One of the reasons I rarely post on Twitter is that it’s very easy for typos to become memes. Remember Trump’s Covfefe tweet? What did it mean or was it a just a slip of the mouse? Thus, we don’t really know whether Kanye West really meant death con3 to Jews or did he mean defcon3 which is a military term for increase in force readiness above that required for normal readiness. These misreads especially occur when someone is speaking rather than typing into a computer. In my old age, I need subtitles for everything I watch and the subsequent incorrect translation of speech can be quite amusing.

But let’s consider that there was no typo and Kanye did mean death con3. Even liberal Bill Maher pointed out that members of the House have made anti-Semitic remarks and did not have banks close their bank accounts. He meant Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) who’ve made no secret how much they loathe Israel. Reverends Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have all made such demeaning comments about Jews even though most NYC Jews vote for their Democratic party.

Mayor David Dinkins, NYC’s first black mayor, spent more time watching the tennis U.S. Open matches in Forest Hills than addressing what was happening in the outer boroughs. What has been called a ‘pogrom’ occurred during 1991 riots in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights where rioters were shouting, “Kill the Jews.” For three days, Black residents attacked Orthodox Jewish residents, damaged their homes, and looted businesses. During the riots, Jews were injured, stores were looted, and cars and homes were damaged. The rioters identified Jewish homes by the mezuzot affixed to the front doors. The majority of rioters were African and Caribbean Americans with some not even living in Crown Heights.

I grew up in the 1950s in Spanish Harlem and recognized even as a child that anti-Semitism was prevalent among the inner-city residents. Why? Because most of the landlords were Jewish as were most of the local business owners. Most of this hostility and antipathy is bred into families by members and political demagogues with a self-serving agenda.

My own family was immune to this because my mother was a very religious woman who went to daily mass and had love for everybody. We also had many Jewish neighbors and family friends who ensured that we never starved when things were really harsh.

I am not a fan of rap music and have never even heard any of Kanye West's music. What I have read about him has been quite negative and the very fact that he was married to Kim Kardashian made me believe that the rumors of his mental instability were valid.

However, I did watch his interview with Tucker Carlson and came away with the impression that while he may possibly be bipolar, he is not dumb, nor is he deranged. He makes some very lucid comments is actually quite interesting but at the same time very dangerous to the left because he is a black billionaire who will no longer stand for being manipulated.

He has made some statements that some conservatives believe indicate that he is turning towards the right. I believe that he is simply being observant and not falling for the progressive hype. For example: BLM is a scam. Absolutely. He also dared to suggest that George Floyd died on a fentanyl overdose so Floyd’s family is threatening to sue him for $250 million.

It was only a matter of time before Kanye West spouted anti-Semitic comments because the powers that be in parts of the music industry do happen to be Jewish and resentments between blacks and those holding power over their income have a long history.

I once worked at Virgin Airlines where I met one of the Bobbettes, the teenage group that had the 1957 hit, “Mr. Lee”. She told me that she had travelled thru the segregated South and saw awful sights of lynching. She also complained that her group were cheated by the ones who held their contract. She described them exactly in the same way as Kanye has in his tweets.

I have written several columns about the anti-Semitism I’ve witnessed as a Roman Catholic by bigots freely expressing their antipathy, assuming I share their animosity. This hostility towards Jews come from all societal groups. Nurses talk behind their Jewish doctor bosses, housekeepers trash their employers behind their back. Even my Southern mother-in-law would rail against a Jewish co-worker calling her money-hungry and spout racial remarks. When I politely told her that I didn’t like that kind of talk in front of my children, our relationship sunk till her end. My husband’s friendship with an Egyptian co-worker ended when he mentioned that 9/11 was due to our alliance with Israel. We have raised our children to be free of prejudice and bigotry because those negative compulsions are taught in the home.

Kanye West professes to be a Christian but to be a true follower of Christ, one must realize that His core message is love. Since Jesus, his apostles and early disciples were all Jews, I hope Kanye can learn to distance himself from the manipulation of his earlier environment of relatives and demagogues that fueled his animosity and anti-Semitism.

We should also remember that just like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden are not real Catholics, those in what Kanye calls the Jewish Underground Mafia are Jews in name only.

…FYI, anti-Semites, Jews do not run this country’s wealth. It has always been from time immemorial-WASPS.

Image: Cosmopolitan UK, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0