Another day, another Kanye is out of control story. This time the rapper went too far in his criticism of The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, using racial slurs to attack the comedian after he did a segment calling out Kanye’s repeated harassment of ex-wife Kim Kardashian. According to TMZ, a Meta spokesperson said Kanye’s language toward Noah violated Instagram’s policy on “hate speech, harassment and bullying.” As a result his account has been suspended for 24 hours. Wow, 24 whole hours? He’ll really learn his lesson now.
So after months of harassing his ex-wife, bringing his kids into their divorce, threatening her boyfriend Pete Davidson and his SNL co-workers and weaponizing his fanbase to harass Kim, you guys decided to give him a slap on the wrist? Honestly, this will just make his victim complex worse, and his posts will be more inflammatory when he comes back over the weekend.
On Tuesday night’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, the host did an extended segment on how Kanye’s behavior toward Kim has been dangerous and it’s time for more people to step in, get him to back off and leave Kim alone. Noah referenced his own experiences in watching his mother, a domestic violence survivor, try to get help and be turned away, as he discussed how alarming Kanye’s escalating harassment of Kim has been.
Noah also examined how hard it is for women in similar situations to get help, when someone as rich and powerful as Kim Kardashian can’t get her ex to stop harassing her. It was a very thoughtful, reasonable segment, to which Kanye had a predictable over-the-top reaction.
This whole situation is difficult, because on one hand there’s a point where I just don’t think we need to keep giving air to Kanye’s endless shenanigans. Frankly, I wasn’t this involved in my own parents’ divorce, so I don’t need to know every intimate detail of Kim and Kanye’s split. However, when his behavior raises red flags for domestic violence survivors and advocates, we need to talk about it as much as we can, because we can’t let him harass and emotionally abuse his ex-wife in public and not call it out. And keeping him off Instagram for 24 hours is not a real punishment, so let’s start talking about actual consequences for his dangerous behavior.