Saturday, September 04, 2010

Kanye West believes sorry is a dish best served ice cold

After nearly a year, Kanye West has sort-of apologised to Taylor Swift for behaving like a cock at the 2009 VMAs:

"I'm sorry, Taylor," he wrote. "We're both artists, and the media and managers are trying to get between us. She deserves the apology more than anyone. Thank you [Twitter co-founders] Biz Stone and Evan Williams for creating a platform where we can communicate directly."
Yes, that'd be why it had taken him the year to get round to saying sorry. Apparently, apart from Twitter, there's no way of having communicating directly with someone. If only the telephone, or email, or carrier pigeons had taken off, eh?

But this isn't really about Kanye feeling sorry - except, perhaps, for himself:
Kanye went on to say that the media vilified him. He alluded to his claim during a 2005 NBC telethon for Hurricane Katrina that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," as a point for which the media was looking to pay him back. He noted that in the VMA aftermath, the media played the race card and turned it into an angry black man versus innocent white girl issue.

"Even though the NBC telethon was widely praised y'all didn't think they was just gone let me get away with that did y'all???!!!" he questioned, rhetorically. "The media has successfully diminished the 'receptive' audience of... KANYE WEST. ...taking a 15 second blip the media have successfully painted the image of the 'ANGRY BLACK MAN.' The King Kong theory. With the help of strong will, a lack of empathy, a lil alcohol and extremely distasteful & bad timing ... I became George Bush over night."
With all due respect, Kanye, this is total pantwash. During the Katrina telethon, you said something needed to be said. It might have made others uncomfortable, but it doesn't make you wrong.

At the VMAs, on the other hand, you behaved like a boorish jock. It's not about race, although it is about gender. Whatever caused your little trot onto stage doesn't excuse it, and people call you out on it because you were wrong, not because you were black.

Yes, it can be argued you've played into a cultural stereotype by, erm, playing into a cultural stereotype. Do you think people should have looked away because of that? Are you saying you should be allowed to clamber onto the stage and honk away because to call you on it makes the complainant racist?

Frankly, trying to get a free pass on your drunken behaviour by waving the 'racism' card around makes you look an even bigger jerk than the original stage invasion did.

Perhaps there's a reason that your management try to stop you talking directly to people these days, Kanye.


1 comment:

Eddie Snivels said...

Aaaah, the Ali G defence. Genius.

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