Kanye West Takes Back ‘Ignorant Compliment’
Image by Getty Images
Kanye West told a Chicago radio station that he wants to take back the “ignorant compliment” he made about Jews.
The rapper referred to a comment he made last month during an interview on the New York City radio station WWPR-FM. In defending President Obama’s difficulty in passing his policies, West said, “Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people.”
“I thought that I was giving a compliment, but it came off more ignorant,” West said last week in an interview with the Chicago radio station B96. “When I said this comment about Jews having money, and blacks not having money, I think it was, like, a ‘ignorant compliment.’
“I don’t know how being told that you have money is, like, an insult,” he added.
The original comments had raised the ire of the Anti-Defamation League, while Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan defended West and said he should not apologize.
A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren
We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.
With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.
— Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief
