[Video] “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” - Kanye West
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“George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” said Kanye West as he ended his speech during the Concert for Hurricane Relief on Friday night.
Alongside actor Mike Myers, Kanye West diverted from his pre-prepared script to offer his feelings on the Hurricane Katrina. Kanye started off with how the media portrayed white people as “finding” food and blacks as “looters.”
“I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family it says they’re looting. You see a white family it says they are looking for food,” referring to Yahoo! and other media outlets showing photos of Blacks people captioned as “looters” while Whites in photos were captioned as “finders” of food and supplies. Yahoo later removed the images and offered a public apology.
West, whose grandparents were heavily involved in the civil rights movement and whose father was a member of the Black Panthers, looked nervous as he stumbled through his words.
“It’s been five days because most of the people are Black; and even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I tried to turn away from the TV because it’s to hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation. So now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what’s the biggest amount I can give; and to just imagine if I was down there and those are my people down there.”
Kanye continued, in an almost rambling fashion standing beside Mike Myers, who at this point was shaking his head in agreement.
“To anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with the set-up that America’s set up to help the poor, the Black people, the less well off - slow as possible. The Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realized how a lot of the people who could help are at war right now fighting another war. They’ve given them [The U.S. Army] permission to go down [to New Orleans] and shoot us.”
Mike Myers, now visibly stunned, turned to Kanye and shock but continued on with his pre-written speech until Kanye interrupted him saying, “George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people.” MSNBC immediately cut to Chris Tucker who sat looking bewildered.
Many have applauded Kanye’s statements, calling him a “hero” for speaking out on what many feel. However, media outlets such as Juicce News Daily, claim Kanye ruined the show. “In a disgusting display, West strayed from his prepared script to offer an overflow of hatred from his mouth, taking the spotlight off of the matter at hand, turning the relief program into his own personal soapbox.”
Blogging the Hurricane Relief Concert, an MSNBC sponsored blog, walked the fine line, stating, “Kanye brings up an important point, talking about how the media portrays white as seeking food and blacks as looters,” but ends the post with “Not sure what kind of flack Kanye’s gonna catch for that last bit, but I’m sure he doesn’t care.”
The show was simulcast from New York on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax. NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks claimed the person in charge “was instructed to listen for a curse word, and didn’t realize [West] had gone off-script.” In a statement, NBC said, “Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks.”
posted by AK at 3:09 AM
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