Just in case you haven't heard about it:
A celebrity telethon for Hurricane Katrina survivors took an unexpected turn when outspoken rapper Kanye West went off script during the live broadcast, declaring America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."And there's more:
...West began a rant by saying, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."The video is right here. (And perhaps the icing on the cake: his comments were actually censored when the telethon was broadcast on the West Coast.)While allowing that "the Red Cross is doing everything they can," West... declared that government authorities are intentionally dragging their feet on aid to the Gulf Coast. Without getting specific, he added, "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us."
After he stated, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," the camera cut away to comedian Chris Tucker.
Is this the Month (or Year) of Ye or what? Last week he drops an album -- yeah, I preordered the limited edition digipak with the poster and the T-shirt -- that is likely going to be on my favorites of the year (and will certainly end up on many others' lists as well), and then this. The man deserves a medal.
Hi there,
Thanks for blogging about hurricane Katrina.
I was in Philippines when the tsunami hit.
I can tell you the pictures are of the same type of devastation.
I just went through my international blogroll,,,,,and hardly anyone offered a post or a prayer .........
It is making me think long and hard, but is is awesome to see so many countries offering support after being so mad at us over iraq.
Thanks again.
I'm not a fan of Kayne...but I'm going to show that clip to my students!
Posted by: brown on September 5, 2005 05:29 PMOne of my students made a copy of Kanye West's College Dropout CD for me -- I'm not much into hip-hop, but I liked the CD a lot; it made me laugh (obviously my A-student was ribbing me about the whole "college try" thing), and it made me nostalgic (I don't know if it was Kanye, but somebody did a kick-ass "Al Green"), but most of all it was a really smart and surprisingly pastiched collection of tracks. I hear something new on it, everytime I play it. I recommend it.
Also, I did see NBC cut Kanye in the middle of his talk. I realized at one point -- partly from the nervous way that Mike was looking at him -- that he wasn't reading from whatever was prepared, that he was talking off the top of his head; at that point, I started wondering when they were going to cut him off. It didn't take long; but he got the most important parts out.
Posted by: Jean on September 5, 2005 09:17 PM