the rapper proudly wearing T-shirts with the slogan « White Lives Matter » written on them. In the moments following its publication, many people reacted by expressing their disgust, astonishment, anger and, for some, their gratitude and admiration. And following this, Kanye West reacted by posting an Instagram story that read : « Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it’s over. You’re welcome. »— and in another Instagram post, he once again defended his White Lives Matter t-shirt, explaining that, yes, those lives do matter.
Kanye West is described by many as a « political reactionary », someone who uses politics to create a sensation, create a phoney scandal and attract attention. The rapper’s many statements and behaviours towards the African-American community and politics leave much to be desired. In particular, I remember when, on October 11, 2018, he was invited to the White House by former President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and former Special Adviser Jared Kushner for lunch and to discuss « prison reform », the « unemployment rate » of African-Americans, and the violence in the rapper’s hometown of Chicago — proudly wearing a red MAGA cap, in the Oval Office, he gave a ten-minute speech praising the former President.
This event did not sit well with many people and many of his fans decided to turn their backs on him. And as a result of this — and many other politically motivated behaviours and statements — it became increasingly clear that Kanye West was on the right-wing of the political spectrum and, therefore, an avowed Republican. And, to top it all off, his announcement of a possible presidential bid, on July 4, 2020, did not fail to cause a scandal — some saw it as the end of democracy and the beginning of a catastrophic era (after Trump’s) in the United States.
His advocacy of the White Lives Matter movement — founded in 2015 as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement — is shocking. For many, it signals the death knell, indicating that the rapper is indeed « racist » towards Black people. Which is not true. At least, in my opinion.
Black people and victimhood : A deep, long love affair
Kanye West isn’t a racist, or he would have made that clear long ago. He is simply one of those Black people who don’t support the Black Lives Matter movement and slogan, and who’ve come to understand certain truths. Those Black people who do not endorse the BLM movement either believe that white lives matter just as much as black lives (« White Lives Matter »), or that all lives matter (« All Lives Matter »), regardless of one’s background, gender or skin colour.
I myself realized, after much reflection, that the Black Lives Matter movement was, in fact, a joke. Apart from the fact that its executives have embezzled millions of dollars from the movement’s fund and bought themselves several luxury properties in White residential areas instead of giving the money to poor African-American families and to the families of murder victims, Black Lives Matter is — ironically enough, when we think about it — in the vast majority of cases, about Black career criminals and, in fact, never had any purpose.
Why do « Black Lives Matter » ? For nothing. Today, the lives of Black people are not in danger, nor are they despised. Today, Black people are on an equal footing with White people. Today, Black people can be just as successful as White people — and everything is done to make them so — that many (major) American universities prioritize Black applicants over others — and by the way, if this isn’t (positive) discrimination, then I don’t know what is.
A Black person’s life, today, is no more important than that of another person of another skin colour. A Black person isn’t superior to a person of another ethnicity, but an equal. It’s up to each person to work their way up the ladder and have a good life later on. But if you prefer to constantly belittle and keep in mind that you are worthless and inferior compared to others, then that’s your choice — but then you shouldn’t complain that you are not successful.
Systemic racism no longer exists. Yes, I said that. Systemic racism no longer exists — and in the case of Europe (which concerns me personally), it never did. In the United States, systemic racism no longer exists. Black lives mattered then, during the Civil Rights Movement, during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, during the tragic murder of Emmett Till in 1955, during the Black Panther movement. Today, as an exception, the lives of Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain matter — two African Americans who weren’t career criminals, nor criminals at all, and never were. Today, Black lives matter as well as not. Today, after centuries of fight, we’ve (finally) reached the same level as White people. We have the same rights as them, the same opportunities, we are offered the same things as them.
But apparently, for some Black persons who insist on seeing racism everywhere, this is completely wrong. Constant victimhood is something that is very common among Black people — in the vast majority of cases, they insist on seeing racism everywhere, and as soon as someone (no matter what colour they are, but it’s even worse if they happen to be Black) has the misfortune to think differently from them, they are labelled as racist. Nothing more, nothing less. The excuse of (systemic) racism, slavery and colonisation is very, very often used by Black people to justify and/or excuse the bad behaviour of their fellow men and women.
