Kanye West has always had a very “all over the place” persona from announcing he was running for president for the 2020 election back in 2015 to calling slavery a choice and changing his name to “Ye.”
Kanye’s most recent scandal happened on Saturday Night Live (SNL) which he went on a full-blown rant about his support for Donald Trump while wearing a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat. He spoke about the “bullying” he received backstage for being told “don’t wear that MAGA hat.”
“If someone inspires me and I connect with them, I don’t have to believe in all their policies,” he said.
I do agree that we’re not going to 100% agree with all the policies that our favorite politicians stand for, when those policies focus on discrimination and racism, like Trump has so clearly conveyed, that’s where I draw the line.
I don’t think Kanye really realizes the repercussions that come with supporting a racist person despite the few agreements he may have with Trump’s policies, but even then I still don’t agree with the policies Kanye has openly supported.
After SNL, Kanye tweeted, “We will no longer outsource to other countries. We must build factories here in America and create jobs.”
Although Kanye does have the right to his own opinion, he really should educate himself more on the job issue. Outsourcing jobs in other countries isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As our country develops, we create jobs that didn’t exist before, replacing former factory jobs. However, if we don’t try to outsource factory jobs and replace them with more modern jobs then this country’s progression will slow us down. No one wants the development of this country to be slowed down or stopped.
Despite the controversy, I do think Kanye had the right intention, but if he read into things he speaks about more he could possibly formulate more educated opinions.
Most shocking of all, though, was probably his mention of wanting to abolish the 13^th amendment. The 13^th amendment abolished slavery.
Whether you’re a conservative or a liberal, all of us – I’d hope – can agree that slavery is by no means acceptable. Abolishing this amendment would be a big step back in this country’s progression.
However, it has been brushed aside that the 13^th amendment states slavery is still allowed “as punishment for a crime.” Kanye later tweeted about meaning to amend this and not abolish the amendment, which I agree with. Kanye in this specific situation appeared to once again have good intentions, but he just wasn’t educated enough on the topic. If he just did a quick Google search, he could’ve saved himself a lot of backlash and possibly helped bring light to a real issue that most people didn’t know about.
For the most part, I think Kanye has good intentions, whether I agree with his intentions or not. Nevertheless, he still is an idiot that needs to wait to formulate opinions until he really educates himself, as do many others in this school and country.
 
Cartoon at top by Cassie Talbot