Kanye West is at it again...

Kanye West: "George Bush doesn't care about Black people"

"George Bush doesn't care about black people," said Kanye West as he ended his speech during the Concert for Hurricane Relief on Friday night.

Alongside actor Mike Myers, Kanye West diverted from his pre-prepared script to offer his feelings on the Hurricane Katrina. Kanye started off with how the media portrayed white people as "finding" food and blacks as "looters."

"I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family it says they're looting. You see a white family it says they are looking for food," referring to Yahoo! and other media outlets showing photos of Blacks people captioned as "looters" while Whites in photos were captioned as "finders" of food and supplies. Yahoo later removed the images and offered a public apology.

West, whose grandparents were heavily involved in the civil rights movement and whose father was a member of the Black Panthers, looked nervous as he stumbled through his words.

"It's been five days because most of the people are Black; and even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I tried to turn away from the TV because it's to hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation. So now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what's the biggest amount I can give; and to just imagine if I was down there and those are my people down there."

Kanye continued, in an almost rambling fashion standing beside Mike Myers, who at this point was shaking his head in agreement.

"To anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with the set-up that America's set up to help the poor, the Black people, the less well off - slow as possible. The Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realized how a lot of the people who could help are at war right now fighting another war. They've given them [The U.S. Army] permission to go down [to New Orleans] and shoot us."

Mike Myers, now visibly stunned, turned to Kanye and shock but continued on with his pre-written speech until Kanye interrupted him saying, "George W. Bush doesn't care about black people." MSNBC immediately cut to Chris Tucker who sat looking bewildered.

Many have applauded Kanye's statements, calling him a "hero" for speaking out on what many feel. However, media outlets such as Juicce News Daily, claim Kanye ruined the show. "In a disgusting display, West strayed from his prepared script to offer an overflow of hatred from his mouth, taking the spotlight off of the matter at hand, turning the relief program into his own personal soapbox."

Blogging the Hurricane Relief Concert, an MSNBC sponsored blog, walked the fine line, stating, "Kanye brings up an important point, talking about how the media portrays white as seeking food and blacks as looters," but ends the post with "Not sure what kind of flack Kanye's gonna catch for that last bit, but I'm sure he doesn't care."

The show was simulcast from New York on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax. NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks claimed the person in charge "was instructed to listen for a curse word, and didn't realize [West] had gone off-script." In a statement, NBC said, "Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks."

Supremacey,

Did you write that?

mindido said:

Supremacey,

Did you write that?

Click to expand...

LOL ^

Er...NO...heres the article source: http://www.sohh.com/thewire/read.php?contentID=7499

Heres the video for further proof:
http://media.putfile.com/Kanye79

Yeah I mentioned this yestrerday night in the hurricane thread.

http://forum.exp0sed.com/showpost.php?p=65719&postcount=50

He's got a new album coming out. Controversy sells. He actually believes his own hype, what the hell is going on with ego's these days? My opinion is law, i am on a mission to change the world, don't they know who i am? You are a rapper for godsakes. Shut that shit up and sit that ass down.

As politically uncorrected as the topic is, it probably true. Bush doesn't strike me as the most egalitarian person in the world

Supremacy,

Thanks for the link. The reason I asked is because some of the syntax of the article was disturbing, and indicative of someone that doesn't understand the issue.

As far as I'm concerned, G.W. doesn't have a clue, or a care, no matter what blather spews out of his mouth. West is correct. There is no other adequate explanation for the complete failure of the feds in the first four days.

I completely disagree with West on this one and agree with onerythym that it is solely a class issue, not a race issue.

Bush likes blacks who are rich or are connected to the Republican Party (Rod Paige, Colin Powell, Condaleezza Rice, etc.) as well as whites who are rich or are connected to the Republican Party. He does not like blacks or whites who are poor or are connected to another party than the Republicans.

Some people in the entertainment industry who are black always draw up the race card to get people to sympathise with them, but they don't deserve it, especially those who refer to themselves as n*****s. It seems as though they do not know where the word came from. For Pete's sake, it was a term used by slaveholders to buy and sell them as slaves! If they're not able to get their head out of the past, they won't be able to move on and work for a better future.

As for Bush, I agree with you, Cman. Bush is no egalitarian. He's trying to be like Moses and parting the waters (or people of one class on one side and the other class on the other) to create a great (class) divide. The only thing is that the water is going to end up crashing back and creating chaos (as it looks to have done in New Orleans).

Actually I'm pretty sure it's cause he hates gumbo.

