Students respond to West’s remarks on Hurricane Katrina

Kanye West, known for his morally and socially-conscious rap songs such as “Jesus Walks” and “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” has made waves with his comments on a NBC broadcasted telethon about U.S. President George W. Bush’s delay in action for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Standing next to actor Mike Myers, West discarded his prepared script and began a rant on the president.
“I hate the way they portray us in the media,” West said. “You see a black family; it [media] says, ‘They’re looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ‘They’re looking for food.’ ”
Myers, who appeared stunned, continued reading the script. When West’s spoke again, he ended by saying, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Brittney Coulter, a sophomore criminal justice major from Los Angles, said she thought West was correct for saying his comments on television.
“He was speaking the truth and white America got upset because it was the truth,” Coulter said. “The government doesn’t care about those people in New Orleans.”
NBC released a statement on West’s comments.
“Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks,” said the network’s statement.
Since the tirade, West has received positive and negative comments from both sides of the political field for using the nationwide telecast as a platform to bash Bush.
Juicee News, a Web site that combines personal commentary with daily reporting, said West’s personal opinion of the president should have been left out of the relief efforts.
“In a disgusting display,” stated an entry on the site. “West strayed from his prepared script to offer an overflow of hatred from his mouth, taking the spotlight off of the matter at hand, turning the relief program into his own personal soapbox.”
Tarsia Dupree, a junior political science major from Eunice, said West’s comments were true, but she said he should have said them at a different time.
“For the most part, I agree with Kanye West,” Dupree said. ‘But I think he should have said that at a press conference. That way he would have been more organized.”
Although West’s comments were shown with a several-second delay on the East Coast, the telethon was tape-delayed and edited for viewers on the West Coast.