Ariana Grande Joins Jamie Lee Curtis in Condemning Kanye West’s Anti-Semitic Comments
Ariana Grande is joining a growing list of celebrities in publicly denouncing Kanye West‘s recent anti-Semitic comments. After the rapper was suspended from Twitter and Instagram over his statements, Grande shared two posts on Instagram condemning his hate speech, one of which was a video of Jamie Lee Curtis’ reaction.
Without adding any words of her own, Grande chose to let the two posts — reposted from other accounts onto her Story Tuesday morning (Oct. 11) — speak for themselves. The first featured a video from the day prior of Jamie Lee Curtis‘ interview with the TODAY show, during which the actress, whose father and paternal grandparents were Jewish, became visibly emotional.
Related
“I woke up and burst into tears,” Curtis says of Kanye’s remarks. “DEFCON 3 on Jewish people? What are you doing? It’s bad enough that fascism is on the rise around the world, but on Twitter? As if Jewish people haven’t had it hard enough? I woke up and thought, my grandparents — it’s abhorrent. I hope he gets help, I hope his children get help.”
The second thing Grande shared to her 334 million followers was a post discussing the differences between mental health symptoms, free speech and hate speech on Saint Hoax’s Instagram. “It is possible to both recognize Kanye’s mental health challenges and vehemently condemn his foul and dangerous anti-Semitism,” reads a screen shot of a comment included in the post.
“As someone who also has mental health issues, one of my top priorities in treatment is working to make sure my s–t doesn’t negatively affect people around me,” says another. “Kanye has unlimited resources for care & treatment. Resources almost no one else has.”
Kim Kardashian, who filed to divorce Ye in February 2021, previously spoke out on the rapper’s battle with bipolar disorder.
By taking a public stance against Kanye’s extremism, the “Positions” singer is following the lead of fellow musicians such as John Legend, who remarked on Twitter that it’s “Weird how all these ‘free, independent thinkers’ always land at the same old anti blackness and anti semitism.” Other stars including Jack Antonoff and Sarah Silverman have also weighed in.
Ye’s latest controversy comes on the heels of public outrage over his Paris Fashion Week show earlier this month, after he and some of the models walking the runway in his designs wore “White Lives Matter” shirts. Though the phrase is classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “racist response to the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter,” West sat for an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, and posted targeted Instagram posts defending his statement.
See the two videos Ariana shared about Kanye’s anti-Semitic remarks on her Instagram story below:
Hannah Dailey
Billboard