Who cares what Kanye West thinks.

Iceberg said:

I completely disagree with West on this one and agree with onerythym that it is solely a class issue, not a race issue.

Bush likes blacks who are rich or are connected to the Republican Party (Rod Paige, Colin Powell, Condaleezza Rice, etc.) as well as whites who are rich or are connected to the Republican Party. He does not like blacks or whites who are poor or are connected to another party than the Republicans.

Some people in the entertainment industry who are black always draw up the race card to get people to sympathise with them, but they don't deserve it, especially those who refer to themselves as n*****s. It seems as though they do not know where the word came from. For Pete's sake, it was a term used by slaveholders to buy and sell them as slaves! If they're not able to get their head out of the past, they won't be able to move on and work for a better future.

As for Bush, I agree with you, Cman. Bush is no egalitarian. He's trying to be like Moses and parting the waters (or people of one class on one side and the other class on the other) to create a great (class) divide. The only thing is that the water is going to end up crashing back and creating chaos (as it looks to have done in New Orleans).

Click to expand...

I think blaming Bush for new orleans is a little underhanded, surely you are not going to blame the man because of a hurricane, a natural disaster occurred America was ill prepared for it, maybe help should have been sent in much sooner, but to blame Bush for this is a little naive, Bush is not the only one giving the green light for help to be sent, this is what the mayors, elected representatives of congress that represent New Orleans should have been doing, and I would like to point out the violence and anarchy happening in New Orleans has nothing to do with race, it is to do with youth, leave white youths, mexican youths, asian youths in a rampaged town with electrical stores open for access and chaos will reign, it is a testament to debauched society that the youths are like this.

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Dillon's got the right idea on this one...
Also, the look on Mike Myer's face after Kanye said "George Bush doesn't care about black people" was priceless.
Myers is just going along with the prompter and then the poor guy has to deal with Kanye's rant.
I wonder what Myers and Chris Tucker had to say about that shit.

I'd like to point out something that i haven't heard anyone catch on to yet. He said: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family it says they're looting. You see a white family it says they are looking for food," and then says: "They've given them permission to go down [to New Orleans] and shoot us." Now if the permission is given to shoot wrong-doer's, and if "us" means black people, then does it mean that his breath smells like foot?

Well first of all, after watching the video it looks like Kanye West is crazy. However, he does bring up good points but I am not saying they were the correct ones. First of all he rambles on about showing the black people looting and the white people looking for food. Well, New Orleans isn't the richest city in the nation and even some news stations perceived it as a "relatively poor city." Okay, you can come up with statistics to prove that wrong but thats not the point. The people left in the city are mostly poor because they did not have the means for evacuating. Yes, most of them are black and that's not just because they are all poor. New Orleans does have a rather large black population and most of them live very near if not in the city.

So what I'm trying to get at is that I don't think that it is the news fault for showing black people looting and white people for getting food. Who said the news did that on purpose? Maybe it's because I am part of a new generation who tries to look beyond the color of a persons skin. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the news and the politician do this on purpose. I do realize that race will probably forever play a factor as long as people keep bringing it up. But I think its not fair to President Bush by Kanye just blurting out Bush doesn't like black people.

Now I am not a Bush fan or anything like that and I am not Republican or very political either. I do wonder why it took so long for these rescue efforts to take place. I was watching more news coverage showing the difference between this disater and the tsunami disaters and yes, the tsumani support arrived much quicker than our own country did in this disaster. It is messed up that the relief effort happened a lot quicker in a third world country than we did in our own country. There are many question of why didn't this happen quicker and all of that but that can be saved for later. People need to stop being so mad at each other and just worry about being safe.

However, Kanye was taking about letting the military shoot "us". The military people don't want to shoot and neither does the President or Congress. Come on people, if you think this you must be one crazy f**k. With as much as these people are going through the last thing you want to do is shoot their ass. So Kanye should just keep his mouth shut until the time is right and just donate his millions so he can feel like he did something. But I'll call it right now. Kanye West is going to create a rap about Hurricane Katrina and blame it on the US government.

monkeyman,

"First of all he rambles on about showing the black people looting and the white people looking for food."

This has been well documented. I would have given you links but I just checked them and they've all been removed (Yahoo News had a lot of them).

"Well, New Orleans isn't the richest city in the nation and even some news stations perceived it as a "relatively poor city."

N.O. is approximately 68% black and about 40% of its population lives below the poverty line. Typically, southern counties predominated by blacks are among the poorest counties in the US. The only places poorer are Indian reservations.

