Yesterday, after nearly a month of posts haranguing comedian Pete Davidson for dating his ex, Kanye West was finally suspended from Instagram for calling Trevor Noah a “coon.” While many saw the punitive action as long overdue, Ye’s “Eazy” collaborator The Game saw things differently, piping up on behalf of his friend — who, remember, he said did more for him in a week than Dr. Dre did his whole career — in an Instagram post of his own questioning the decision to lock Kanye out for a whole 24 hours.
“It’s a whole war going on in Ukraine & hate posts surrounding it that add fuel to the fire,” Game argued. “+ Africans being violated & barred from crossing borders to safety with racists comments/content attached…. and y’all zero’d in on Ye’s posts about the protection of his children, his fatherhood & him speaking his truth in defense to the coonery displayed by other verified users on this app that further complicate his situation in regards to his family.”
Okay. So.
Good points were made. Game is right: Instagram lets a lot of stuff slide. As anyone following any major sports account can attest, bots are rampant, a lot of quasi-racism gets by the filter, comments are filled with bullies and trolls, and heaven forbid you accidentally “like” the wrong post and screw up the algorithm — you might find yourself in QAnon territory by the end of your lunch break.
But!
Come on, now. Is this the behavior we’re going to bat for? Kanye spent several weeks calling that man “Skete,” and crowing about chasing him off the app while spreading Breitbart propaganda posts. Kim Kardashian, bless her oblivious, narcissistic little heart, has been desperately trying to get Ye to chill out lying about not seeing his kids. Trevor Noah’s big offense was expressing his concerns about the situation in an empathetic monologue on his show (Trevor was really nice about his response too). Kanye needs someone near him to risk getting the Big Sean treatment and tell him about himself, not defend him when he finally faces consequences for his own reckless actions. Also, there’s a strong chance that he’ll be unsuspended by the time most folks read this, and equally likely he’ll be right back at his old shenanigans by the weekend.
One good thing may come of this, though: As French Montana said, now that Kanye’s been offended by Instagram, it’s a safe bet he’ll have his own social media platform ready to rollout by this time next year. He’ll be easier to ignore then.