ADL Blasts Kanye West Remarks
Image by Getty Images
By Anne Cohen December 2, 2013
Kanye West is in hot water with Abe Foxman.
The Anti-Defamation League’s national director issued a statement today denouncing the rapper’s comment over the weekend that : “Black People don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people.”
“If the comments are true as reported, this is classic anti-Semitism,” said Foxman. “There it goes again, the age-old canard that Jews are all-powerful and control the levers of power in government. As a celebrity with a wide following, Kanye West should know better. We hope that he will take responsibility for his words, understand why they are so offensive, and apologize to those he has offended.”
The full statement, made during an interview on New York City’s Hip Hop and R&B radio station Power 105.1 FM, and published in Haaretz on Friday, read: “Man, let me tell you about George Bush and oil money and Obama and no money. People want to say Obama can’t make these moves or he’s not executing. That’s because he ain’t got those connections. Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black people don’t have the same connection as oil people.”
This isn’t the first time Kim Kardashian’s hubby-to-be has made a controversial comparison. In August 2011, he was booed offstage in England after he compared himself to Hitler. “I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m (expletive) insane, like I’m Hitler,” West told the audience of 40,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
