By Linda Dayan
By now I hope most people have heard about the Kanye West Yeezy Super Bowl advertisement. The ad was a 30-second clip recorded on an iPhone in which West tells the audience to go check out his website. Those who followed his instructions found only one thing for sale: a T-shirt with a swastika on it. At this point, the shirt has been taken down and the website is empty, however the shirt stayed for sale much longer then it should have.
When it comes to antisemitism, most people take it way too casually, and Jewish communities are sadly desensitized to the discrimination. So let’s flip the script: What do you think would happen if instead of a swastika, the symbol presented on the shirt was the KKK’s blood drop cross. The reaction would be huge. The backlash would be inescapable, and the news would be all over it for months after. This is not to play the oppression Olympics or compare one group’s struggles to another, but to highlight the unbalanced reaction of the public when Jews are attacked in comparison to other racial groups. So, where was the outrage?
When the ad first aired, it was all over my social media feed, and many people expressed to me that they felt a combination of shock and disgust. However, the ad did not generate the buzz I expected it to. I learned that just because it was all over my social media did not mean it was all over social media at large. The majority of creators calling attention to this blatant antisemitism were Jewish or those known as pro-Jewish. Both my Instagram and Tiktok discover pages showed me videos criticizing the ad, but this is likely only because I have a very Jewish and pro-Israel algorithm.
How would someone with no connection to antisemitism or Jewish issues learn about this ad when antisemitism remains so understated? I found out about what happened through the people around me and social media, but what about the news? I did a quick Google search to see what the major news outlets had to say, and there was disturbingly little. Within three days, six of the seven articles that I found featured on Google’s “Kanye” search results were about West and his wife. Only one article was dedicated to West’s Super Bowl advertisement.
After being sorely disappointed by proper news outlets, I returned to Tiktok and Instagram, this time diving into the comments sections. And plot twist: I was again severely let down. Excluding Jewish and the usual antisemitic voices, most of the comments from “neutral” parties were about West himself. They either expressed concern for his mental wellbeing or repeated conspiracies that he must have been replaced, but not much was said about his actual actions. The message was clear: Even when harmful actions towards the Jewish community receive attention, they are often glossed over or minimized.
Is this the result of people not being fully informed about the ad and its content, or do people just not care about issues involving Jews? I think it’s probably a mix of both. There is not enough reporting on antisemitism compared to other issues that would garner the support of someone who might care. There are people who are properly disturbed, but they are not the majority.
Jews are a small minority in the United States. The Pew Research Center reported that as of 2020, Jews make up 2.4% of the American population. Maybe the pitiful news coverage is proportionate to the amount of crimes committed against Jews? A quick search proves this false. The FBI database proved that 56.9 % of hate crimes target Jews. And the second highest percent of hate crimes are those which target Islam, though that is a small 14.6%. Today, people obsess over making sure they stick up for those who need help, and yet when the Jewish community so obviously needs voices to help raise our own, people are silent.
We live in a society that thrives on performative activism and trendy issues. The problem is that the call to action is reserved for trending issues. People love to feel like they are doing what’s right, and many of their activism is fueled only by recognition. If the media does not report on antisemitic actions in general, it means they also are not reporting on those who stand up for it. When no major media is reporting on issues relating to the Jewish community, what will compel a random person, who knows nothing about Jews, to care about them?
The Jewish community is not known for rioting in the streets or forcing attention onto ourselves. Most everyday acts of Jew hatred go unreported by mainstream media, and the public continues to live unaware of the hate Jews so commonly face. Until the media starts reporting on Jewish issues, most people simply won’t care.
And a swastika T-shirt can go on sale for a day, and those who already do not care will not start to.
Photo Caption: Kanye West
Photo Credit: Flickr