Kanye West says backlash for Trump support reminds him of being racially profiled

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Kanye West has said that people making assumptions about his political views reminded him of being racially profiled.

The rapper and entrepreneur has faced a furore in the past for his support of President Donald Trump and for wearing his ‘Make America Great Again’ cap in public.

In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal West said he maintains his support for Trump and added that people’s reactions to him doing so have a racial context.

“It reminded me of how I felt as a black guy before I was famous, when I would walk in a restaurant and people would look at you like you were going to steal something,” he said. “‘This is your place, Ye, don’t talk about apparel. This is your place, Ye, you’re black, so you’re a Democrat.’”

West’s praise of Trump in the interview comes as medical officials and a growing numbers of unemployed workers criticise the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s not the first time West has engaged in politics. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 he publicly condemned the lack of federal assistance for New Orleans. “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” West declared at the time.

Elsewhere in the interview West spoke about how he worked closely with Trump to help free A$AP Rocky from prison for aggravated assault in Sweden last year.

In other news, Ye and his wife Kim Kardashian West hit the headlines last week when a new video was leaked that appeared to show that Taylor Swift did not consent to a controversial line about her in Ye’s 2016 song ‘Famous’.

West was criticised for a line referencing Swift in ‘Famous’, where he rapped: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous.” Speaking about the lyric at the time, West said that Swift consented to its inclusion in a phone call. His wife Kim Kardashian later released a video that appeared to support West.

Kardashian West has since denied the new video proves Swift did not got permission, as was originally reported, by saying the pop star “is actually lying”.

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