Protesters on a Los Angeles freeway overpass caused a scene in support of Kanye West’s anti-Semitic comments. He wrote “This is the exact type of hate that I will not tolerate as mayor. We will aggressively root out antisemitism. It has no place in our city and never will.” After weeks of disturbing statements, many anti-Semitic, Kanye West, now known as Ye, has been drawing negative attention and mounting calls for companies to cut ties with him.
Beginning at Paris Fashion Week at the beginning of this month, the ongoing wave of offensive speech has continued with anti-Semitic remarks made on social media and unaired footage from an interview with Tucker Carlson. Photos from a protest in Los Angeles on October 22 showed a group of men holding banners above an overpass of a freeway. .
Opinions of the Official
Los Angeles Msayor Eric Garcetti tweeted on Sunday, “L.A. is a city of belonging, not hate. The anti-Semitic acts of this weekend are strongly condemned. Jews living in Los Angeles should never feel threatened. In the City of Angels, bias and bigotry have no place,and we will continue to fight until it is exposed and eliminated.”
George Gascón, the district attorney of Los Angeles, agreed. On Sunday, he also tweeted, “We cannot tolerate the #AntiSemitism that was on full display today on an L.A. Fwy.” Social cancer, “#WhiteSupremacy,” must be eradicated. There can be no normalization of this potentially harmful message. I join the Jewish community in its outrage over this despicable act.”
Watchdog groups say an antisemitic hate group is responsible for a banner that read “Kanye is right about the Jews” and was hung over a busy Los Angeles freeway on Saturday, after Ye (formerly Kanye West) made a series of antisemitic comments in recent weeks. In support of the banner and another sign that read “Honk if you know,” a group of people raised their arms in a Nazi salute.
The Goyim Defense League, a group of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, run a video platform where they stream antisemitic content advertised in the third banner. It was the Goyim Defense League, according to StopAntisemitism.org, a non-profit organization that tracks anti-Semitic incidents.
The Southern California chapter of the Anti-Defamation League claimed on Twitter that the banner’s creators “are known for espousing vitriolic # antisemitism and white supremacist ideology.” This hateful rhetoric has no place in Los Angeles or anywhere else, and attempts to drive a wedge between us will fail.
Disgraceful words can not be justified
Several prominent people decried the recent rise in antisemitic discourse over the weekend. On Monday, Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian tweeted, “Hate speech is never acceptable or excusable. I join the Jewish community in demanding an end to the horrific attacks and vile rhetoric directed at them.”
Antisemitism, in any form, is deplorable,” Reese Witherspoon tweeted on Sunday night. In the flesh. Online. It’s irrelevant where. It’s hateful, and it can’t be tolerated. That my Jewish friends and coworkers are worried about their families is something I fully comprehend. “We’re living in some pretty terrifying times right now,” she said. Amy Schumer, a comedian, and actor, recently posted on Instagram that she “supports her Jewish friends and the Jewish people.”
