Last week, Kanye West spewed bizarre nonsense on one of the world’s largest platforms for white supremacy.
He said a lot of things that he should not have. Sadly, that statement is fairly evergreen when it comes to Ye.
Kanye aimed one of his attacks at Lizzo, particularly her weight, voicing worrisome conspiracy theories.
Lizzo’s response is short, comical, and perfectly Lizzo.
There is never a good reason to appear as a guest on Tucker Carlson’s program. But Kanye West chose a particularly bad one.
“When Lizzo loses 10 pounds and announces it, the bots … on Instagram, they attack her for losing weight,” he claimed.
“Because the media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal,” Ye insisted, “when it’s actually unhealthy.”
“Let’s get aside from the fact whether it’s fashion and Vogue, which it’s not,” Kanye ranted.
He continued: “or if someone thinks it’s attractive, to each his own. It’s actually clinically unhealthy.”
Kanye then outlandishly insisted: “For people to promote that, it’s demonic.”
Eager to egg on Ye, Carlson then asked why he believes that these unspecified “demonic” people want to “promote unhealthiness.
Kanye responded with his usual nuance: “It’s a genocide of the Black race.”
He then added: “They want to kill us in any way they can.”
Kanye did not seem especially inclined to explain who “they” were.
However, given his recent antisemitic tirade, one has to imagine that he would surround “they” with three parentheses (a common dogwhistle used by white supremacists to label Jewish people).
In general, people who say “they” in reference to shadowy and sinister unseen forces controlling the world are usually referring to antisemitic conspiracy theories.
One day after Kanye’s latest display of abject clownery, Lizzo seemingly addressed them at Toronto’s Scotaibank Arena.
Mid-performance, she spoke to the crowd.
“I feel like everybody in America got my motherfucking name in their motherfucking mouth for no motherfucking reason,” Lizzo observed.
She is not wrong. White nationalists expressed rage when she played a flute very recently, and now this.
Lizza affirmed: “I’m minding my fat Black beautiful business.”
Hyping up the crowd, she asked: “Who can I marry for that dual citizenship?”
Lizzo’s response was spot-on.
Sadly, some in the rest of the world have had baffling or even upsetting responses to Kanye’s outlandish bad behavior.
The worst are, of course, the people who are delighted by his overt malice and antisemitic bigotry.
But then there are bad takes like this one that insist that people should not condemn Kanye, because of his mental illness.
We all hope that he gets help and once again seeks medication (despite his belief that “they” give him meds to silence him).
But we want to be very clear: bipolar disorder does not make someone a bad person. Kanye’s poor moral character is not a symptom.
Mental illness can make someone more susceptible to conspiracy theories.
Or make them overshare what’s on their mind, yes. But there are millions of good, decent people with mental illness.
Blaming Ye’s racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and more on his mental health is ableist. Don’t malign countless good people with mental illness to defend one bad man with the same disorder.