Kanye West-inspired antisemitic harassment and hate speech spreads in US: report

Kanye West has kept a relatively low profile since becoming a social pariah in the fall by spouting antisemitic hate speech on social media and in interviews, but his rhetoric has continued to reverberate across the country, particularly on college campuses, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.

Two far-right members of the white supremacist group Groypers, Tyler Russell and Dalton Clodfelter, have launched a “Ye is right” campaign by traveling to different college campuses, setting up tables, brandishing that slogan and yelling out to passersby, asking them whether they “love Hitler,” the ADL said in a report released Monday. The duo also start arguments with students by besieging them with conspiracy theories and endorsing West’s 2024 presidential bid, which the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye, launched with the help of notorious Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

Russell and Clodfelter film their arguments and post them online, the ADL said. They held  their “Ye is right, change my mind” events at  Florida Atlantic University on Jan. 18 and on Florida State on Jan. 26.  They also have held similar events at the University of Alabama, the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida and Florida International University.

These events coincide with at least 30 antisemitic incidents that have occurred around the country and that directly refer to West and his comments, the ADL’s Center on Extremism has documented. The incidents include vandalism and targeted harassment, the ADL said.

“Kanye West’s repeated antisemitic remarks — and his dredging up some of the worst anti-Jewish tropes imaginable — doubtlessly are having an impact and inspiring people to commit real-world acts of hate,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “As we have long maintained, celebrities and others who engage in spreading hateful tropes need to know their words have consequences. Unfortunately, Kanye’s decision to continue to peddle hatred against Jews is only giving encouragement to people who are already infected with hate.”

West’s interest in extremist rhetoric has become evident over the past few years, along with concerns about his mental health. The rapper-turned-fashion mogul has been open about his diagnosis with bipolar disorder.

But Ye’s public embrace of antisemitism erupted in October, beginning with his appearance at Paris Fashion week, followed by a controversial Fox News interview and incendiary social media posts. The posts included his vow on Twitter to go “death con 3 (sic) on JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to going on “defcon” military alert. He then brought Fuentes to dine with him and Donald Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort and proclaimed that he “loves” Nazis and “likes” Hitler in an interview with Infowars founder and owner Alex Jones.

In mid-October, the words “Kanye was right” and “Defcon III” were found scrawled on a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse sidewalk, the ADL reported. Two weeks later, the phrases “Kanye West is right” and “Kill All Jews” were etched onto the bathroom wall of a Newport Beach high school alongside three swastikas, the ADL said.

Vandals also wrote messages with the variation “Kanye was right” at a Jewish community center in New York and a Jewish cemetery in Illinois. Ye supporters also have besieged several Jewish-owned businesses, Holocaust centers and synagogues with harassment, the ADL reported. In San Francisco on Jan. 18, someone entered the Jewish Community Center claiming to be “investigating” Ye’s claims about Jews.

West, meanwhile, has mostly been in the news because of surprise top-secret “wedding” to Bianca Censori, who is said to be the architectural designer for his Yeezy company. It’s still not clear whether the marriage is legal but The Sun reported that a ceremony took place at a resort in Utah. The Sun confirmed that the couple did not register for a marriage license in Utah.