When Martin Luther King asked that we all walk together hand in hand, Black, White, and otherwise, he never asked that Black people — for whom he fought and sought recognition of rights — see themselves as superior to others, to their other brothers and sisters, and even less that they excuse the crimes committed by Black criminals on the sole pretext that they too are Black, that they too are the descendants of centuries of suffering and that they therefore deserved clemency.
And of course, as a Black woman saying this, I would immediately be labelled as racist. That’s how it works, that’s how it has always worked, and that’s how it will work as long as a majority of Black people will remain in their “ideology” of “the Black man has always been a victim, he has always been a victim of racism, the racism he can perpetuate himself doesn’t exist and will never exist, and White people are oppressors”.
For a majority of Black people, a Black person who doesn’t think like them is White people’s whore, a “fake” Black person, a “White” person. For them, it’s a Black person who likes — or dislikes — their skin colour and the fact that they are Black, but who likes it just for White people. It’s a Black person who sells their ass to White people.
This means that for them, Kanye West, Candace Owens, and all those Black people who claim to be conservative and proud of it are White people’s whores and, therefore, have no dignity at all. Which is completely stupid, since it’s the opposite — but that’s for another topic. And for these people, Black people who speak this way are direct enemies of the Black cause, advocates of white supremacism, racists against Black people. Kanye West is seen and labelled as a « racist », his talent is criticized and he is belittled.
That’s how low the thinking level of these people is.
The “White Lives Matter” T-shirt : The real message behind the scandal
Kanye West isn’t racist. Kanye West isn’t saying that Black lives have never mattered and never will — Kanye West has simply understood the assignment, and has taken it upon himself to get the message out to the world. Kanye West is one of the few Black individuals who understands an important truth : constant, excessive victimhood is ridiculous, has never helped and must be stopped. Excessive victimhood will never get us anywhere, and it’s not how Black people will earn others’ respect.
Beware — the Civil Rights Movement and all the other movements that enabled Black people to make their voices heard and claim their rights are not victimhood. These noble causes have helped Blacks to emancipate themselves and, in the process, gain the respect of Whites, albeit with great difficulty. Black Lives Matter, on the other hand, does none of this. Black Lives Matter is a soulless joke, and has been from the start. It’s just a puppet, illegitimate movement, claiming to be the child of the Black Panther movement.
Civil Rights and Black Panther activists took the streets for our rights — not to defend and mourn the deaths of career criminals. Martin Luther King didn’t advocate Black supremacy, but equality with Whites.
Kanye West — and all self-proclaimed conservatives and/or Blacks who don’t embrace the culture of victimhood that many Black folks preach — isn’t racist. He simply understood that Black lives mattered as well as not mattering. He understood that Black people had to stop kneeling, that they had to embrace the truth, and stop staying in their stupidity.
He understood the assignment— something many refuse to do.
References :
- Twitter. American right-wing activist and political commentator Candace Owens and American rapper Kanye West proudly wearing « White Lives Matter » T-shirts during the Paris Fashion Week. Candace Owens. October 3rd, 2022.
- COMPLEX Magazine. Kanye West: ‘Everyone Knows That Black Lives Matter Was a Scam’ (UPDATE). Trace William Cowen. October 4, 2022.
- ABC News. Kanye West during the Trump meeting at White House: ‘If he don’t look good, we don’t look good’. Deena Zaru, Jordyn Phelps. October 11, 2018.
- Forbes. Kanye West Says He’s Done With Trump — Opens Up About White House Bid, Damaging Biden And Everything In Between. Randall Lane. July 8, 2020.
- Twitter. Kanye West and his ‘anti-blackness’. October 3rd, 2022.
- CNN. Black Lives Matter executive accused of ‘syphoning’ $10M from BLM donors, suit says. Michelle Watson. September 5, 2022.
- New York Magazine — Intelligencer. Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought a $6 Million House. Sean Campbell. April 4, 2022.
- Medium. May 25, 2022 : A Retrospective of George Floyd’s Death. Eden Bouvier. July 28, 2022.
- National Affairs. The Sad Irony of Affirmative Action. Gail Heriot. 2013.
