Kanye's Point

Kanye West lashed out on NBC's one-hour fundraiser for Hurricaine Relief.

West and Mike Myers had been paired up to appear about halfway through the show. Their assignment: Take turns reading a script describing the breach in the levees around New Orleans.

Myers: The landscape of the city has changed dramatically, tragically and perhaps irreversibly. There is now over 25 feet of water where there was once city streets and thriving neighborhoods.

(Myers throws to West, who looked extremely nervous in his super-preppy designer rugby shirt and white pants, which is not like the arrogant West and which, in retrospect, should have been a tip-off.)

West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] 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 the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

(West throws back to Myers, who is looking like a guy who stopped on the tarmac to tie his shoe and got hit in the back with the 8:30 to La Guardia.)

Myers: And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastating, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild and remain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all.

(And, because Myers is apparently as dumb as his Alfalfa hair, he throws it back to West.)

West: George Bush doesn't care about black people!

(Back to Myers, now looking like the 8:30 to La Guardia turned around and caught him square between the eyes.)

Myers: Please call . . .

West's intense arrogance has always rubbed me the wrong way. But I've also had a certain respect for his willingness to speak out has also always been fascinating to me.

Here, he brings up the idea of Martial Law, which should be making every American shudder, knowing that New Orleans is under Martial Law; he's talking about the painful aid situation in America; but most of all, he's talking about the continued racial and class discrepency which has ripped apart New Orleans- those who could, evacuated. Those who could not have been overwhelmingly black and very poor. And these are the same people who have been holed up in the Convention Center and the Superdome, and those who have suffered the greatest struggles in the New Orleans flood.

But what Kanye has really done is pointed this out in a safe-zone - feel-good "concert of love" fundraisers. He has pointed out that we must donate what we can, but at no point can we feel good about what has gone on. These thoughts, feelings, emotions, core disappointments are what stands in the way. The reason New Orleans turned to choas has everything to do with these problems; with the divide of wealth; with the divide of power; with the divide of perception.