stop making anti-semitic people famous

Kanye West, accurately dubbed the most divorced man in the world by Hunter Harris, has been very busy being very awful lately.

Photo by Axel Antas-Bergkvist on Unsplash

After he went on an anti-semitic tirade in a round of unsettling interviews and social media posts, a hate group hung a "Kanye is right" sign above a busy overpass in Los Angeles as they made “Heil Hitler" salutes to passing cars. Police are now also investigating anti-Jewish propaganda being distributed in Beverly Hills. In response, the artist’s agency CAA dropped him and pressure is mounting from celebrities and lawmakers alike for Adidas to do the same.

A lot of people are wondering how do we stop Kanye from talking? But maybe the answer lies in us reflecting about why we’re so eager to listen.

Kanye West being hateful is nothing new. For instance, he’s been brazenly misogynistic and derogatory towards women for years. Just a few months ago, I wrote about his extremely public sexual harassment and coercive abuse of his ex-wife, which he continued to do unchallenged by Tucker Carlson when he sat down with him recently and suggested that a woman he is no longer married to should be under his control. During that same interview he also disparaged women’s bodily autonomy and criticized Lizzo’s body. Notice how Black women who are just minding their own business are the focus of this kind of patronizing concern-trolling but heavyset rappers like Fat Joe never get mentioned. As Amanda Marcotte remarked in Salon, the misogyny-to-fascism-pipeline is well known, and Kanye is just the latest and most famous example of it. Misogyny is often the gateway drug to white supremacy, xenophobia or other forms of intolerance like antisemitism. If we spent more time clamping down on sexist speech or taking it seriously as a public health issue, it wouldn’t become a recruiting tool for bigots like Kanye or Andrew Tate to attract fan boys who amplify their dumb takes.

The hatred-of-women to hatred-of-others pipeline isn’t just visibly happening with power-hungry celebrities and cult-like male influencers, misogyny is often how far-right leaders begin to lure unsuspecting followers to their more radical ideas about race, religion and ethnicity. The rise of reactionary populist movements in Europe have often worked in tandem with the increase in anti-feminist sentiment, but as Marie Menke has argued, their connection has been underestimated.

“What is overlooked is that men often radicalize themselves simultaneously as racists and anti-Semites as well as sexists, misogynists and self-proclaimed “anti-genderists”. If someone expresses himself as “anti-genderist”, anti-feminist or sexist, this is an indication of a certain degree of radicalisation, which can then be further reinforced by a racist or anti-Semitic ideology and which can lead to attacks. Historically, such structures of exclusion and rejection have been closely linked since the 19th century. In Nazi Germany, for example, anti-Semitism did much to devalue the sexes: Jews were feminized, they were given characteristics that were considered typically female, in order to devalue them. This is a pattern of thought that has always survived through the different cycles of racism and anti-Semitism.”

Not all misogynists are anti-semites but a lot of anti-semites happen to be misogynistic. If we want to take anti-Jewish violence seriously we must be brave enough to look at how antisemites are created and how their unique brand of hate spreads. Now is the time to ferociously support our Jewish friends and to dismantle all the hierarchies that make their continued discrimination and the violation of the humans rights possible. When we all stand together in locked arms against all forms of hate, it stands less of a chance.