*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Her Campus or Her Campus at VCU
Last week, Kanye West took to Twitter to share his love for Donald Trump, promote his desire to meet Tim Cook and praise the work of Emma Gonzalez. If that was hard to follow, the fact that Kanye shared a picture of his signed ‘Make America Great Again’ hat won’t help to clear up the confusion. All of this was done in the name of love to Kanye, and his self-proclaimed method is to love everyone, even those you may not agree with. While he has a point about loving everyone despite the differences you share, Kanye overgeneralizes this sentiment to include compassion for a world leader who has consistently acted against America’s best interests, ostracized those who disagree with him, and threatened nuclear war on any country or leader that questions his capabilities as a president.
The platform Kanye holds speaks to millions of young, impressionable minds that blindly follow his words. Spreading admiration for a tyrant that has dehumanized any person deviating from his ideal of straight, white males reinforces his negative political agenda. Many republican politicians have already used Kanye’s rhetoric as an invitation to accredit themselves with pushing political agendas that reflect the interests of black people; however, these same politicians have no problem monopolizing off the incrimination and incarceration of black people. Even though Kanye specified that his motives weren’t to promote conservative ideology, conservatives are likely to utilize Kanye’s acceptance of them by allowing them to present themselves as a politician in favor of minorities, when in reality, one of conservative’s biggest political problems at the moment is immigration.
Wearing a signed ‘Make America Great Again’ hat won’t prove your equality. Instead, it will only align yourself with the hateful movement behind it. The rhetoric used by Kanye in his new song “Ye vs. the People” is meant to explain the views he expressed on Twitter, but it poses more questions than it answers. In summation, the song is an expression of Kanye’s frustration with the political climate surrounding the ideology of Donald Trump, and it seems that he thinks that simply wearing a ‘MAGA’ hat and adding a little “Kanye flair” won’t erase the fact that Trump’s mantra has not only stimulated hate fueled by fascist rhetoric and behavior, but also created an aura of tolerance for this blatant hatred and discrimination.
Many celebrities have voiced their disagreements with Kanye, and his response is nonchalant in that he doesn’t really give any real answers to questions, but instead is hiding behind the ideas of love and free thought to promote his Trump-like agenda, which is making as much money as humanly possible. While Kanye was tweeting about the importance of not letting materialism and capitalism motivate your daily life, he was also using the spotlight to promote his shoe brand, claiming that it is the best-selling shoe in the game, incomparable to any other shoe. It is evident that Kanye’s crazy, political tirade is a reach for relevancy as well as money, as the only real reason he gave for liking Trump was his ability to make money.