Kanye West and Candace Owens - Time to call out the racism-deniers 📢
What is the impact on society when one of the most recognisable Black male celebrities on the planet wears a White Lives Matter T-shirt to his well-publicized Paris Fashion Week show?
Last week, Kanye went further to contest whether George Floyd was killed in the way we had all seen on video. In the short term: capturing our attention as we devour the clickbait we are served. In the long term: normalizing everyday racism and setting back progress made by courageous campaigners, activists and allies.
Let’s rewind to spring 2020 when #BlackLivesMatter was trending all over social media as individuals rallied in solidarity for Black people following the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police. The purpose of the hashtag was to draw attention to the failure of institutions like the police to treat Black lives with the same respect, dignity and care as they do white lives. For example, 27% of people killed by the police in the US were Black, more than 2x the number of their white counterparts.
Not everyone welcomed the opportunity to have this conversation about how prejudice can be baked into institutions like the police force and the healthcare system, which in 2020 was failing to save Black lives from Covid-19 as effectively as it did white ones. Non-white communities were up to 50% more likely to die from Covid than their white counterparts.
A contingent of the internet decided to create their own hashtag in defiance: #WhiteLivesMatter. They argued that calling out the Black experience was - in itself - an attack against the white experience. They dismissed the root argument that institutions like the police mistreated Black people. They dismissed the fact that these issues have anything to do with race.
Discomfort is the real cost of change
So what happens when Black celebrities like Kanye West and Candace Owens — who have the privilege of large platforms and the public’s attention — stand in solidarity with #WhiteLivesMatter?
We have a clear-cut high-profile case of racism denial, which on a personal level offends me, and on a societal level, deeply worries me. Holocaust deniers like British author David Irving, show the lengths fame-seeking individuals will go to in order to be in the spotlight. But who gains when we take fiction as fact, and deny the evidence that could help us create positive change? Only those who benefit from the status quo come out on top.
In March 2021 the United Nations released data showing the increase in online hate speech against minorities. As inclusion experts, we found the research unsurprising given one of the most prominent figures spouting hate speech online in 2020 was also the President of the United States of America at the time, Donald Trump. Research from Harvard Business Review points out how leaders must model the behaviour they expect to see from followers.
When the most powerful man in Western politics uses his platform to espouse racist, white supremacist rhetoric, it creates an invitation for others to follow suit. Another example of this is manifest in the recent anti-semitic demonstrations in Los Angeles following Kanye’s continued anti-semitic comments not only on his social media channels, but in various interviews. In June 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account. Many saw the move as too little, too late.
As the recent death at the police’s hands of Chris Kaba shows, racism continues to kill, costing society innocent lives, costing families and their loved ones. It’s time for all of us to feel responsible for calling out racism deniers, people who spew racist rhetoric and push for legislation to recognise it as a crime, as some countries have rightfully done for Holocaust deniers.
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