Well, this is slightly awkward. Kanye West, great political thinker that he is (actually I can’t hate because he does call out some serious shit that’s actually happening in the world), took the stage in Las Vegas last night, where he addressed upscale retailer Barneys’ recent racism brouhaha. If you haven’t heard about this, here’s the scoop: basically, two black people were detained by police after buying expensive stuff in the store. Because, you know, black people can’t afford nice things or whatever. It’s fucked up, and Kanye is right to call it out (though his concert seems like a bizarre venue for it).
Here’s a bit of his rant:
“That’s that broke nigga racism. Don’t touch anything in the store. Excuse me that’s that, ‘Can I help you sir?’
“That’s that racial profiling out in front of Barneys and s**t. Talking about, ‘Did you steal that?’
“And it’s that rich nigga racism, that’s come in… Come in please buy more, please buy more… I know you just got some money and can’t wait to spend it, nigga.”
The awkwardness comes because his partner in crime/social skills mentor Jay-Z has ties to Barneys and instead of calling them out on their fuckery, Jay has basically said that everyone needs to chill and wait to hear both sides – a move which has, in itself, caused a big kerfuffle. People basically want to know if money is more important to him than, you know, basic human decency. I’m not so sure about Jay on that one.
Sorry. Any time Al Sharpton and his racist “Network” organization is involved in ANY issue, you know big Al is looking to extort money.
And Jay-Z being a voice of reason? Good to see somebody is telling people to wait until ALL the facts come out before whining and complaining.
Funny how SOOO many people come out of the woodwork after the first incident was reported. Same deal as when there’s a bus accident and 50 people claim injuries, when only 10 people were passengers on the bus.