Thank you, Van. As a Jewish person, I truly appreciate what you've said here and I've always appreciated you. We are in a painful time and you bring light into the darkness.
Van, I listen to you and watch your interviews all the time. You are a model of immense compassion. You have no idea how much your comment to me has made my day!!
As someone who is neither Black nor Jewish, but white, I echo your thoughts and thank you for speaking elegantly for most of humanity who is/will fight against bigotry in every form.
I deeply appreciate your allyship, Van, and I was extremely moved by your trip to Auschwitz. Thank you for this ray of hope in these incredibly disturbing times. And for reminding your readers of the historical connection between Blacks and Jews. We’re better together!
I deeply appreciate this, and you, as always. You're fighting an incredibly important fight here, and it also happens to be quite a brave one.
But i'll add: Ye is so despicable and virulent in his antisemitism that it's almost a self-cancelling parody. The problem with "centering" him (not a criticism of you--thank you for addressing it), is that it offers a certain level of distraction, it allows more insidious and widespread forms of antisemitism--those that mostly hide behind the mask of antizionism--to distance themselves from the hateful caricature that is Ye's version.
If we reduced manifestations of anti-Black rasicm to a white cop murdering George Floyd via knee-on-neck, as opposed to gaining enough understanding of how racism can manifest itself in classrooms, on screens and between book covers, in home-ownership #s, and C-Suite statistics...Well, that lack of understanding would make it pretty easy for most white people to let themselves off the hook. And, I suppose, it's precisely that impulse that's boomeranged us to Trump 2.0...
Yet it is precisely this same kind of ignorance of antisemitism and how it works, that's led to our current schism. Antisemitism, as you know Van, isn't just waving swastikas and praising Hitler. And the antizionist tsunami--which at the VERY least pushes people towards a "socially acceptable" iteration of antisemitism--seems to have swamped huge swaths of politically and culturally-engaged Black culture. From what I've seen--to be clear, I am not intending to tar a vast American peoplehood with one brush, but i'm in activist spaces Insta and X and TikTok, and I work in the mainstream publishing industry, so i'm pretty thoroughly exposed to antizionist "culture"--we Jews are drowning beneath waves of Holocaust inversion, blood libel, scapegoating, double-standards, conspiracy-accusations, and rage about all that power we wield in service of our greed and thirst for violence...
My 17 y.o. kid in NYC lost her entire cohort of Black and mixed-race friends (people with whom she'd been really close), after 10/7. Not on 10/7, itself, for the most-part, but over the following months as the protests grew and spread and "colonized" social media spaces where budding intellectuals and creatives and activists gathered. There were some hold-outs for a few months, but ultimately the pull to join this maximalist, peace-rejecting movement proved too strong for her friends of color to resist. My leftist, Jewish, nonbinary kid has zero Black friends at school anymore. The same thing happened with my 16 y.o. nieces in their Oakland public school--one by one their friends, all BIPOC--started with the antizionism rhetoric (being spewed by a number of teachers, too, it should be added) and peeled off. Within a year, both of my nieces had transferred out into a new school district.
This makes your fight even more essential, Van, and i've been so heartened to see the work that Hillel and UNCF are doing to create cross-cultural dialogue on college campuses. But until we somehow succeed in educating more people not just about Hitler and Auschwitz, but about what everyday antisemitism is, and why it is that antizionism (as opposed to legitimate criticism of Israeli policies, leaders, wartime conduct, and so on) IS antisemitism, we're just going to be left fighting with Shopify to take down Yeezy tee-shirts, while the tsunami continues to grow, and the history of Black-Jewish allyship is swept away in its wake.
Thank you Van...as usual you have such a eloquent a poignant way of offering support, perspective and love. Lets focus on all the lovers and not give the haters the attention they so desperately seek. Appreciate that list too! I will continue to support those!!
Hello - I appreciate all the comments and completely understand everyone's sentiments. However, as a mental health professional, this is a desperate cry for help and attention. When will we see mental illness for what it is? We need to try to stop making sense of this and learn how to assess, intervene and provide care to those who are ill.
I am a psychologist. I have to say that two things can be true at the same time. Yes, he is mentally ill. But he is also a virulent antisemite, racist, and mysoginist. By the way, Hitler was also mentally ill. It doesn't give him a pass to do what he does, say what he does, or to treat women the way he does.
