David Baddiel has described Kanye West’s antisemitic comments as “actively dangerous”.
In October, West was banned from Twitter and Instagram after posting a series of antisemitic messages. He went on to say he didn’t believe in the term antisemitism, before stating that he’s “jealous” of Jewish culture in an interview with Piers Morgan.
The Jewish comedian addressed West’s comments during an interview with Sky News, stating that he’s playing to “ancient antisemitic tropes”.
“Kanye says unbelievably antisemitic stuff drawing on, it should be said, very ancient antisemitic tropes,” Baddiel said. “One key thing about what Kanye says is that antisemitism is often seen by people as punching up, so they don’t see it as racism because what they see is that Jews are powerful.
“So Kanye will say something like ‘Jews are in control of the music business, I’m finally throwing off the shackles of how Jews won’t let me speak about this, that or the other because they’re in control.’ He then says, ‘I’m going to go defcon three on them all.’ But it comes from a sense of this is a rebel yell against a race that is controlling us.
“It sounds like someone fighting the good fight, right? And that is actually what Hitler, who Kanye has said he’s an admirer of, that is also how Hitler sounded to some people and to a lot of people.”
Baddiel went onto explain that people who share these views and have “powerful voices” like West are a danger to the Jewish community.
“I’m bothered by what’s dangerous for Jews, what’s dangerous for my children,” Baddiel added. “I do think it’s dangerous. I think it’s actively dangerous. The point is these are very powerful voices. Kanye, because he’s a brilliant hip-hop artist, has got a really powerful voice.”
Asked if he thinks West is racist, Baddiel replied: “I think he already says he’s antisemitic, and antisemitism is racism.”
Recently, an Australian federal minister said West could be denied entry to the country due to his “awful” antisemitic comments.
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