Last week a student said the latest Kanye record is horrible. I later listened to it during my train ride home. Wasn’t horrible to me, in fact I am amused how many musical surprises live inside Kanye’s discography, for me this distinguishes him. Did he just improvise Roxanne by the Police in a new song called Paid? Yes he did. Considering the class is about the music business, there are some inspections of different movers and shakers. Usually business people, not musicians, however, I made some allowances for those who overlap and included Kanye. Last week was that presentation.
.
At one point the student in charge drew our attention to a few famous scandals, i) the video with Mike Myers during Hurricane Katrina, unexpectedly announcing George Bush doesn’t like black people; ii) the interruption of Taylor Swift’s award to state Beyoncé also deserved an award; iii) the tweet where he said he would go death con 3 on Jews; iv) a picture of him hugging Donald Trump while wearing a Make America Great Again baseball hat. The student added he would not dignify explaining any of them. As if to question it inadvertently supports it. That just doesn’t smell right, I am not satisfied just announcing someone is an asshole, even if by the end we conclude they are in fact nuts. I want more details on how they came to act as they do, but I wasn’t sure how to facilitate a deeper conversation. I sensed the student’s uncomfortable feelings and in turn it made me uncomfortable too. I left it alone but am rethinking how to do it. Maybe it is why I am writing this all out.
.
When I did my Masters in Environmental Studies, the course I enjoyed most was from a different faculty. An elective in Fine Arts, a course called Art in Crisis. The second week the teacher screened Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film Triumph of the Will. I was uncomfortable before she started it. Most downtown Torontonians had seen posters for many years by film archivist and critic Reg Hartt, who advertised screenings in his Bathurst street living room often addressing censorship from Louis Buñuel to Winsor McCay to Leni Riefenstahl. All I knew previously was that her film celebrated Hitler and I wondered why would one want to view that. But the point of this course was looking topographically at the role of art in politics. The point was asking deeper questions about artists. As it turned out I found it quite remarkable and it made me think mostly about the young woman and her position and new techniques she was experimenting with like filmming through clouds. I thought about the situation of women artists, she was in her late 20s when she got the job. Hitler had not yet invaded Poland, Kristallnacht was a year or two away. It is also a time capsule of media manipulation history. One could say she was horrible because she helped normalize the love of and admiration of Hitler to the masses. I can understand that and maybe that is the last word but I need to realize that for myself if in fact that is my conclusion not just someone telling me to trust them telling me she is only to be known as horrible because that too is propaganda. Isn’t the premise at school that we critically examine life to gain wisdom? Following the screening my classmates, who mostly were women mostly in their mid twenties, said they would never have agreed to make that film. That was also amazing. How easy it is, long after after a war to claim one would always have acted correct morally.
.
I wanted to unpack each of the Kanye stories especially for any students who might not have yet heard them. Maybe the conclusion each time will be he is in fact disturbed, but if one is any good at teaching they should insist people explore the longer road about facts and details. Empiricism has a meaningful flavour, gossip is like pretending not to notice the food is burnt.