Going Death Con 3

 

Defcon 3: Force readiness increased above normal levels.

On the evening of October 8th, before heading off to bed, Kanye West unleashed a tweet that redefined his career. The day before, unbeknownst to many, he also inferred that Puffy Daddy was controlled by Jews on Instagram, which saw his dormant account (as West had not used this for two years) locked by the administration team. From here, Kanye started his own war path against the very villains that he created in his own head. His own misdemeanours, personal demons and arrogance led him to the conclusion that, instead of taking responsibility for one's actions, it is far better to blame it on a minority that the majority of which in that population has no considerable power, but he could blame effectively as it seemed plausible: the Jews.

This hasn't been Kanye's first flirtation with antisemitic activities online. In November 2013, West believed that President Obama had difficulties pushing legislation through Congress because as a black man, the President of the United States didn't 'have the same connections as Jewish people...We ain't Jewish. We don't get family that got money like that.' (sic) He followed this up in the December by calling his tirade a 'compliment' to Jewish Americans and that he never understood 'being told that you have money' would be considered insulting. West is a complex figure, and there's no denying the sheer arrogance and brashness that has made him one of the most successful musicians of all time. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, as part of a promotional video to help the victims of the disaster, West declared that 'George Bush doesn't care about black people'. Fast forward to 2009, West at the MTV Video Music Awards, storms on stage to take a prize away from Taylor Swift and declare that 'Beyoncé had one of the best music videos of all time', much to Bee's embarrassment. West has argued many times that awards have been rigged against him in favour of other artists and that he is 'the greatest of all time'. South Park famously parodied an oblivious West on an ego trip when he couldn't understand the 'fish sticks' joke. Most baffling of all was his assertion that 'slavery was a choice' in regards to the capturing, raping and torture of African people when brought to work on plantation fields in the United States. However, like Teflon, not much manages to stick to Ye. 

Kanye West, like many polarising figures, should be treated like a science experiment. West is not going to be a revolutionary like Mao or Castro, but rather a specimen of his own time. It is fascinating to see his journey from claiming that President Bush did not care about black people in 2005 to then being openly endorsed and endorsing President Trump from 2016. What has categorised Kanye West's evolution, so to speak, is the polarisation between white nationalism and black supremacy in an era of ever changing politics. Both have now come to the spotlight over the past decade or so as both movements have gained significant traction. White nationalists have become emboldened, whether intentionally or not, by the rise of Donald Trump, and black supremacists have taken a grip of the American political left in the wake of Black Lives Matter. In fact, what makes Kanye fascinating (for lack of a better word) is that he seemingly unites both, despite some in both camps rejecting him all together. What do I mean by this? We have to then analyse his infamous 'White Lives Matter' moment in early October 2022, where along with polarising figure Candace Owens, Ye launches a line of sweaters where black models wear symbols that white nationalists say is fine and black nationalists decry. Days later, he says he is going 'death con 3' (sic) on the Jews as the ADL had denounced the phrase 'White Lives Matter' as a white nationalist slur. This, rather ironically, only gained the support of black nationalists/supremacists for Kanye. White nationalists too loved the use of the phrase 'going death con 3'. Twitter locked Kanye's account. They gave white and black nationalists the ultimate fuel to the proverbial fire: that the Jews are controlling our freedoms and are trying to censor extreme positions and opinions.

The snowball festered in several interviews with Tucker Carlson and Drink Champs, in which Kanye went unchallenged on his many views, including his declaration of love for Hitler and Nazis in general, that he was being targeted by the 'Zionist Jews' and the 'Jewish media'. LeBron James wouldn't allow him to continue going on his tirade of vitriol, stopping the airing of his The Shop talk show featuring West. White nationalist group the 'Goyim Defence League' protested in favour of Kanye, placing a banner that said 'Kanye is right about the Jews', giving Nazi salutes. Adidas, a brand ironically founded by Nazis, dropped the Yeezy brand in wake of all this. Social media users, known for their virtue signalling and want for a world founded on social justice, did not do their job effectively in holding Ye to account. Instead, it turned against the Jews once more with even more ire than before.

Kanye sees himself as a Christ-like figure, put on this Earth to rid the world of sin and cleanse the unclean. He depicts himself on the cross being crucified by the 'unbelievers' or giving a Sermon on the Mound to those who want to be righteous. Kyrie Irving, a basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets, also had a few things to say on the matter also. As a Black Hebrew Israelite, Irving holds the belief (much like Kanye) that black people are the actual Jews and that all other Jews are fake, imitators or are infidels (in polarisation to Ye's original belief in 2013 that black people could not be Jews as they did not have the financial power). Irving tweeted out a link to a movie called Hebrews To Negroes: Wake Up, Black America - a film (and yes, I say film rather than documentary) that explicitly denies the Holocaust, shows admiration for Henry Ford and Adolf Hitler, claims that Jews worship Satan and that Jews are solely responsible for the Atlantic Slave Trade and the control of the media.

