Kanye West stands up to Yahoo and US racism

 
African American artist Kanye West gets global community support after publicly criticising the US President Bush and the racist US media over their lack of assistance and portrayal of African American survivors in a televised 'relief' event.

Kanye West spoke out against the anti-African acts by the US government and Media during a chartity appeal for the Red Cross broadcast on NBC-Universal, Friday, September 02, 2005.

For much of the week the global media has been perpetuating derogatory stereotypes targeted at African American survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Yahoo!News were one of the organisations caught collaborating with news agencies after several images were found on its news photo website showing a clear bias and penchant to act with moral disparity with its portrayal of African people. In an image taken from a moving helicopter constituting a part of a collection of ‘looting’ photos, language is used which invites an assumption of criminality on the sole basis of ethnicity.

Yahoo!News who has not apologised issued a press statement after receiving numerous complaints about its publishing of racist propaganda labelling African American survivors as looters. In the statement Yahoo attempts to distance itself from taking responsibility for the content of news photo articles published on its network and states “we present the photos and their captions as written, edited and distributed by the news services with no additional editing at Yahoo! News.”

Furthermore it states that “Yahoo! News regrets that these photos and captions, viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part.”

Yet many African people throughout the Diaspora have recognised the obvious racist slant labelling African American survivors as immoral and chaotic whilst their European counterparts are afforded dignity and sympathy. In response and during a nationally televised Hurricane Katrina relief show, the African American artist Kayne West departed from his script and spoke the truth when he announced;

"George Bush doesn't care about black people." West said "They're saying black families are looting and white families are just looking for food...they're giving the (National Guard) permission to go down and shoot us"

Before Kanye West could continue with his comments the TV station cut to the safest image they could think of to appease the American public... that of the dumb founded African American comedian Chris Tucker.


Kanye West



What West said was not just one persons opinion

The Red Cross immediately released a damage limitation statement;

WASHINGTON, Friday, September 02, 2005 — The American Red Cross is incredibly grateful for the support we’re receiving in the wake of the catastrophic events caused by Hurricane Katrina. We want to acknowledge the ongoing support of NBC-Universal, which aired a telethon tonight on behalf of the victims of this tragedy.

During the telecast, a controversial comment was made by one of the celebrities. We would like the American public to know that our support is unwavering, regardless of political circumstances. We are a neutral and impartial organization, and support disaster victims across the country regardless of race, class, color or creed. We cannot, and we do not endorse any comments of a political nature.

Whilst the broadcaster of the show NBC released a disingenuous statement that read;

"Tonight's telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion. Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."

Yet what Kanye West said was not just ‘one person’s opinion’. It was the opinion shared by millions of angry culturally disinherited Africans throughout the Diaspora. For in her wisdom Mother Nature chose to suddenly awake a wave of politically unaware ‘black’ people and show them that even if they did not want to acknowledge the reality of their being African, everybody else already knows the truth.




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Transcript

Kanye: I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a Black family it says they're looting. If you see a white family it says they're looking for food, and you know it's been five days because most of the people are Black and even for me to complain about...I would be a hypocrite because I tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before giving a donation so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give and just to imagine if I was down there and those are my people down there, so anybody out there that wants to do anything so we can help with the setup the way America is set up to help the poor, the Black people, the less well off as slow as possible I mean this is, Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us.

Mike Myers: (Reads from script)

Kanye: George Bush doesn't care about Black people

Camera cuts to Chris Tucker

Chris Tucker: (Instead of having Kanye’s back he starts rambling about doing all you can to help)





LIGALI Comment

African people are angry, very angry.

Whilst the western media are busy vilifying him by labelling the honest and courageous words of African American artist Kanye West as ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’, the global African community remains united in our unwavering and unequivocal support for him.

We commend Kanye for using his celebrity status to speak up on the behalf of African people. Too many of those within our community with access to the media have neither the courage nor moral integrity to place the needs of our people before their own selfish personal ambitions.

Yahoo’s attempt to shirk its responsibility was nothing short of contemptuous. If the images submitted to their networks had used language sympathetic to terrorism their claims of ‘no additional editing’ would have come tumbling down in a wall of hypocrisy. Yet we should not be fooled, the inaction of the government and the anti-African media reporting of this tragedy is nothing new. Too many African peple prefer to see themselves as ‘blacks’ and do not understand that being ‘black’ instead of African means belonging to absolutely nothing. Despite a legacy of over 500 years in America the African survivors have now become labelled African 'refugees'.

Despite the much lauded calls of Dr Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream speech” America remains divided, the remaining real and indigenous Americans who were not murdered by the Europeans (Native Americans/Amerindians) are marginalised, the African Americans who were brought enslaved by the Europeans are the most impoverished, whilst the European Americans who stole, raped and now occupy the land use military and cultural power to maintain their illegitimate hold on the region.

If there was justice in this world then African people across the world would recognise that what has happened is indicative of the loathing and contempt western governments have of African lives. Culturally disinherited African people must re-learn to self determine and rely solely on self by supporting African people and organisations.

Giving money to European aid agencies doesnt change anything. Establishing and supporting African Aid organisations would.

Yet that would wrough havoc on the much beloved economies of European nations, so we can be sure that to take our minds of the politics, we will soon be subjected to a barrage of politricks. No doubt there we will soon be a plethora of compromised African celebrities who are all paid to speak, entertain and explain to us that massa isn’t racist and that it was 'someone else' who made a terrible mistake.

Meanwhile African people die, while ignorant ‘black’ people smile and hide.

Wake up.