With the release of Kanye's video for "Monster" comes more criticism of his latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — this time by way of Ta-Nehisi Coates over at the Atlantic. Coates waxes poetic about how West's album is obsessed with "white women as objects" and "dismissing haters, slut-shaming women (black and white) … " An excerpt from his short review:
All told, the album strikes me as incredibly, almost casually, racist. On some level, I wonder what would have become of John Mayer, had he cut a video with dead black women strewn about and invoked black women throughout his lyrics in the manner Kanye does. But moralism misses the point here. The problem isn't simply racism or sexism, but boring racism, boring sexism that hearkens back to the black power macho of Amiri Baraka and Eldridge Cleaver at their worst.
Read the rest of Coates' take on Kanye's album at the Atlantic.
In other news: Allen West joins Congressional Black Caucus.