I Hate the Way They Portray Us in the Media

“I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family and they say we are looting, you see a white family and they say they are looking for food. And, you know, it’s been five days because most of the people ARE black. And even for me to complain, I would be a hypocrite because I would 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 to see what is the biggest amount I can give. And just to imagine, if I was down there and those are my people down there. If there is anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help about the way America is set up the help the poor, the black people, the less well off as slow as possible. Red Cross is doing as much as they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way. And now they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

“You gotta love it though, someone still speaks from his soul.” – Diamonds from Sierra Leone

I had planned to put up a review of Kanye West’s latest album, Late Registration, but I haven’t quite finished it, but it looks like I’ll still be writing about Kanye today. Last night on NBC’s telethon to help Hurricane Katrina, Kanye went of scrip to give a passionate speech. People have torn down West for saying it wasn’t the place, but where else to criticize those exploiting hurricane victims than at a relief effort. If you read his statement, all of his initial rants are true. Every time I turn on new reports it’s either human interest stories featuring white people or stories featuring black people looting local stores.

As for West’s assessment that they do have permission to go down and start shooting looters, this is most likely in response to Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco’s statement regarding National Guard returning from Iraq and heading straight to the area,

“They have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded. I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.”

Did the Governor seriously advocate killing off her constituents who are trying to provide for the families because the relief efforts were moving so slowly? Now I hate Bob Taft, but at least he has never advocated killing Ohioans. I’ll take a Governor who has a few free rounds of golf over one who want to unload M-16s into her people.

Now, I’ll admit Kanye did go overboard with the last statement about Bush. Bush does not necessarily hate black people, he hate anyone who cannot help him or his cronies, which just happens to include poor black people in New Orleans. Remember back a couple years ago, 2003, when a fire broke out in a Rhode Island club killing 100 people and injuring many more, federal aid was refuse multiple time even though lives were destroyed. It just so happened that this happened to working class people who lived in a “Blue” state. On the flip side, let us not forget last year when Hurricane Charles hit Florida, Bush ordered federal aid two hours after it hit, like he should have responded, it just happened that this Hurricane hit his brother’s state that also happened to be a swing state in the upcoming election. Yet when Hurricane Katrina hit a predominately “Blue” and poor area, the National Guards from other states couldn’t be accessed because the paperwork didn’t get through until Thursday. I’ll have to agree with Bush that this is unacceptable.

Back to Kanye West, if anyone was affected by his statements, NBC should be the one’s to blame for not doing the homework on a guy, who at Live 8, change lyrics to All Falls Down to “Drug dealer buy Jordon’s, crackhead buy crack and George Bush gets paid off of all of that.” He would later in an interview that day with MTV claims the AIDS was planted in Africa to kill black people. NBC should have known what they were getting when signing this guy up. Not too mention his recent political statements about the diamond trade in Sierra Leone (Throw Up Your Diamonds Like You're Bulimic). And don’t expect for Kanye West to lose any album sales as some suggest, because unlike the Dixie Chicks who has a larger conservative country fan base, West fan tend to be more liberal or they just don’t care about politics either way. Keep in mind Green Day sold over 3 million records of an album named American Idiot, so if anything, Kanye's sell will increase due to his speech.

Ironically it was already announced just hours before that Kanye West made his statement, that he will be joining of another Katrina relief special, ReAct Now: Music & Relief, this time to be aired on MTV, VH1, and CMT along side Kelly Clarkson, the Rolling Stones and previously announced Maroon 5, Good Charlotte, Audioslave, Simple Plan, Common, John Mayer, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, Dashboard Confessional, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Melissa Etheridge, Mötley Crüe, Goo Goo Dolls, Staind, Alan Jackson, Trent Reznor, 3 Doors Down, Cash Money's Baby and Lil' Wayne, the Neville Brothers, Marc Broussard, the Radiators, Green Day, Usher, Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Dave Matthews Band, Rob Thomas, David Banner, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and John Mellencamp. This concert will air September 10 starting at 8 EST.

For anyone who wants to donate their money beforehand, please click the Red Cross link at the top of the page.