Unaired Kanye West-Tucker Carlson material contains more racist conspiracy theories
Unaired segments of an interview between Kanye West and the Fox News host Tucker Carlson document the American rapper airing a series of comments based on racist conspiracy theories, adding to the growing controversy over the interview.
In the segments, first reported by the tech newsoutlet Motherboard, West, who has changed his legal name to Ye, detailed his belief in an unfounded and antisemitic conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood was founded “to control the Jew population”.
“When I say Jew, I mean … who the people known as the race Black really are,” said West in another of the clips, echoing an unfounded theory frequently invoked by antisemites. “This is who our people are.”
West also complained to Carlson that his children were attending a school which celebrates Kwanzaa, the African holiday in December, saying he preferred the Jewish Hanukah.
“I prefer my kids knew Hanukah than Kwanzaa – at least it will come with some financial engineering,” West said in another clip posted by Motherboard, apparently referencing another age-old antisemitic trope.
In the clips, West also reiterated that he was vaccinated against the coronavirus despite once baselessly condemning Covid-19 shots as being demonic and part of a plot to implant chips in people. Another showed him outlining groundless claims that someone planted fake children in his house to manipulate his own children.
The comments promised to generate more controversy in an already tumultuous week for the artist.
On Sunday, Twitter locked West’s account after it removed a tweet in which West said he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”. In the tweet – which the platform said violated its hate speech restrictions – West also argued he couldn’t be antisemitic because Black people were the real Jews.
The social media company Meta soon followed suit, restricting West’s Instagram account after he invoked another antisemitic trope: that his fellow rapper Diddy was controlled by Jewish people.
Both comments came after West had drawn heavy criticism for donning a “white lives matter” T-shirt during Paris fashion week and had models wear shirts that prominently displayed what the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) considers a hate slogan.
West and Tucker Carlson sat down for a two-part interview shortly after the Paris fashion week controversy.
In the aired portion of the interview, West told Carlson he thought wearing the shirt was “funny” and “obvious”.
He also accused the Jewish son-inlaw of former president Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, of negotiating Middle East peace simply “to make money”, again echoing longstanding antisemitic tropes.
West created another uproar on Monday when he uploaded a 30minute documentary on YouTube that showed him using his phone to display a pornographic video to visibly uncomfortable Adidas executives.
West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder years ago and has publicly
spoken about his challenges with his mental health. The artist has not addressed those challenges recently.
Following his controversial statements, however, both medical experts and advocates have warned mental health struggles and bigotry are distinct problems.
“There are many people who don’t have mental health issues who are racist and bigoted. And there are people with mental health issues who are not racist or bigoted. We want to see those as two very different issues,” Carla Manly, a clinical psychologist and the author of Joy from Fear, told USA Today.