"The people left in the city are mostly poor because they did not have the means for evacuating."

I think you may want to think that statement through again.

As far as the rest of your statements. A white person in North America CANNOT understand racism to the extent that a person of color CAN (and must). It is, for the most part, hidden, but pervasive. Whites, when confronted with it, usually poo-poo it or come up with some BS to explain it otherwise.

I don't know much about Kanye West as I rarely listen to music anymore. I didn't see the live show that he said these things on but I certainly saw it on the news programs. During those first three days I was practically glued to the news and one of my first thoughts was, "What the hell is going on here? Where are the feds? They're in charge of stuff like this (at least they're supposed to be). What the heck is taking so long?"

I still haven't heard any adequate explanations to any of this. I've watched Mayor Nagin and think he's done about as good of a job as can be expected for the abilities of his office. The State of Louisiana and the feds, in my opinion, are graded an F- for their performance in the first three days. There are only two explanation that make sense.

1. Racism.
2. Lack of care for the poor.

The true explanation is both. And our reputation around the world is going to pay for this.

Mindido, one of your "explanations" for the fed's poor performance is pretty weak.
Before I explain my criticism, I want to point out something.
It isn't the fed's performance that's under scrutiny, it was their slow reaction time.
And that's where you contradict yourself.
How can the feds have a poor performance in the first three days if they weren't even there?

I do agree that the federal reaction was terrible. But once they arrived, things have been going much more smoothly. The Superdome is now vacant, medical aid is readily available, and operations are organized. We should have been able to say those things a long tome ago, and I realize that.

So, to finish off here, I am simply pointing out that racism need not be a factor. Aid came, albeit slowly, but at least it's there. Thinking that the federal government has an agenda out for black people is a stereotype in its own right. That idea goes along with "controversies" such as a missile being fired at the Pentagon on 911. In my opinion, they're both BS.

Black people have been portrayed in the media in a negative light for ages. Even if they are put under the microscope unfairly, it doesn't change the fact that crimes are being commited. In other words, it's not like the media is making up stories about black people looting. Many are in fact doing just that and there is video to prove it. But as others have said, it IS indeed unfair for white looters to be dubbed with more "positive" terms.

You can't erase racism and stereotypes over night.
I wish I could disregard skin color, and I definitely do in a social context.
But race is a part of so many aspects of life.
As an example, consider the concept of affirmative action.
If you look at it for what it is, minorities are given an advantage over non-minorites.
So, I'm all for disregarding color but that only works if EVERYONE participates, and that includes minorities.

I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Bush signed the Bill for emergency Aid the day (24 hour period) Katrina hit, It was Congress that took forever to pass it... Further more when he says that the blacks are always pictured as looters, it's because the majority of the people looting are black (that doesn't mean all of them). In fact on TV here (Memphis) i've seen plenty of footage of black people looking for food, i saw a couple white people looting too... But the thing is that Kanye, and ignorant people like him, only see what they want to see. They want to see something that they can make a big stink over. I'm getting extremly pissed off at the whole race thing, why blame shit on race? It's gotten to the point that the mayor (Willie Herenton) of my city (Memphis, TN) said that the only, the ONLY, minority is blacks. The thing wrong with that is that in this city, there are more blacks than mexicans and asians... So what does that make them? I am by no means racist, and i think everyone should be entitled to a fair chance at everything, and everyone should be on an even playing field. But there are some things in this world that ruin that chance, one is bigotry in EVERY race.


I'm agree with you Richie, race should be put aside, but it needs to be done by everyone.

I agree totally agree with the last two replies. I think that race has nothing to do with the reaction time of the government. I don't know the reason why they took so long but I guess it had something to do with that bill needing to be passed. That is probably just a flaw in the system. And that cannot be totally blamed on the government because when a total disaster like this has happened no one has a fool proof plan. Yes, the way to do this should be looked at and I hope something is done when they do the review. However, it is just sad that some people look at race as an excuse. When there is nothing else to blame lets blame it on race. Maybe we need to grow up as people and finally stop making excuses for their mistakes.

Hoo boy, where do I start.

Richie,

"It isn't the fed's performance that's under scrutiny, it was their slow reaction time. And that's where you contradict yourself. How can the feds have a poor performance in the first three days if they weren't even there?"

