And the Award for Best Show of Bitchassness at the VMA's goes to: Kanye West.
So, if you don't already know, yesterday at the VMA's while Taylor Swift was accepting an award for Best Female Video, a self-important and intoxicated Kanye West stepped onto the stage, took the microphone from Swift and ruined the teen country star's moment by professing that Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. He then shrugged his shoulders and walked off stage.
What can I say about this spectacle that hasn't already been said? We all know Kanye was out of line and there's really no excuse for his actions. We all know he's got a big ego. We all know he tries incredibly hard to mask his insecurities with superficial things, a fact that his arm-piece skintight snakeprint jumpsuit wearing girlfriend Amber Rose only serves to accentuate. We all know he has no respect for women. And we all know that Kanye West really, truly believes his opinions are so vital that they must be voiced, often at the most inappropriate moments. Some might call that sort of behavoir childish, girly even.
These descriptors for Kanye are nothing new. But the trend of characterization online today has gone far beyond the obvious adjectives one might use to describe Mr. West, delving into the back-alleys of racism. There's at least 2 million incidents of Kanye being called a nigger in the past 24 hours.
One question: Why ya'll have to go there?
Contrary to what some believe, nigger is not a term used to call a black person ignorant. Nigger is a term used to characterize an entire race of people as ignorant, criminal and undesirable.
When nearly 2 million people use the word nigger to characterize a black person at their worst, I refuse to accept the notion that this country does not have a race problem.
I actually read a comment where a person suggested that Kanye's actions were criminal; that he assaulted Taylor Swift. I could go on and on about how the perception of actions by blacks are always construed as more aggressive or criminal than whites, and how issues like racial profiling and greater penalties under the law for possession of crack cocaine than the powdered form stem from that perception... but I won't go there.
I will say that South Carolina Rep. Congressman Joe Wilson got off pretty easy by comparison. And his rudeness towards the President during his Health Care address to congress and the nation bears more weight than some rapper dissing a country singer at the VMA's. Or at least it ought to.
By the way, Kanye later apologized via his Web site. Doesn't really change anything in my mind.
Here's the video...
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