Once again, much like West, Irving has bridged the gap between white and black supremacists alike, as they have a common enemy. Much like David Duke and other white supremacists, Irving and West cement the misnomer that Jews are of Khazarian or Turkic descent and not that of Semitic descent, whilst black people of African descent are, despite many ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences that  actually negates this argument. More so, Doron Behar's 2010 study concluded that an Ashkenazi line of Jews have no relation at all genetically to that of the Central Asian regions, and that more than 50% of all Ashkenazi Jews can find their relationships biologically, linguistically and culturally closer to that of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. The only conclusive report that gives the mostly unfounded Khazar theory some legs was Eran Elhaik's evidence of some Caucasians converting to Judaism along the Silk Road, though that it is likely that such conversion happened prior to a number of Jews settling in the Khazarian region. Most Jewish genetics still point to origins in the Middle East, specifically the Levant. So, even with this, there isn't enough to support a theory that all Ashkenazis came from this region. Black Hebrew Israelites, however, still maintain that Jews today are not the real Jews - that black people are the real Jews. And yet, it wasn't the Black Hebrew Israelites that suffered at the hands of the Nazis, was it?

Fast forward to the 12th of November. The Kanye-Kyrie affair has started to die down a bit, but antisemitism from white and black supremacists has not. In fact, it has ramped up. Below are just a few examples that have met with, not only hundreds or thousands of retweets, but also very little to no challenge either.

This is just a small section, but we can see white supremacists and black supremacists agreeing that the biggest problem for them, and the cause of all their own failures in life, is ultimately down to about 2% of the entire United States population. Some of these people over the last two years would have espoused beliefs that due to their skin colour, society mistreats them or is ultimately against them, and would want supposed people with 'institutional power' to support them in their struggle, or to call out instances of racism. Instead of taking personal responsibility for their own misdemeanours, it is easy to just blame it on a people who have been taking the blame for millennia, just like how a certain billionaire rapper has done. 

The reason why we fast forward to the 12th of November was because of Saturday Night Live, which has been a dead horse being flogged for a while now, but has gained minor traction recently because of the appearance of Dave Chapelle. Unlike Kanye and Kyrie, I don't consider Chapelle to be a supremacist of any kind. He is a comedian that I deeply respect and admire for his no-nonsense, brash and often crude take on topics that have been worth defending in the past. During his skit, he ripped Kanye West apart when it came to the representation of Jewish people, and went on to talk a lot about Ye's demeanour and being dropped by Adidas. It was mostly harmless, though there were a few objectional moments during this. First, Chapelle went onto say that 'you can't talk about (((them)))' (I use the parenthesis ironically, by the way) in way that you couldn't speak about blacks or Italians. The second was that 'Jews have been through terrible things, but you can't blame that on Black America'. This is true, and I completely agree, however, it is a baseless assertion. I couldn't find a single instance online or in any history book (I have had a lot of time since being ill) where a Jew blamed the misfortunes of our people on black Americans. What is also true is that black Americans have been through some awful experiences, and yet, black supremacists blame it on the Jews constantly. The film that Irving promoted did just that. Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam do this constantly. Black Lives Matter and the Women's March did it. White supremacists do it. Are we noticing a pattern here? Yes, there has been some iota of sensationalism and hyperbole regarding Dave Chapelle's routine in particular, and that I can agree is ridiculous. That said, what is it about (((them))) that you supposedly can't say? Is it the fear of social repercussions or a fear of legal consequences, because you do not have to be fearful of the second part of that. The Nation of Islam, I am reminded, has existed for 92 years, without members being arrested for wishing death upon the Jews or inciting violence against them. Farrakhan has been particularly shrewd about this, as he knows targeted language that incites violence would land him in prison, so simply states that Judaism is a 'gutter religion', that Jews are 'termites' and Jews worship Satan. The Jersey City shooters were both active supporters of both the Black Hebrew Israelites and Farrakhan, which is often forgotten about in the struggle against racial activity, inspired heavily by these two factions of black nationalism. Now, how would the Black Hebrew Israelites react to that, knowing that a prominent black nationalist and separatist is demonising not only their religion, but them also as people and two shooters were inspired by the BHI movement to want to kill fellow Jews? Especially if they believe that they are the true Jews and we Ashkenazis are nothing more than falsehoods.

Speaking of which, two other prominent extremists that can't be left out are Anna Rajagopal and Jackie Walker, both of whom have used Judaism, weaponised racial divisions and used their own self identity as women of colour to deflect from criticism on their positions. Anna believes that Black and Brown Jews (which do exist, by the way) are somehow superior to the 'default' Ashkenazis, who have never claimed to be the 'default', nor have espoused views that otherwise make sure that they are 'superior' in any way. Anna, much like Kyrie, believes that Ashkenazi Jews like myself, who have lived, breathed and studied Judaism to the point where we can make a Matzo ball blind, are simply reduced to 'white' status, and that is what makes us beneath her.