Van, it really saddens me to see you working so hard to try and distance the Black community from Kanye West. I realize why you are doing it however it really should not be necessary. I'm a "young" 70 y.o. white male from Ohio and I for one recognized that Kanye is simply seeking attention of any kind. I for whatever reason(s) never even thought that Kanye was representing the entire Black community with his Nazi statements and actions. I've learned long ago that you simply cannot stereotype anyone or any culture. Take me for example, do I want to be associated with the Big lifted four wheel Dodge Ram trucks running through Ohio flying Trump and confederate flags in the back of their trucks all of which have White male drivers? Much of my early life was playing sports with Black teammates. Much of my adult life has been spent working with Blacks at UPS. None of them ever exhibited the type of behavior Kanye is exhibiting today.
Many former stars (Black, White, Jewish, Etc.) have a difficult transition period where they can't accept that their day in the spotlight has come and gone. I did not realize that it was Kendrick Lamar who was stealing his limelight however as I really don't keep up with music stars, etc.. FWIW, my son is a triple Boarded psychiatrist. Mental illness, drug addiction, etc., is real and affects many people of all races and genders. Kanye needs help for his mental health. I do agree with your statement that we cannot "normalize" Kanye's words and actions. Nearly half our voting public has done that with Trump and as we are all witnessing, that can be very dangerous. Kanye no more represents Black people just like Trump does not represent all of us old White seniors out here.
Always appreciate you Van! Always had a great deal of respect for you when I was an avid consumer of CNN in the better days. Always could tell you had a kind and empathetic heart. You are one of the few individuals that I subscribe to on Substack . Keep up the great work and protect your well being by taking some stress of yourself. Your family needs and depends on you. Rest assured that there are many. of us that recognizes abnormal behavior when we see, read, and hear it.
Thank you, Van. As a Jewish person, I truly appreciate what you've said here and I've always appreciated you. We are in a painful time and you bring light into the darkness.
I appreciate you!!! 💜💜💜
Van, I listen to you and watch your interviews all the time. You are a model of immense compassion. You have no idea how much your comment to me has made my day!!
As someone who is neither Black nor Jewish, but white, I echo your thoughts and thank you for speaking elegantly for most of humanity who is/will fight against bigotry in every form.
We're stronger when we're together. Thank you for being here!!
Thank you for giving us back some hope, a feeling that us in short supply these days!
I deeply appreciate your allyship, Van, and I was extremely moved by your trip to Auschwitz. Thank you for this ray of hope in these incredibly disturbing times. And for reminding your readers of the historical connection between Blacks and Jews. We’re better together!
100 years of history!
Thank you, Van. You are a mensch, visionary, and change-maker. May we all have the strength that you do to speak the truth and find the light!
Thank you, Van. You always speak truth with eloquence and make me feel better for having listened to you.
Thank you for reminding me that beautiful stuff is still happening, Van. I needed it this week.
Amen and thank you!
I deeply appreciate this, and you, as always. You're fighting an incredibly important fight here, and it also happens to be quite a brave one.
But i'll add: Ye is so despicable and virulent in his antisemitism that it's almost a self-cancelling parody. The problem with "centering" him (not a criticism of you--thank you for addressing it), is that it offers a certain level of distraction, it allows more insidious and widespread forms of antisemitism--those that mostly hide behind the mask of antizionism--to distance themselves from the hateful caricature that is Ye's version.
If we reduced manifestations of anti-Black rasicm to a white cop murdering George Floyd via knee-on-neck, as opposed to gaining enough understanding of how racism can manifest itself in classrooms, on screens and between book covers, in home-ownership #s, and C-Suite statistics...Well, that lack of understanding would make it pretty easy for most white people to let themselves off the hook. And, I suppose, it's precisely that impulse that's boomeranged us to Trump 2.0...
Yet it is precisely this same kind of ignorance of antisemitism and how it works, that's led to our current schism. Antisemitism, as you know Van, isn't just waving swastikas and praising Hitler. And the antizionist tsunami--which at the VERY least pushes people towards a "socially acceptable" iteration of antisemitism--seems to have swamped huge swaths of politically and culturally-engaged Black culture. From what I've seen--to be clear, I am not intending to tar a vast American peoplehood with one brush, but i'm in activist spaces Insta and X and TikTok, and I work in the mainstream publishing industry, so i'm pretty thoroughly exposed to antizionist "culture"--we Jews are drowning beneath waves of Holocaust inversion, blood libel, scapegoating, double-standards, conspiracy-accusations, and rage about all that power we wield in service of our greed and thirst for violence...
