Kanye West‘s verbal attacks against the Jewish community since 2022 have landed him a spot in a fictional universe among religious extremists.
The ongoing fourth season of The Boysexplores American politics via parallels with the Alt-right, Christian nationalism and racial sepratism, among other themes.
In an episode titled “Wisdom of the Ages” that went live on Thursday (June 20), an overtly antisemitic character who goes by the name Firecracker hosts a televised rally to propagate a range of conspiracy theories centered on white supremacy.
As the event’s broadcast commences, she hypes up her crowd by mentioned that Ye is in attendance, though he is never shown on camera.
The Chicago native has isn’t the only figure in the Hip Hop space to prop up antisemitic tropes that have historically served as the basis for widespread discrimination.
During a Drink Champs interview earlier this year that lasted nearly three hours, media proprietor Benzino got progressively drunker and talked about racial unity by emphasizing a longstanding conspiracy that has energized anti-Jewish sentiments for centuries.
“Let’s build each other,” he said. “Let me tell you about the Jews that Kanye [West] talked about. The Jews were the slaves and they came together and they bought within each other, and now look at them. Media, banking, entertainment — they run shit. We can run shit, but we killing each other. All you young n-ggas, stop killing each other.”
A little later, he added: “If we love us and did what the Jews did — see how the Jews control banking, media, entertainment; they’re in Beverly Hills, Miami — we could do the same thing, but the problem with us is we’re killing each other.”
The idea that Jewish people “form a powerful, secret, global cabal that manipulates governmental institutions, banks, the media, and other institutions for malevolent purposes” is an ancient falsehood that has been labeled as a “marker” for antisemitism by the Louis B. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
