Which celebrities do you admire most? Do you follow them on social media or pay attention to their personal lives? Why or why not?
In “What Kanye West Said About Slavery, Mental Health and Obama in His New Interviews,” Joe Coscarelli and Reggie Ugwu write:
It feels like Kanye West hasn’t stopped talking in weeks.
Since his return to Twitter last month, the rapper and designer has used 280 characters as his preferred medium to share news of forthcoming albums (and clothes), philosophical musings, polarizing political views (including support for President Trump) and detailed text messages with famous friends concerned about his recent ideological direction.
What Mr. West, 40, had not done, until the release of a 105-minute video interview on Tuesday, was speak at length on any of the hot-button topics that have swirled around him since the tumultuous period in late 2016 that ended with his hospitalization — and a visit to Trump Tower.
In his first extended interview since, conducted by the Power 105 morning show host Charlamagne Tha God at Mr. West’s California home on April 18, the musician appeared calm and lucid as he addressed a wide array of controversies, aspirations and regrets. But soon after the video was published, Mr. West made a taped appearance at TMZ headquarters, touching on many of the same points at a higher emotional frequency, including several statements about slavery that inspired outrage on social media.
Among other things, he commented on racism:
In reference to Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, he added: “Man, I know this is going to cause an uproar, but certain icons are just too far in the past and not relatable and that’s what makes them safe.”
(In a follow-up appearance Tuesday on TMZ, Mr. West was more scattered on the subject. “When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years?” he said. “That sounds like a choice. You was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? We’re mentally in prison.”)
President Trump:
“I love challenging the norm,” Mr. West said. “I love people who don’t love him. I love the fact that they speaking up and everybody’s just giving their opinions. I been waiting for this moment in time. This is like a Ye moment in time.”
After Charlamagne described President Trump as hostile to minorities and questioned how Mr. West could genuinely support him, the rapper elaborated. “I don’t have all the answers that a celeb is supposed to have,” he said. “But I can tell you that when he was running, it’s like I felt something. The fact that he won proves something. It proves that anything is possible in America.” He added, “When I see an outsider infiltrate, I connect with that.”
And therapy:
Twitter, he added, was not exactly a form of therapy for him. “I think everything is therapeutic, but I’m not doing it as a form of personal therapy,” he said. “It’s just an innate feeling. I want to express. I decided to use this platform to express some breakthroughs that I’ve had since going to the hospital.” He added: “There will be mistakes, flaws in the way I communicate today. I’m not media trained. I’m just saying exactly what I feel out of love.”
While Mr. West’s tweets and interviews have caused commotion on social media, Liel Leibovitz cautions against unfollowing the artist based on his political views and personal opinions in his Op-Ed, “Don’t Delete Kanye”:
Growing up in Tel Aviv, I would often grow enamored of a band, a writer or a filmmaker only to discover that my new celebrity crush was, to put it mildly, not a big fan of my country. At first, I resolved to disavow anyone whose politics I found reprehensible. I tossed aside those Brian Eno CDs, convincing myself that I had no business enjoying the music, no matter how entrancing, of someone who was calling for a boycott of Israel. I bored roommates at the time with endless rants against a musician for speaking his mind.
Even at my most indignant, something nagged. After all, the thing that angered me about Eno was the very same thing that made me love him in the first place, namely his ability to express deep emotions candidly for others to consider. That, by definition, is what a great artist does. Listen to Kanye’s 2010 masterpiece, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and you’ll hear an artist not only wrestling with all of his demons — “No one man should have all that power / The clock’s ticking, I just count the hours” — but sharing a flute of bubbly with them once he realizes the wrestling match is one he could never win.
Anyone who has marveled at Kanye’s ability to unmoor himself from reality in pursuit of his music should have no trouble understanding the mind-set that unleashed his latest tweetstorm.
This insight — that creative, experimental people might embrace some ideas that you despise because they are creative and experimental — is one Israelis have long learned to embrace. Lorde remains immensely popular in Tel Aviv, even after canceling her concert there. Massive Attack is still played on the radio, even though the band’s members criticized Israel’s conduct during the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza. And those hard-core “Star Wars” nerds among us who can stomach Episodes I, II, and III still enjoy them even though Padmé Amidala, or Natalie Portman, recently refused to accept an award in Israel to protest the policies of the current government.
Americans living through the Trump presidency should take note: Make everything about politics, and your culture will soon turn to scorched earth.
Students: Read some more snippets from Mr. West’s interview and the rest of Mr. Leibovitz’s Opinion piece, then tell us:
— What is your reaction to Mr. West’s interview and the public response to his comments?
— How much do celebrities’ personal beliefs — their political leanings, philosophical stances, perspectives on the world and the causes they do or don’t support — influence your opinion of their work? Would you ever delete a celebrity on social media or stop listening to his or her music, reading their books, viewing their films or watching their games if he or she said or did something that offended you? Have you ever admired someone’s work more for what he or she believed? Can you give an example?
— Or do you think a person’s work should stand completely independent of who he or she is as a person? Why do you think so?
— Mr. Leibovitz writes, “I’d rather live in a culture where artists feel free to leap or trip over the line of what’s acceptable rather than one in which the smallest misstep puts careers and reputations at risk.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
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