The criticisms of Kanye West continue to stack as the years press on, and recently, it was his Yeezy Gap collaboration that caused a stir. It was revealed that West specifically told Gap not to hang his clothes, but to instead put them in large trash bags for customers to dig through. After receiving backlash, West would return to say that he is not apologizing for his creative vision—but this is just the latest in a long line of Kanye West moments that have placed the fashion designer in the spotlight for adverse reasons.
He's been called out for his comments on slavery and Harriet Tubman, and his online attacks against Pete Davidson earned him scrutiny. Despite it all, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is tired of people not giving West the benefit of the doubt and perceiving him to be a person that he isn't.
It was reported that during Noah's appearance on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast, the comedian took a moment to speak about West's controversies. It is true that West wasn't happy with Noah after the talk show host condemned him for how he unleashed on his ex-wife Kin Kardashian earlier this year, but Noah is giving West grace.
"It's easy to stand on the sidelines, see a train crash coming and say nothing about it," said Noah. "And then after the train crashes off the tracks, we say, 'Oh, I saw that coming!' Well, then why didn't you say anything? Especially if you have some sort of platform, you have some sort of obligation to speak a truth. You know, see something and say something."
"Human beings are a paradox. We can love people who we hate, we can hate people who we love. Human beings as a whole are a complicated paradox. And so, I don't like to live in a world where we constantly discard human beings like pieces of trash."
"Kanye West is somebody who has an indelible impression on my life. His music has literally taken me through different periods of my journey, But then there are also moments where I go, like, 'Man, Kanye, you, you're going off the rails here.' But I can still say that 'I care for you as a human being, that's; that's why I'm speaking out. I'm not going to not care for you — I'm not going to hate you all of a sudden... That's how I try and see the world; that's how I would hope people would see me."
“I think one of the worst things social media has done to us is, it has rewarded the 'hot take.' It has rewarded the most extreme version of any opinion that is out there. If you put out a nuanced opinion, in a tweet, unfortunately, the algorithm is not going to push that as far because it doesn’t engage as many people and engagements is what social media is trying to achieve. The problem is, the best way to get the most engagements is by inflaming tensions. And while that’s great for the bottom line of a social media company, it’s terrible for us as human beings.
Listen to Trevor Noah below.