Kanye West (left) on the Jimmy Kimmel Show
Nothing displays the ills of society’s views towards race in media more than an outburst from Kanye West. Whether it is a comment about who should rightfully win an award or explaining George Bush’s lack of concern for Black people, Kanye may be seen as irrational, but he does highlight important oversights in the Black community.
On October 10, 2013, during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” West explained his frustration in his attempts to create a couture fashion brand due to his career as a rapper and the discrimination against his profession. In his long-winded tangent, West remarks on a new type of discrimination; “It’s not about racism anymore; it’s classism, that’s what I talked about. Paula Deen, she was old-school with it. They’re like, ‘We don’t do it like that anymore, Paula Deen. We’re classist now.'”
Is “classism” the pseudonym for a new type of racism that ranks according to socio-economic class?
According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, “White households in the United States are far wealthier than Black or Hispanic households, a disparity that remains unexplained even after taking into account income and demographic factors.” So the level of discrimination that is resonating not only in media, but also in everyday society is now hidden within the barriers of socio-economic status, in which minorities are at the bottom. Even in situations where prominent artists such as Kanye West are concerned, because he is a rapper, he is disregarded as someone who is in the upper level of the population’s economy.
Although Mr. West is a rapper, a common idea in the Black community is that if you are not a rapper or a basketball player, it is beyond difficult for an Afrikan-American male to be successful, and almost impossible to join the top one percent. With this understanding of the lack of minorities in the higher bridge of the economy, classism can easily be a new way to isolate one ethnic group from another.
West remarked on the barriers he feels that he is unable to break due to these ideals.
“And you’re just like, ‘How can you get a shot?’ And then you try to do it on your own, and like, real designers will not work for a rapper, and you just cannot overcome it.”
Overcoming has always been a struggle for people who know what “starting from the bottom” really entails. However, this new idea of classism in society is starting to shadow another form of racism. Whether in-between the intricacies of celebrities of everyday people, this affects the lack of progress that individuals such as Kanye West are trying to make in different realms. Regardless of the reputation Mr. West has in hip-hop or fashion, classism seems to be the new trend he’s bringing to attention.
Author: Semaj Earl
Nommo Staff