Kanye Bleeping West

Wow. I just flipped on MSNBC to find out some more about Hurricane Katrina -- CNN was getting annoying -- and it turned out that the concert for Hurricane Katrina was being aired. I remember the 9/11 Benefit Concert -- so intensely sad, and some of the most moving performances I've ever seen.

Regardless of who you voted for in 2000, at that moment it was INCONCEIVABLE to think of any of those artists saying anything negative about Americans, Democrat or Republican. It wasn't even a situation where it occured to me that it wouldn't be appropriate...it was not even something I could think of.

And then, tonight on MSNBC, Kanye West (who I didn't recognize) was in near tears, standing next to Michael Myers talking about the tragedy. He said something about how it was so sad that the poor, and the black poor in particular, were so impacted by this. Myers then followed with what sounded like a scripted but nice statement about the tragedy. Then, Kanye West said it...

George Bush doesn't care about black people.

Wow. I mean, part of the thing that shocked me was that it didn't seem irrational, it didn't seem out of left field. It seemed like West had just hit the boiling point and couldn't take it anymore. And it seemed like he was speaking the truth. I'm sure Clear Channel will lead a boycott against him, but he can rest assured that the Dixie Chicks still sell CDs, and so will he.

What's going on in New Orleans is a tragedy of every conceivable possibility, and one of the biggest is how the government has failed. And in some ways as a direct result of its own actions. Shame, shame, shame.

Updated:

Here is the full comment Kanye West made...

I hate the way they portray us in the media when you see a black family, it says they're looting, and you see a white family and it says they're looking for food, and you know it's been five days because most of the people are black and even for me to complain about it I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch -- I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is, what is the biggest amount I can give and, and just to imagine if I was down there and those are, are my people down there so that anybody out there that wants to do anything we can help with the set up, with the way America's set up to help the uh, uh, the poor, the black people the less well off as slow as possible, I mean this is -- Red Cross is doing anything they can -- we already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war fighting another way and they've, they've given permission to go down and shoot us.

[...]

George Bush doesn't care about black people.