After donning a “white lives matter” T-shirt, the rapper uses antisemitic stereotypes in an interview

Kanye West at Paris fashion week this month. Photograph: Stéphane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images

Unaired portions of an interview between Kanye West and Tucker Carlson on Fox News show the American rapper making a number of remarks based on racial conspiracies, adding fuel to the interview’s mounting controversy.

West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, discussed in the parts his belief in the untrue and antisemitic conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood was established “to control the Jew population.”

West echoed an unsubstantiated hypothesis widely used by antisemites in another of the tapes, saying, “When I say Jew, I mean… who the people known as the race Black really are.” This is the character of our people.

In addition, West argued with Carlson that he favored the Jewish holiday of Hanukah and was upset that his kids were attending a school that observed Kwanzaa, an African celebration, in December.

In another tape published by Motherboard, West is heard saying, “I prefer my kids knew Hanukah than Kwanzaa – at least it will come with some financial engineering,” ostensibly alluding to another well-known anti-Semitic stereotype.

Watch some of the unaired clips from Ye's Tucker Carlson interview here: https://t.co/pzUHxcnKCf pic.twitter.com/4x8ih2tvq0

— Motherboard (@motherboard) October 11, 2022

In the videos, West also reaffirmed his coronavirus vaccination, after previously falsely decrying Covid-19 jabs as demonic and a part of a scheme to implant chips in individuals. Another depicted him explaining unfounded assertions that phony children were brought into his home and used to corrupt his real children.

The musician had already had a turbulent week before the remarks, which threatened to stir up much more controversy.

Following the removal of a post in which West threatened to “go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” Twitter on Sunday disabled West’s account. West also maintained that he couldn’t be antisemitic in the tweet, which the platform said broke its hate speech standards, since Blacks were the true Jews.

Following suit, the social networking platform Meta restricted West’s Instagram account when he used yet another antisemitic cliche, claiming that fellow rapper Diddy was under Jewish domination.

Both remarks were made after West faced harsh criticism for sporting a “white lives matter” T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week and had models wear shirts with what the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls a hate slogan prominently displayed.

Soon after the Paris Fashion Week fiasco, West and Tucker Carlson met together for a two-part interview.

In the segment of the interview that was shown, West informed Carlson that he believed it was “funny” and “obvious” to wear the shirt.

Additionally, he repeated long-standing antisemitic stereotypes when he said that Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of former president Donald Trump, was only negotiating a Middle East peace agreement “to make money.”

On Monday, West stirred up further controversy by posting a 30-minute documentary on YouTube in which he was shown showing Adidas officials a sexual movie on his phone.

West has openly discussed his struggles with his mental health since receiving a bipolar illness diagnosis many years ago. These difficulties have not lately been addressed by the artist.

However, in the wake of his contentious remarks, both campaigners and medical professionals have cautioned that prejudice and mental health issues are separate issues.

“Many individuals who are racist and prejudiced do not have mental health problems. There are also some who suffer from mental illnesses yet are neither prejudiced or racist. According to Carla Manly, a professional psychologist and the author of Joy from Fear, “We want to see those as two very different issues.”

Thanks to Ramon Antonio Vargas at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.