  

And, of course, calling out West's outbursts online is 'anti-Black':

Jackie Walker also falls into this, using her status as a woman of colour to deflect from criticism, which her band of sycophantic fans eat up and wash down with their soya-based lattes. I object to Jackie Walker using her Jewish and black identity as a way to not only deflect from criticism of her positions, but also to weaponise mainstream Jewish identity against a, shall we say, nouveau riche style of Jewish identity politics that is disconnected from traditionalism, conservative principles that many Jews live by. I say this because she openly defended former BBC journalist Tala Halawa from being sacked from her position after she had tweeted this:

For a Jew, Jackie Walker has not done much for the Jewish community. Immediately, this should be met with condemnation from Jew or Gentile. Instead, when Halawa had been fired, Jackie Walker came back with this:

This, and Walker's belief that Jews were chef financers of the Slave Trade are also baffling. Seymour Drescher concluded that whilst there were Jewish slave owners, this was mostly minimal, and the vast majority who owned ships and plantations that were used in the enslavement of African people, were in fact Christian. It seems that, for many conspiracy theorists, it's easier to find a slightly Hebrew or Yiddish sounding name and connect it to institutions that would seem plausible to be run by Jews (see the Nation of Islam's Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews or The Protocols of the Elders of Zion). One of the main criticisms coming out from these radical factions is that Jews control finances, the media and governments of the world. In fact, most of the financial institutions, television networks and media outlets of the world are actually Irish owned. Now, there isn't a great Irish conspiracy theory that states that the Irish are planning world dominance. There isn't a scope from the far-right that states that the Irish are replacing white Americans with ethnic minorities. There isn't an idea that you can never make jokes about the Irish for fear of being cancelled. Wonder why this might be? Because it would sound ridiculous in theory and practise. The vast majority of Irish Americans are like Jewish Americans: hold no institutional power, are under the thumb of big government and are facing difficult decisions in the wake of rising prices. Walker's conspiracy theories with nothing to back up her claims is strange, and feeds into the same theories that Kanye, Kyrie, the KKK, white supremacists, MAGA fanatics, Anna Rajagopal, the Nation of Islam and Black Hebrew Israelites have been espousing for decades - that somehow, somewhere, in some dimension beyond our reality, the Jews are always in control. Now, I know what will happen should Her Maj get a hold of this. 'Here's a boy saying that Jews control the world, he's a real antisemite!' So, here I am on record, as a Jewish man, that I do not believe this at all. 'He's going after people of colour!' Yeah, for their political statements, not skin colour. I've also talked a lot about white supremacists and their theories surrounding Jews. It just so happens that white supremacists, black supremacists and some individuals that may not identify as either have very similar views.

However, despite the difficulties, there is always hope in the wake of rising racism. NBA legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Charles Barkley swiftly condemned Kyrie Irving and Kanye West's antisemitism (both are considered mensches in the Jewish community). Ye's ex-wife Kim Kardashian also slammed her former husband for his racism, as has Jamie Lee-Curtis, Diane Warren, John DiMaggio (legend), Malynda Hale and countless others. This isn't necessarily a 'white' or 'black' problem, but more of a problem with celebrity culture allowing itself to justify the actions of others. You see, Kanye is very privileged, looking at things from an economic standpoint. Before the controversy, it was predicted that Ye was worth $1.8 billion, but is now due to lose $1.5 billion of that worth because of his antisemitic rants (after the loss of the Adidas deal). Celebrities, by nature, are extremely arrogant, and believe that they can say things that they can simply get away with because of their status and established hierarchy. It reminded me of Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes a few years ago, where she may as well have just said: 'I'm better than you' into the microphone for all to hear across the world. The diatribe of trying to believe that one person is better than another because of status is what has defined celebrity culture, and Kanye has definitely shown no humiliation or remorse for that. It is Kanye's very status that has allowed him to influence people into believing what he said was right. Remember, I said that he perceives himself as a Christ-like figure, and we all know what happened to the original Jesus Christ now, don't we? Of course, that was hyperbolic, but Kanye is feeling what I've always maintained: that social consequences for speech is absolutely fine, but not legal ones. 

He had best be reminded what happened to those who did speak out in Nazi Germany. He may find that the grass isn't always greener, especially when it's mown by Jews.  

Sources

Behar, Doron M. (2010) 'The Genome-Wide Structure of the Jewish People'

Rootsi, Behar, et al. (2013) 'Phylogenetic Applications Of Whole Y-Chromosome Sequences And Near Eastern Origin of Ashkenazi Levites'.

Frantzman, S. (2013) 'Terra Incognita: The Return of the Khazar Myth'

Elhaik, E. (2013) 'The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting The Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypothesis'

Atmonavage, J. & Nelson, B. (2019) 'Jersey City Shooters Had Massive Bomb That Could Have Killed People 500 Yards Away, Feds Say'

Drescher, S. (1993) 'The Role of Jews in the Atlantic Slave Trade'