Kanye West calls the backlash against him for wearing a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” campaign cap “classist” in a new interview with WSJ Magazine. Given “unprecedented” access to the producer-designer-rapper-controversy lightning rod, WSJ‘s Christina Binkley profiles Kanye’s obsession with designing the “perfect” hoodie, the success of his Yeezy fashion label, and his relationship with Trump, which led to Trump trying to get ASAP Rocky out of Swedish prison last year after a phone call from West.
Addressing the controversy over his hat, which led to awkward moments at Saturday Night Live, the TMZ offices, and online, Kanye tells Binkley he believes the reason has more to do with the expectations America has for a Black man from Chicago: ““I’m a black guy with a red [MAGA] hat, can you imagine?” he asks. “It reminded me of how I felt as a Black guy before I was famous, when I would walk in a restaurant and people would look at you like you were going to steal something. ‘This is your place, Ye, don’t talk about apparel. This is your place, Ye, you’re Black, so you’re a Democrat.’”
He believes the backlash was “about putting people in their place. Classism, protectionism — not just racism. Classism is like living on a bookshelf. The more money you have, the higher you go. And you get to the top and look over and what do you see? Fear.”
There’s no mention of whether Kanye recognizes all the ways in which most of the voices calling him out mainly wanted him to acknowledge his class privilege as a wealthy person who Trump’s policies would have little effect on, or whether he realizes the harm that Trump’s rhetoric has already done to multiple vulnerable groups, including but not limited to: Native Americans, Asian Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, Latino Americans, and yes, Black Americans. But it’s the Wall Street Journal, which explains everything.
Read the full article here.
