[From the diaries by susanhu with updates/edits. NBC concert will be reaired at 9am PT today.] Holy crap, people. Is anyone watching the benefit concert on NBC? Kanye West just let loose with a totally unscripted, off-the-cuff, angry rant.
Paraphrasing … “I hate the way we are portrayed in the media. When they see a white family they’re looking for food, when they see a black family they call it looting. The system is set up to get aid to black people as slowly as possible … George Bush doesn’t care about black people …” Then he gets cut off. Holy shit.”
Update [2005-9-3 10:59:52 by susanhu]: Crooks & Liars: NBC censors Kanye West (VIDEO)
“NBC edited his remarks on the West Coast feed …”
[BELOW at C&L] “During the Concert for Hurricane Relief, Kanye West and Mike Meyers were celebrity narrators during the segment, West said: (rush transcript):
“I hate the way they portray us in the media. “If you see a black family it says they are looting if you see a white family it says they are looking for food.
“We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war now fighting another way and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Mike Meyers was floored… (VIDEO)
I have a scary thought as I keep hearing people saying they fear violence in NO and that the hardened National Guard soldiers in the city have a shoot to kill policy and they will “maintain order” at any cost…
I fear if they start killing each other we will see civil disobedience in the inner cities of America on a scale unimaginable.
I really really pray it doesn’t come to that.
But really, it appears that Bush indeed doesn’t care about black people.
Couldn’t believe my ears!! I guess thats what happens when you put people on TV unscripted at a time like this. You get to hear how some people actually feel!!
Also saw Matt at the end talk about difficult feelings at a time like this. I was glad he acknowledged it and seemed to understand.
Did you see how nervous Kanye West was?…like he’d been planning it all day and knew he’d get in biiiiig trouble.
he may have destroyed his career, with just a few simple heartfelt words. Promotion will likely dry up for him as his label gets nervous and tries to protect itself.
It needed to be said.
I too am truly worried that the cities could go up w/ one more unjustified police shooting, one more injustice.
I don’t even know who he is. But I love him.
Is right. That has got to be almost unprecedented in modern history. A president accused of being racially uncaring on national network television. I can’t really remember anything like that in my lifetime.
I agree that this could be a powder keg waiting to explode, though.
Good point. That is one thing that American does not need right now … an all out race war.
Check this flickr photo someone put together – link
Strong undercurrents here people.
these new art forms. Graphics. Powerful messages. That was cool.
It was also a treat to see Mike Meyers’ response. He basically couldn’t even process what was going on. I really don’t think he even heard a word that Kanye (a bit of a nut job since the accident) said, then just picked up off the teleprompter as if nothing had happened.
I don’t think I’ve seen a professional performer that nervous before. I don’t think he was worried about getting into trouble. I think he knew he had one shot to do something really important and didn’t want to F it up.
They cut the last comment about Bush out of the rebroadcast. Look for it online tomorrow.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050902.wtelethon0902/BNStory/Entertainment/
Bush has created, yes created the lead up to a civil war. Am I crazy? I think not. We are in for a long dark road to hell. Where so we go from here? It is hard to believe a week ago I was in Crawford, full of hope for this country and today, I am feeling so hopeless, so helpless.
Enough of this sanitized bs from our media.
I had just surfed over when this part came on. I didn’t know what I was seeing since I only recognized Mike Myers. But I heard the whole tirade, and cheered. Then, when the dixieland band started playing “when the saints go marching in” I just started bawling like I haven’t been able to all week. I grew up in NOLA. I remember the dixieland funeral processions with the band playing that song. It was just too much. It’s still too much.
Kanye West hasn’t destroyed his career. I think he will go on from here. After all, he’s a young black rapper–I’m sure his audiences will either forgive him his politics or ignore them altogether (or else agree with him).
Mr. West’s words were obviously heartfelt and yes, he was very nervous–because he knew he was doing the forbidden, talking about race and class and criticising Bushus Maximus, Conqueror of Iraq and Afghanistan, Scourger of Fallujah, Slayer of Liberals, etc…
I doubt that Mr. West’s allegations are going to get much discussion in American public discourse. Race is sometimes discussed, but class? Never!
And yes, I think class is just as important as race, if not moreso. If those poor people trapped in New Orleans were white and poor, I don’t think there’d be any more of a rush to help them.
Unfortunately, there is no way to politically organise poor people in the United States. The Democrats are a pro-capitalist party, as are the Repubicans, and both parties have a vested interest in keeping the poor of America politically disenfranchised. That is because to face up to the problems of the poor is to admit that America’s economic system must be fundamentally altered. America has plenty of wealth; it is not distributed fairly nor even according to basic needs. To change that would be to change everything, and there are powerful and deadly forces in place to ensure that never happens.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Poor People’s Campaign” was an attempt to unite politically along class, rather than racial, lines–and even some of his old civil rights allies turned against him. Of course that campaign died with King, and has never been revived.
I will say this: so long as the poor are not organised as a political force, America will not really change for the better.