My 17 y.o. kid in NYC lost her entire cohort of Black and mixed-race friends (people with whom she'd been really close), after 10/7. Not on 10/7, itself, for the most-part, but over the following months as the protests grew and spread and "colonized" social media spaces where budding intellectuals and creatives and activists gathered. There were some hold-outs for a few months, but ultimately the pull to join this maximalist, peace-rejecting movement proved too strong for her friends of color to resist. My leftist, Jewish, nonbinary kid has zero Black friends at school anymore. The same thing happened with my 16 y.o. nieces in their Oakland public school--one by one their friends, all BIPOC--started with the antizionism rhetoric (being spewed by a number of teachers, too, it should be added) and peeled off. Within a year, both of my nieces had transferred out into a new school district.
This makes your fight even more essential, Van, and i've been so heartened to see the work that Hillel and UNCF are doing to create cross-cultural dialogue on college campuses. But until we somehow succeed in educating more people not just about Hitler and Auschwitz, but about what everyday antisemitism is, and why it is that antizionism (as opposed to legitimate criticism of Israeli policies, leaders, wartime conduct, and so on) IS antisemitism, we're just going to be left fighting with Shopify to take down Yeezy tee-shirts, while the tsunami continues to grow, and the history of Black-Jewish allyship is swept away in its wake.
YES! Love and light to you, Van. 💕✨
Thank you Van...as usual you have such a eloquent a poignant way of offering support, perspective and love. Lets focus on all the lovers and not give the haters the attention they so desperately seek. Appreciate that list too! I will continue to support those!!
Also I love that Torres is on the list twice! He for sure has stood up....for years for us!!!
I love Snoop
Hello - I appreciate all the comments and completely understand everyone's sentiments. However, as a mental health professional, this is a desperate cry for help and attention. When will we see mental illness for what it is? We need to try to stop making sense of this and learn how to assess, intervene and provide care to those who are ill.
I am a psychologist. I have to say that two things can be true at the same time. Yes, he is mentally ill. But he is also a virulent antisemite, racist, and mysoginist. By the way, Hitler was also mentally ill. It doesn't give him a pass to do what he does, say what he does, or to treat women the way he does.
True. I was not negating those facts. Just providing a broader perspective and insight.
THANK YOU!
Amen. Thank you for continuing to be a steadfast and loyal ally!
Van, it really saddens me to see you working so hard to try and distance the Black community from Kanye West. I realize why you are doing it however it really should not be necessary. I'm a "young" 70 y.o. white male from Ohio and I for one recognized that Kanye is simply seeking attention of any kind. I for whatever reason(s) never even thought that Kanye was representing the entire Black community with his Nazi statements and actions. I've learned long ago that you simply cannot stereotype anyone or any culture. Take me for example, do I want to be associated with the Big lifted four wheel Dodge Ram trucks running through Ohio flying Trump and confederate flags in the back of their trucks all of which have White male drivers? Much of my early life was playing sports with Black teammates. Much of my adult life has been spent working with Blacks at UPS. None of them ever exhibited the type of behavior Kanye is exhibiting today.
Many former stars (Black, White, Jewish, Etc.) have a difficult transition period where they can't accept that their day in the spotlight has come and gone. I did not realize that it was Kendrick Lamar who was stealing his limelight however as I really don't keep up with music stars, etc.. FWIW, my son is a triple Boarded psychiatrist. Mental illness, drug addiction, etc., is real and affects many people of all races and genders. Kanye needs help for his mental health. I do agree with your statement that we cannot "normalize" Kanye's words and actions. Nearly half our voting public has done that with Trump and as we are all witnessing, that can be very dangerous. Kanye no more represents Black people just like Trump does not represent all of us old White seniors out here.
Always appreciate you Van! Always had a great deal of respect for you when I was an avid consumer of CNN in the better days. Always could tell you had a kind and empathetic heart. You are one of the few individuals that I subscribe to on Substack . Keep up the great work and protect your well being by taking some stress of yourself. Your family needs and depends on you. Rest assured that there are many. of us that recognizes abnormal behavior when we see, read, and hear it.