Was Kanye West Wrong for Being Rude or for Offending a White Woman?

Kanye is guilty of stupidity in the first degree — of that there’s no question. But there is something deeper to consider. When Kanye West went off on an alcohol-induced tirade on the MTV Awards and snatched the mic out of winner Taylor Swift’s hands to declare Beyonce the winner, he ignited an uproarious backlash. The news media, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and even sports programs that Kanye could not have possibly fathomed, picked the story up and ran with it. Kanye’s bumbling belligerence sent cultural shockwaves reverberating all the way up to the White House. Many African Americans would characterize the volcanic reaction to Kanye’s brain-belch as being out of proportion to the actual incident, despite the fact that most consider Kanye in the wrong. But there is some validity in their sentiments. 

Even in the new millennium, the slightest act of public disrespect by black men towards white women triggers the highest levels of outrage. This is nothing new. Just a half-century ago, Emmitt Till was hunted down like an animal, drug from his home, beaten, shot multiple times, mutilated and thrown in a river — all for allegedly whistling in a white woman’s direction. Malcolm X lamented bitterly in his seminal autobiography that he was given an exorbitantly high sentence for robbery [10 years] because he and his partner had two white women as part of their gang. And who will ever forget last decade’s “Trial of the Century” involving O.J. Simpson allegedly murdering the quintessential image of white American beauty, Nicole Brown. It is virtually guaranteed that if Simpson had been accused of murdering his first wife, an African American female, it would have garnered a fraction of media interest, at best. 

There are few things that come close — with the exception of threatening their right to bear arms or acts that are considered flagrantly unpatriotic — to arousing the ire of the collective white America than when blacks disrespect, harm, or God-forbid, murder a Caucasian female. If Kanye had pulled this stunt with a white male, the outrage would have been several degrees lower, but there would have been a robust reaction nonetheless. 

No one believes that Kanye would be at the epicenter of such a powerful cultural storm had he plucked the mic from the hands of say, Common or Lil’ Wayne. The mainstream media would have merely noted it because it would have involved a legitimate national personality. But nothing like this would have unfolded. 

So, yes, Kanye’s behavior at the MTV Awards is inexcusable and indefensible. But the spectacle is made exponentially worse because Kanye chose to publicly humiliate and injure the feelings of what is considered the quintessential essence of American beauty: a statuesque, blond-haired, blue-eyed, angelic looking innocent white woman named Taylor Swift, who happens to be a beloved country star. What was Kanye thinking? –terry shropshire