My television habits generally consist of baseball games and the Academy Awards. MTV is never on my personal radar; in fact, I have not watched it since 1994, back when they still played a lot of music videos. So I had no interest in watching the Video Music Awards last night, nor did I care who won anything.
I was happily cocooned in an MTV-free zone last night when my Facebook news feed started lighting up with updates like “OMG Kanye is a jerk!” and “Wow, I can’t believe that stunt.” The stunt in question, for those of you who may not have heard, was Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift as she accepted Best Female Video so that he could loudly praise Beyonce, who had lost to Swift in that category. The crowd jeered, Swift was stunned into silence, and Beyonce had a brilliant WTF face.
My entire take on this is just that Kanye is something of a jerk. Really, it doesn’t need to have much subtext. But, of course, there are some around the blogosphere commenting sections (such as in The New York Times) who are crying “Kanye hates white people!” this morning. Swift is white; West and Beyonce are black. Surely it must be some grand get-whitey conspiracy, right? Yeah, I don’t think so. I already had to defriend one Facebook acquaintance for the status update “Kanye West doesn’t like white people.” And yes, I checked to make sure he wasn’t being sarcastic or referring to West’s “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” statement in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Does it automatically follow that when any nonwhite person criticizes — or outright humiliates, in West’s case — a white person, that said nonwhite individual is doing it because they are making a statement about their views on all white people? Uh, no. Sometimes an asshole is just an asshole.
Co-sign.
And it’s not like the fact that Kanye’s ans asshole is a shocking revelation at this point…
Also, when Beyonce won video of the year, she let Taylor come on stage and finish the speech that Kanye had interrupted. She’s a real class act, and she was obviously embarrassed by what Kanye did.
@Becky: Yeah, she could school him in etiquette.
Kanye is narcissistic and self-important, traits he shares with a lot of other people of all races, religions, genders, ages. Why is it so hard for people to grasp this?
I saw a comment on either Gawker or Jez that basically said, if it wasn’t for his music career Kanye would be starving and selling drugs in the ghetto. Yes, the word “ghetto” was actually used. It was disheartening, yet unsurprising, that it took people about 5 minutes to make it about race.
I feel like this is such a tempest in a teapot. MTV has made very sure that the VMAs don’t even attempt to have artistic integrity, and as such the awards mean effectively nothing besides indicating who’s making money for the network right now (great job, fellow capitalists!) Kanye was right — Single Ladies should have won — but who cares? He made an ass of himself for our entertainment and there probably won’t be any repercussions.
As for this being “reverse racism”…this is the perfect set-up, right? Elitist, black, urban hip-hop artist insults younger, female, white country singer. Feh.
I am slightly bitter about our current political climate and this entire thing is just too absurd for words.
@baraqiel: I totally agree that this is a tempest in a teapot. I mean come on, yeah it was a dick move, but I think she’ll live. This is why I don’t watch awards shows period though, I find all the self-congratulation slightly sickening.
Yeah, it was a total dick move. But that’s all.
Unfortunately, I totally agree with him. “Single Ladies” is just about the fiercest video ever, and it should have won.
@BeckySharper, I totally agree.
Kanye was terribly rude, but he was right. Taylor ain’t got nothin’ on Beyonce!
But maybe I just feel that way because I’m black, too. Shit… did I just reveal myself as a racist?!
@bluebears – Wow, that’s a really disgusting comment. If it wasn’t for his music career, he probably would have…finished college and gotten a job. Stereotyping much?
@Becky – Oh, def. I actually find the music video to be an interesting little medium and I would like it if the VMAs had any interest at all in rewarding artistic skill, which Single Ladies definitely shows. But nooooo…
Anyway, bad manners aside, I think this was the most entertaining thing to happen on that network in at least 5 years.
It was disheartening, yet unsurprising, that it took people about 5 minutes to make it about race.
The shit on twitter was outrageous. A search for “Kanye and nigger” was quite revealing. Post-racial America my ass
@Hill Rat: The term post-racial makes me want to bang my head against the keyboard. Anyone who thinks we’re in some kind of post-racial society needs their head checked.
And yes, this is a tempest in a teapot. I don’t really care much one way or another about the story itself, but some of the reactions are telling.
@HillRat: For real. I saw some posts going on about how “It was so ghetto.” Ugh.
It was just plain old shitty manners from an entitled spoiled brat who needs to grow the fuck up. His race genuinely has nothing to do with it.
@Hill Rat – Oh my god, that is disgusting. I was talking to my mother about this earlier and was arguing that Kanye’s insult to Taylor Swift was professional, not personal (it’s not like he got up there and said, “Oh, and by the way, you’re ugly and Beyonce’s a lot nicer than you, anyway). It sucks for Taylor Swift, yes, but if she wants to be famous she’s going to need to learn how to cope with a lot of professional insults. That is absolutely not in the same league as apparently 2 million tweets (!) with that combination of words. How loathsome.
America, can we just lose the rude? After all, George Clooney says so!
