The Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance Has Warned That Ye’s Antisemitic Tweets Are A Threat To Black And Jewish Relations

“Words like this tear at the fabric of the Black-Jewish relationship.”

Black and Jewish communities are condemning Kanye West’s recent antisemitic tweets, accusing the rapper of pushing dangerous narratives about Black Jews.

In a now-removed antisemitic tweet, the "Jesus Walks" performer, known legally as Ye, wrote that he planned to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

In a statement, the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance described Ye’s message as a threat to Black and Jewish relations.

“Ye’s recent statements about the Jewish community are hurtful, offensive, and wrong,” the organization, which launched in 2021, said in a statement. “They perpetuate stereotypes that have been the basis for discrimination and violence against Jews for thousands of years. Words like this tear at the fabric of the Black-Jewish relationship.”

Members of the Black Jewish community were also quick to call out Ye for his tweets.

“Yeah, Black people can be Jewish. I'm living proof of that. But your Blackness doesn't cancel out your antisemitism. And the ideology you purport in this tweet actually HARMS the very Black Jews you're referencing. This is grossly offensive and nonsensical,” content creator Raven Schwam-Curtis wrote on Twitter.

Shekhiynah Larks, a program coordinator and diversity trainer at Be’chol Lashon, an organization in San Francisco that advocates for Jews of color, warned that Ye’s comments tapped into a dangerous ideology.

“This ‘Black people are the real Jews’ narrative needs to stop. It’s harmful, it’s not true, it’s historical erasure, it’s communal erasure, and it’s gotten to the point where people are starting to threaten bodily harm or do acts of violence surrounding this narrative,” Larks said in a TikTok video.

On Saturday, Twitter temporarily locked Ye’s account for violating its policies, and a spokesperson for Meta confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the company had deleted content from his Instagram account and restricted his use after moderators found he had broken community posting guidelines.

Ye’s recent statements about the Jewish community are hurtful, offensive, and wrong. They perpetuate stereotypes that have been the basis for discrimination and violence against Jews for thousands of years. Words like this tear at the fabric of the Black-Jewish relationship.

Twitter: @BJEAlliance

The behavior exhibited this week by @kanyewest is deeply troubling, dangerous, and antisemitic, period. There is no excuse for his propagating of white supremacist slogans and classic #antisemitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has.

Twitter: @ADL

“The Black and Jewish communities must stand together through incidents like this to make clear that trafficking in hateful stereotypes is unacceptable and that the words of one entertainer do not reflect the views of an entire community,” the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance said.

The Anti-Defamation League also condemned Ye’s actions, saying, “there is no excuse for his propagating of white supremacist slogans and classic #antisemitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has.”

Songwriter Autumn Rowe, who is both Black and Jewish and on the executive committee for the Alliance, shared the statement on Instagram.

“Kanye has been such an inspiring artist to me for so many years. To hear those views is incredibly hurtful,” Rowe told BuzzFeed News.

The Grammy-winning artist described how minority communities had been pitted against each other and said that a lack of appreciation for each other's history was causing further issues.

“There have been a lot of tensions in the past few years, a big part is due to leadership in this country, which had enabled ‘anything goes’ at one point. So we're at the state of people feeling unheard and then there's generational trauma,” Rowe said.

The artists warned that Ye’s comments were not only divisive but also reopened wounds for the Jewish community. They urged the artists to seek education.

Commentators on social media were also critical of Ye and warned of the type of damage his recent online activity could do.

“A week of full hate starting with a complete disrespect of Black people’s trauma and ending with unbridled antisemitism. Putting both Black people and Jewish people at risk of violence,” actor Brett Gelman wrote on Twitter.

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