Hate Speech is a Pretty Bad Way to Start the Conversation

Ye fans need to wake up and face the music. We all love his uniqueness, but Ye's anti-semitic conspiracy theories have gone too far.

The recent surge in antisemitic hate speech in the media from celebrities like Kanye West is an important reminder that when it comes to harmful ideology, it’s impossible to separate the artist from their art.

Antisemitic speech posed by rapper Kanye West simply cannot be glossed over or written off as ideology held purely by fringe ideology. With media outlets giving Ye a platform to spew hate, it is important to remember that when it comes to harmful ideology, it’s impossible to separate the artist from their art. Tolerating hate speech makes you complicit in an environment of hate which legitimizes and enables violence.

I had just turned 16 when Kanye West — or ‘Ye’ — dropped “The Life of Pablo,” his seventh studio album. My youthful interest in “Pablo” propelled me into interest in other artists like The Pharcyde and MF DOOM, who I still consider to be personal favorites. In fact, most of Ye’s early discography pushed me to confront the reality of racial inequality in America and the blatant sexism that black women uniquely face in this country. I say this not to excuse Ye’s recent antisemitic presence in the news media — where certain media outlets have given him unfettered access to a platform from which he can spew hateful conspiracies — but to convey how uniquely dangerous his antisemitic speech really is.

In fact, the excuses that Ye fans give with each inflammatory, antisemitic statement are equally as concerning as the statements themselves. The chorus of “he made ‘Graduation’ though” after these headlines not only drowns out the real danger tied up in these fascist beliefs but renders those who defend him complacent, regardless of whether they agree with his views or not. I sat down with Professor David Patterson, one of the graduate professors in the Ackerman Center for Holocaust studies, to talk about the real-world impact of being silent on the issue.

“Words can give hope, or words and silence can destroy all hope,” Patterson said. “The higher our position in society, the more people turn to us, the greater our responsibility.”

This begs the question — what is the relationship between hate speech and hate crimes? This question is why I believe that responding to the Kanye discourse is so important, because genocide finds its root in inaction.

In short, there is no middle ground to stand on with this issue. Even listening to his music is choosing to tolerate an ideology that has literally had genocidal consequences. This might seem like an overreaction, but at what point does arguing about the separation of the art from the artist become a cop out? Once we start drawing lines between what constitutes hate speech and hate crimes, when do we stop? Inaction is a statement itself.

Experts agree that hate speech is a gateway to real-world violence, especially coming from a role model like Ye.

The people who make excuses for a version of Ye that no longer exists are just as guilty of allowing antisemitic thought to take root in our daily social lives. Obsessing over the art vs. the artist debate reduces the very real danger this kind of language has on Jewish communities every day.

The reality is that Kanye West won’t see you defending his antisemitism on social media or thank you for continuing to listen to his music. But the people around you will. The people who look up to you will. And it is thanks to silent tolerance of antisemitism that violence arises.

So please, stop making excuses for Ye. Stop turning a blind eye to hate speech. And stop streaming his music.

Iranian students organized a global demonstration against the revolution in their home country in solidarity with 200 other universities.

Following the demonstration at UTD in September, this event was coordinated between Iranian scholar groups based in North American, European and Oceanic universities. Electrical engineering doctoral student Hazhir Mahmoodi said that they wanted to put together a demonstration that was more than just noise.

“We wanted to come up with something which is more aligned with the background of the people who are attending,” Mahmoodi said. “Performance art and something which is pretty much not very loud, but very effective is what we were thinking about. That was our main goal because based on our feedback from other universities, we realized if we’re just being loud, probably people don’t really connect … we wanted to keep it lower but be more effective. Performance art is one of the best ways to do that.”

In Iran, over 300 people have died in the ongoing protests, including at least 40 children. At UTD, protestors wore the faces of the deceased as a picture on their back or face and held up signs with their names, including Mehran Samak, who was shot for celebrating Iran’s loss to the U.S. in the World Cup. Mahmoodi said that he wants to ensure that these deaths matter to people in the world.

“We don’t want these numbers to just be numbers,” Mahmoodi said. “We want to make sure that the world is caring about what’s happening in Iran … we want to make it very important that if one person, just one person is being executed or being killed, we have to make sure that we are their voice.”

The event is an extension of the protests that Iranian students like visual and performing arts doctoral student Shahrzad Hamzeh have been leading their whole life. Strict Iranian laws control the amount that women