Sophia Michaels
The fashion world turned its back on Kanye West last week. And now it’s Hollywood’s turn — and the rapper/provocateur has his series of anti-Semitic posts to blame.
Over the weekend, Kanye West had his Instagram restricted and a tweet taken down after he made anti-Semitic comments on both platforms. The messaging about Jewish people — paired with his claim that Black Lives Matter was a “scam” and his promotion of “White Lives Matter” shirts last week — is getting people like Jack Antonoff, Josh Gad, John Legend, and Jamie Lee Curtis to speak out against his hateful messaging.
It first started with some anti-Semitic texts purportedly to Diddy, who was calling out his controversial YZY line. Then, on Saturday, he tweeted: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” he wrote. “The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” (It took an hour for the post to be removed since the Tweet violated the “Twitter rules.”)
But (basically) everyone saw the tweet. And much of Hollywood was put off by the rapper’s dangerous messaging.
Put concisely by Taylor Swift’s producer and close friend Antonoff (we won’t go into the Kanye-Taylor feud here): “Kanye a little bitch.”
Meanwhile, Jamie Lee Curtis shared a screenshot of West’s tweet and referred to the fact that Yom Kippur was just a few days ago: “The holiest day in Judaism was last week. Words matter. A threat to Jewish people ended once in genocide. Your words hurt and incite violence. You are a father. Please stop.”
Curtis went on the Today Show Monday and called West’s posts “just abhorrent,” adding that she “burst into tears” seeing what West posted. “What are you doing?” she said. “It’s bad enough that fascism is on the rise… Haven’t Jewish people had it hard enough?”
Comedian Sarah Silverman questioned why there weren’t more people expressing outrage over West’s “threats” against Jews. “Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate?” she asked on Twitter. “The silence is so loud.”
And there was a tweet from fellow Grammy winner John Legend, who didn’t mince words when coming for West’s attack on Jews (and his recent White lives matter shirt): “Weird how all these ‘free, independent thinkers’ always land at the same old anti blackness and anti semitism.”
Michael Rapaport shared a video dragging West for his tweets, calling him a “dusty prick,” and referring to the fact that he had previously defended West in the past. (The drama back then was related to Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson.) “Take a shower,” Rapaport said in a video he shared on Twitter. “But this is unacceptable… You’re never gonna be president. You prick, you.”
Josh Gad — who previously spoke out against West’s support of Trump in 2020 — quote-tweeted a 2009 post from Pink calling him the “biggest piece of shit on earth.”
Gad wrote: “Thirteen years later, it’s aged like the finest of wines. Love you @pink,” he said.
In-between a two-part interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News on Friday, West began posting statements on Instagram appearing to blame the criticism of him on Jews. In a text exchange purportedly between West and Diddy, West said that he would “show the Jews that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
The American Jewish Committee issued a statement following the reported exchange between West and Diddy.
“Kanye West has had a streak of rants this week that is remarkable even by his standards,” the statement reads. “Ye needs to see that words matter, especially a vicious antisemitic comment that recently surfaced on social media. If he wants to have any credibility as a commentator on social issues, let alone as a musician, maybe he can start by figuring out how to make a point without fomenting hatred of Jews.”
