Ever heard the saying, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”? I think Abraham Lincoln said it? Probably. Someone should really consider painting this in 5000 point font on the walls of Kanye West‘s home, because during a deposition for that paparazzi beating case, he went ahead and compared celebrities to the civil rights pioneers of the 1960’s. I repeat: Kanye thinks being a modern day celebrity is comparable to being a disenfranchised black person during the 60’s. TMZ reports …
Kanye says there’s a parallel between blacks fighting for civil rights in the ’60s and celebs fighting for theirs today: “I mean in the ’60s people used to hold up ‘Die N****r’ signs when my parents were in the sit-ins also.” Goldberg asks if he equates the struggle of blacks in the past with celebrities today and Kanye says, “Yes, 100 … I equate it to discrimination. I equate it to inequalities.” Kanye goes on, “We, as group of minorities here in L.A., as celebrities have to ban together to influence guys like this — guys trying to take the picture, guys trying to get the big win, guys trying to get the check.”
I’m legitimately curious about this one actually. I’m legitimately curious as to how long someone needs to be in a protective bubble of entitlement and wealth before they think an inconvenience is equivalent to actual systematic discrimination. Because that’s what it is: The paparazzi are an inconvenient trade off to being a rich, famous celebrity. Institutional racism far exceeds anything like that. They are not comparable, and believing so only makes you sound out-of-touch and delusional.