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/09/george_clooney_told_a_lady_she.html
@mischiefmanager: What’s George going to do for me in exchange for my giving up rudeness? That’s what I want to know.
imma have to agree with @baraqiel on this one.
oh no’s, some cute blonde over-publicized pop singer didn’t have her 30 seconds to thank her lord and savior and her fans for “making this happen” etc.
i thought that was the reason they had awards shows now-a-days: to get ratings by whatever means necessary.
where’s all the outcries over russell brand making jokes about roofies and transgendered people? i dont see people verbally shitting all over their facebook/twitter/etc about that.
I saw a comment on either Gawker or Jez that basically said, if it wasn’t for his music career Kanye would be starving and selling drugs in the ghetto.
And I love how contradictory this is too. Isn’t the point of selling drugs not starving? In my experience, if a person is starving, it’s a pretty good indicator that they’re not selling drugs. If people are going to be hateful and bigoted they could at least attempt not to contradict themselves in the same sentence.
C’mon! You know all us Black folks secretly HATE all White folk. Get with the program Harpies!
I’d like to assert that if Taylor Swifts fans are making racially-charged comments on her official page, it would be a great if she said something to distance herself from that.
But I won’t hold my breath.
Also… I HATE that “ghetto” is a verb now. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
I mean adjective.
I am now bringing it up everytime this is mentioned, but the post about this on Shakesville drove it home for me that West ruined Beyonce’s moment, too. Of course she was totally classy, and kind, and came off looking really good…but she still ended up giving up her own speech to cover someone else’s asshole move, and if she hadn’t she would have been criticized.
West pulling that stunt didn’t do the woman of color he was supposedly celebrating any favors at all.
I agree that assholes are just assholes, but I wonder how far that statement extends. Is it only for allegations of reverse racism or does it also extend to allegations of racism generally? Does it extend to Joe Wilson, who is clearly an asshole or does his outburst necessitate the label of racist?
On a related note about assholes – a very good friend of mine explained once why he uses language that is shockingly offensive (often racial slurs). He said that when he is angry, the anger encompasses him and his sole desire is to cause pain, so he uses language that directly causes pain. Not that this is good or excusable, but it did make me think about how people communicate.
I could not believe the shitstorm this stirred up. After reading people’s reactions I was thinking, “Holy shit, Kanye jumped up and called her a honky cracker bitch or something.”
Then I hear what he said, and yeah, it was classless (if true) and a mean thing to do to anyone, but I do not understand the gigantic amount of knicker-wadding going on over it. One over-privileged asshole was mean to another over-privileged asshole. Wooo, big deal.
@ceejee: Your comments made my day, if that makes any sense.
@geekgirls: It’s incredible how many people seemed to take this as personally as they did. And unless they’re all Presidents of the Taylor Swift Society, they should really take a step back and wonder why it’s so important in the scheme of things. West may be a jerk, but he’s a jerk who apologized, and what the hell does his or Swift’s race have to do with it? Amazing.
@Leela – Kanye’s dick move was not meant to send the message, “Taylor Swift, you are less important as a human because you are white”. There’s a stretch of an argument to say that it was misogynistic, but this is Kanye, I bet he would have done something like this to a dude as well.
Joe Wilson’s dick move, on the other hand, was meant to send the message, “Pres. Obama is not worthy of respect and decorum because he is black. Also, his words are not trustworthy because he is black.” That makes him a racist as well as a dick.
I’ll leave the dismantling of the contradiction in terms that is “reverse racism” to someone else…
@baraqiel – that’s amazing how you know the exact motives of both Kanye and Wilson.
I know, right? Amazing what observing basic human nature allows you to do. It’s like having psychic powers!
I love that the people who are quick to call this “reverse racism!!!!!” are the same ones who will say there’s nothing racist about birthers, or “Obamacare” posters, etc. Because we all know that racism REALLY hurts white people the most.
I guess genre snobbery plays a role, country-pop having less credibility than rap/R&B-tinged pop. But it’s a stretch from there to reverse racism.
When you’ve been called out by Obama, though, I think the shaming is complete.
@BeckyS: Whatever it is, he has to do it to me first.
@Ceejee: Thanks for the reality check. I’m feeling it!
It’s true to say that minorities can be guilty of bigotry. In our Jewish house,we used to have loud angry battles when my should-have-been-a-redneck cousin came for Thanksgiving dinner. My mom was not playing, and she was the one with the knife.
But as white Southern young ladies are not a victimized minority (except perhaps by white Southern young men), that’s not the case here. I think Kanye tried to transfer his own style to a situation where it didn’t fit. If he’d done it to Lil Wayne or even, say, Pink, it would have been different. But country and rap/hip hop/urban vibe/whatever have different rules of behavior and different attitudes and styles.
Which doesn’t excuse (1) his douchery or (2) the ugly remarks of some of her fans.
Sigh. Thank you, Beyonce, for showing all of us how it’s done.
[...] week we discussed the spectacular assholery of Kanye West at the VMA Awards. But while there’s no doubt Kanye [...]