LA Holocaust Museum receives torrent of abuse after Kanye West declines invitation

Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles said it has received a flood of messages “filled with hate, threats, and vitriol.”

By The Algemeiner

The Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles said it has received a flood of messages “filled with hate, threats, and vitriol,” after the rapper Kanye West (who has legally changed his name to ‘Ye’) rejected the museum’s offer for a private tour.

The museum made the offer in a public Instagram post on Oct. 11 after the rapper’s tirade of antisemitism, urging Ye “to come visit us at Holocaust Museum LA to understand just how words can incite horrific violence and genocides.”

Ye, however, rejected the offer on the “Drink Champs Podcast” and reportedly said Planned Parenthood was his Holocaust museum.

“We are still in the Holocaust,” Ye said, according to BET. “A Jewish friend of mine said, ‘Go visit the Holocaust Museum,’ and my response was, let’s visit our Holocaust Museum: Planned Parenthood.”

The comment quickly set off a storm of social media abuse against the museum.

“Ye, since we invited you to visit us at Holocaust Museum LA we have received a tremendous amount of social media messages and comments,” the Museum tweeted after Ye’s rejection. “Some filled with hate, threats, and vitriol. Others were saddled with hurt and yearned for further discourse.

Meanwhile, as brands and organizations affiliated with Ye cut their ties with the rapper — most notably Adidas AG, which terminated a partnership estimated to be worth almost $500 million on Tuesday — one company is maintaining its connection.

A top official with the online streaming service Spotify said in an interview with Reuters Tuesday that Ye’s antisemitic remarks did not violate the company’s anti-hate policies and that it would not remove his catalog of music.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek added in the interview that Ye had made “just awful comments” and said they would have been cause for his removal from the service if they had been said on a podcast or recording hosted by Spotify.

The global blowback comes after the rapper promoted Jewish conspiracy theories in interviews and on social media earlier this month, tweeting that he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” and claiming that Jews ‘have owned the Black voice.”

AntisemitismHate speechKanye WestLos AngelesSocial media