OPINION: It’s too little, it’s too late, and it doesn’t take into account the real-world harm he’s caused.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more
For a Kanye apology to feel genuine after so many offensive comments, I would want him to say he’s experienced some things and listened to some smart people and read something critical and really confronted why he told Alex Jones “I do love Hitler.” That would indicate he has done the work to reach a mental place where he has realized he was wrong and constructed a new mindset.
A real apology in a situation like this would include a significant monetary donation to an important antisemitic organization. It might include a direct attack on the neo-Nazis who used “Kanye is right” as a slogan. It should explain how he finally came to learn that Hitler was, in fact, a horrible person. Because at this point, we can’t be sure what he thinks.
A real apology would not gaslight us by referring to his many comments as “unintentional outbursts.” They were nothing of the sort. A real apology would not say he did not intend to offend when he was clearly intending to offend and trigger people. Kanye was using his weirdo fascination with Hitler to troll us. The motto was clearly “anything to get attention” and that included palling around with Trump, attempting to run for president and admiring Hitler, which, now that I put all of those things together in a sentence, I realize they must somehow all be linked in Kanye’s mind. But how?
Please spare me with the “but he’s mentally ill” canard. Being bipolar doesn’t make you antisemitic or racist. He is responsible for his behavior.
Also, many of his antisemitic comments were made in 2022. Apologizing a year later with a Christmas week statement? It’s too little, too late. There’s a window of time in which an apology can work to soothe a wronged person. But if too much time goes by, the potential impact of an apology can fade because you’ve let the hurt live too long.
Kanye spent years crafting and curating a public image and thus creating a brand that meant so much to so many people. A big part of Kanye’s brand was being a free thinker — he didn’t think like other rappers and it made him compelling. But somehow being a free thinker and challenging George Bush or Taylor Swift became being a free thinker and embracing Hitler and Trump. Kanye thinks slavery was a choice, but we’re not supposed to think that Kanye is responsible for Kanye’s choices? Kanye injected the stench of antisemitism into his personal brand so deeply that I now think the two are inextricable. Even with a pithy, shallow nonpology, people will still think of Kanye as antisemitic. I wonder how long it’ll be before he says something else that’s offensive.
Touré is a host and Creative Director at theGrio. He is the host of Masters of the Game on theGrioTV. He is also the host and creator of the docuseries podcast “Being Black: The ’80s” and the animated show “Star Stories with Toure” which you can find at TheGrio.com/starstories. He is also the host of the podcast “Toure Show” and the podcast docuseries “Who Was Prince?” He is the author of eight books including the Prince biography Nothing Compares 2 U and the ebook The Ivy League Counterfeiter.
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