As a Jewish person, I have a pretty high bar of what I consider “antisemitic”. I think there is a difference between jokes and stereotypes and statistics and actual antisemitism. There’s a number of definitions of antisemitism, but I believe it has to have a negative intent. And I, like frankly most Jews I know, recognize that the ADL pretty much will call everything antisemitism. But it’s kind of their purpose to bring attention to the antisemitism and they will exploit every opportunity to do so.
For example (I’m going to take a less widely recognized trope/conspiracy theory), I have no problem with people recognizing that there are many psychiatrists and psychologists are Jews. If you look at the origins of modern psychology, almost all the founders were Jewish- Freud, Klein, Frankl, Maslow, Kahneman, Erickson, etc. Seemingly everyone except Jung. (There are various studies that suggest Jewish cultural factors poised Jews to be in a position to more willingly explore psychology). Even today psychiatrists and psychologists are disproportionately Jewish compared to our very small population.
But the true antisemites, filled with hatred and vitriol, like to believe that Jews essentially “invented” the fields of psychiatric medicine in order to “control” the gentile population. Apparently people didn’t have emotions prior to Freud? I guess the joke’s on us (the Jews) because Jews are more likely than Christians to seek mental health treatment.
I see nothing wrong with Kanye recognizing there’s a lot of Jews in the music industry (I’m not convinced that’s even really the case, more likely it’s just disproportionate given the Jewish population size). But it’s like everything else he said about Jews- like specifically, not music industry execs, leeching off artists because they themselves are not creative. That’s a reworking very old trope. One routinely used by Nazis.
I do think it’s possible for Kanye to say antisemitic things without intending to be offensive, which is significant in my judgement. First of all, he’s clearly not mentally well and much of what he says is not exactly coherent. Secondly, I’d rather see instances like this be treated with a different tact, like informing him his beliefs are misguided, explain in detail why people would might see this as antisemitic, and here’s the information he should know. It’s very different than jumping the gun and saying he’s a Nazi and an antisemite who is maliciously spreading conspiracy theories. I just think people are complex and it’s possible for people to have misguided beliefs while also not being hateful.
That said, it’s apparent there were people who tried to guide Kanye. But there was also mob of people (probably mostly non-Jews) who came out with pitchforks. And he continued to double down on his statements. So I’m not surprised he lost his business deals.
As for Dave Chapelle, he’s a comedian. I don’t believe he was trying to mask hatred with comedy. He was making Jokes. Jokes often have some level of discomfort. I thought a lot of what he said was funny because I’m not taking what he is saying so seriously. That said, I wasn’t a big fan of his comment about how Jews cannot hold Black people responsible for antisemitism. I’m not sure anyone has ever said Black people are responsible for antisemitism. I think most people would say antisemites are responsible for antisemitism.
I think people took his comments about “Jewish control” out of context. I didn’t get the impression he was saying no, Jews actually control the world. He was highlighting how emotional people get at the mere recognition that Jews are disproportionately more successful in certain areas, which in itself doesn’t imply hatred. I suppose people hear what they want to hear though. Which is kind often his point.
I do think we could benefit though by not assuming the worst in people and in providing the opportunity to help people grow.
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