Please explain, whats the difference? There was NO performance (by the feds) in the first three days, they were nowhere to be found. Considering that the federal disaster declaration was made 2 days prior to the hurricane hitting land, and that the airwaves were full of pols and FEMA saying that resources were being prepositioned so that they could be "on the ground running" just after the hurricane hit; what happened to that? How do you explain that? I don't see the contradiction.

I should have also put in my explanation incompetance and bureaucratic bungling but I thought that was pretty self evident.

"I am simply pointing out that racism need not be a factor."

I wish that it were not a factor, but I believe that it was. I'm not saying it was the only factor (and I don't think anyone else is either) but it was a factor. To say that it didn't play a part is a bit naive.

"Thinking that the federal government has an agenda out for black people is a stereotype in its own right."

An overt agenda? Of course not, but as I said in post 16, "It is, for the most part, hidden, but pervasive." For a person of color, there is virtually not a day that goes by, that they don't experience some form of racism. It is a fact of life. Which leads to your next statement.

"Black people have been portrayed in the media in a negative light for ages."

No doubt. And when it occurs today, it is a part of that "hidden" racism.

As far as the rest is concerned, just as I said in post 16, "A white person in North America CANNOT understand racism to the extent that a person of color CAN (and must).".

I would strongly recommend that anyone with a real interest in this subject read a book by John Howard Griffin called "Black Like Me". It is an in depth analysis of racism in the south in the late 50's and early 60's by a guy that dyed himself black and went out into the world. It is probably the definitive book on experiencing racism.

"You can't erase racism and stereotypes over night.
I wish I could disregard skin color, and I definitely do in a social context.
But race is a part of so many aspects of life.
As an example, consider the concept of affirmative action.
If you look at it for what it is, minorities are given an advantage over non-minorites.
So, I'm all for disregarding color but that only works if EVERYONE participates, and that includes minorities."

Richie, at least you recognize your own tendencies and do something about them. But not all people do. We are ALL racist, to some extent. But most of us recognize it and don't act on it. As far as Affirmative Action, thats a can of worms that shouldn't be opened in this thread, but is certainly relavant to the discussion.

Ma'elKoth,

"Bush signed the Bill for emergency Aid the day (24 hour period) Katrina hit, It was Congress that took forever to pass it..."

I'm not a lawyer so I'm not 100% sure of the particulars but I'm certain that, since there was an Emergency Declaration, the President doesn't need Congress to get things started. In an emergency, the President has the ability to do whatever he sees fit. Congress' role was to approve the funds for the relief.

monkeyman,

"but I guess it had something to do with that bill needing to be passed. That is probably just a flaw in the system."

See my paragraph above. In an emergency such as this, the President has the ability to do whatever is needed. An act of congress is not required on a preliminary basis.

"when a total disaster like this has happened no one has a fool proof plan."

Of course. But what bothers me the most is that there SHOULD have been thousands of federal troops helicoptered in just after the winds died down on Monday afternoon. The population of N.O.'s reaction was completely predictable and the influx of troops into the area would have alleviated many of the next few days problems. Why wasn't that done? The Emergency Declaration had been made by the Governor and President two days prior allowing for the troops. "Prepositioning" had (supposedly) occurred but nobody showed up. What explains this?

onerythm,

"they were there, i know because my navy buddy who i have been worried sick about was there."

You are correct in that there were a FEW guardsmen there (according to news reports I've seen), but only a very FEW. Nowhere near the amount that was needed. IF everything had been prepositioned as the pols and bureaucrats said, the skies should have been flooded with helicopters bringing in federal troops the very FIRST thing. IF that would have happened, many of the problems we've seen WOULD have been alleviated.

"is your info based on what you have personally seen? or what the news/media is telling us?"

Both. I am not in N.O. or the South but I have been around long enough to see what people do in a situation like this. And I also study a lot of history, it is probably my favorite subject. And throughout history, when confronted with similar circumstances, people act the same. ALL of us, given the same circumstances, would act the same. People in N.O. have reverted to a very basic state and will do whatever is needed to survive.

And remember. This whole scenario in N.O. has been predicted for years. What has happened SHOULD be a surprise to NO ONE! Both Ice and I have provided links in previous posts verifying that.

I don't think this thread is getting out of control yet but I think that ALL of us HAVE to think very carefully about what has happened here and make sure it doesn't happen again. And I can see the signs all over the airwaves that we're not going to learn a damn thing. In fact, I'm 99% sure we won't learn a thing. We'll rebuild N.O. and the gulf coast only to see it blown away again.

If WE, THE PEOPLE, don't get our act together and demand responsibility and forsight from our pols, then we get what we deserve.