CNN
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Kanye West has had so many controversies that you may have forgotten some.
Since his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to his early embrace of ex president trump and his “Make America Great Again” agenda, the artist, designer and entrepreneur is perhaps best known for being a provocateur.
The latest calls to cancel West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, may be the most intense yet.
After he wore and featured “White Lives Matter” clothing (the phrase is classified by the Anti-Defamation League as a “hate slogan” used by white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan) at his recent paris fashion showthere were new protests against West.
“Kanye’s actions are so dangerous and irresponsible. I don’t care how good his music is, we need to stop supporting someone who uses his platform so irresponsibly,” TV host, teacher, and former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill. posted on social media.
Another lightning rod came earlier this week, when West’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were banned for violating policies following posts that were criticized as anti-Semitic. Days later, it was announced that her episode of the YouTube series “The Shop: Uninterrupted” He did not disclose because he used his appearance “to reiterate more hate speech and very ugly stereotypes.”
This has led some to suggest that West’s career has crashed and burned and there is no going back. But here’s why that’s not necessarily the case:
For all the talk of “cancel culture,” we now live in an era where bad behavior, especially by public figures, garners all the outrage—until it doesn’t.
Not only do we live in a society that moves pretty quickly from scandal to scandal, but racism and cruelty to others no longer live in the shadows.
So while many people have condemned West for his actions and comments, there are many who support both of them because they agree with him.
Then there is the fame factor.
Star power has only increased in recent years, especially as social media fosters a sense of intimacy between artists and their fans.
“West’s celebrity status has kept us watching and listening primarily because we are acutely aware that many others are also paying attention,” said Robin Givhan, the Washington Post’s general critic. recently wrote.
“And every time he says something indecipherable or cruel, we recoil as if we’re shocked again, as if it hadn’t been terrible before,” he continued. “We respond as if we believe that fame is a preventer of terrible behavior, that those who know they are being watched will try to be on their best behavior instead of using all that attention as an incentive to act badly.”
West has been very clear about his admiration for Trump, and the two men seem share an approach to communication.
West recently said in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he “started to really feel this need to express myself on another level when Trump was running for office and I liked him.”
West said he was warned not to support Trump and told Carlson that people told him “my career would be over, my life would be over.”
Instead, West gained new fans from some of the same people who also support the former president.
After the conservative author and ACT! for America founder Brigitte Gabriel tweeted her support for West, one of his followers answered, “I used to judge him quite harshly. I’m finding a new respect for him now.”
It has long been debated whether one can embrace art without supporting the artist. West has a history of coming out on the winning side of that question.
There were calls to boycott West in 2018 after comments he made about the history of slavery in the United States.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years,” West said during an interview with TMZ. “For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.
However, a month later, all seven tracks from his album “Ye” debuted on Billboard’s Top 40 chart.
There have been several other controversies since that hasn’t stopped West from achieving massive success with his Fashion lines and sneakers.
And while the West ended his relationship with Gap in September, and Adidas has put her association with him under reviewentered the public consciousness nearly two decades ago through music that people will probably keep coming back to.
The first words West utters on his first hit, “Through the Wire,” in retrospect, may have been prophetic: “They can’t stop me from rapping, can they?”