We're sure Kanye West is busy thinking of his good explanation

In the aftermath of Katrina, Kanye West was brave enough to open his mouth when everyone else was keeping schtum on the big racial aspect to the crisis response.

This year, he might have been better off keeping his mouth shut. Apparently without thinking, he broke into an interview with Essence magazine about his, erm, admiration for multiracial women:

"If it wasn't for race mixing there'd be no video girls. Me and most of our friends like mutts a lot. Yeah, in the hood they call 'em mutts".

West's unacceptable use of "Mutts" - and the implication that they're on a par with non-pedigree dogs - hasn't gone down well with anyone. Afrobella calls him on it:

Wow, Kanye. You’re working overtime on setting us back.
There are so many elements to that statement that are problematic. First of all, the word “mutt” itself - not only are you referring to mixed-race people as dogs, but as interbred (and therefore undesirable) dogs.

I’m surprised Kanye didn’t just go for the bigot’s favorite term, “mud people.” I mean, if you’re going to play with racist terminology, you might as well use the term KKK members love to fling about on daytime talk shows.

And the Congress of Racial Equality were equally bothered by another aspect: did Kanye mean that multiracial women were better than black women? That to be worthy of a slot on a pop video, women had to be fairer skinned?

Although [Roy] Innis was struck by the reference to mixed-raced women as “mutts”, he was even more alarmed that Kanye’s statement might be an indication that Black America is slipping back into the self-contempt and self-hatred that he addressed in the l960’s and l970’s. This slide he attributes largely to rap and hip-hop cultures.

Kanye has taken great leaps across the year towards suggesting he might actually be a dick; it's starting to look like he's completed his journey.

music kanye west