Anti-Semitism in Media
Anti-Semitism has been a dark part of American history for decades, yet it is often covered up by the false facade that antisemitism was only truly harmful in Europe during World War II. This is far from the truth. In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League noted nearly 3,000 antisemitic incidents, the most since 1979. Yet, there is one common factor that has been noted among these incidents: social media.
Social media has provided a platform for extremist groups to spread their message and recruit new members. Due to the overwhelming increase in social media platforms and their traffic, it has become increasingly difficult to remove users promoting hate speech from social media altogether. However, those spreading antisemitism are not solely alt-right extremists and QAnon believers. Famous public figures promoting antisemitism are arguably more dangerous as their beliefs reach a much broader audience.
Most notably, Kanye West is notoriously a hot topic in the media due to his outlandishly antisemitic remarks. In recent months he has continued to make incredibly detrimental remarks including a tweet claiming he would like to go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” and stating in an interview that he can see “good things about Hitler.” While West lost his partnership with Adidas over these remarks, the general public has not halted their support altogether for the estranged rapper. Yeezy online resales have not gone down, and at the end of 2022, West was among the top five artists streamed on Spotify in the US and the UK.
Rihanna’s 2023 Super Bowl performance sparked another conversation surrounding West. In 2011, Rihanna was featured in West’s song “All of the Lights.” Although West did not make an appearance at the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime show, Rihanna did sing the song. Some critics stated it was “grossly insensitive” for Rihanna to perform the song as it ultimately furthered West’s platform, adding that it would have been easy for her to simply perform a different song from her repertoire. Others say that she should be allowed to perform whatever she wants as the work is her’s just as much as it is West’s.
Antisemitism affects Jewish communities across the world as it invokes generational trauma and prevents progress toward religious freedom. As social media platforms continue to be used to promote hate speech, West and other antisemites will continue to have a prominent platform, and their inaccurate and harmful remarks can be seen and misinterpreted as truth by easily impressionable users. We can no longer excuse antisemitism, choosing to listen to another artist other than Ye and educating ourselves are both simple things we can do to work toward reversing the negative effects of antisemitism.
To learn more about how antisemitism affects the Jewish community, visit https://www.ajc.org/issues/antisemitism
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/16/kanye-west-antisemitic-rapper-ye-spotify
https://www.newsweek.com/rihanna-super-bowl-kanye-west-all-lights-1780777
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/oct/25/how-ye-stirred-anti-semitism-among-social-media-us/