What are we to make of Kanye’s latest stunt where he wore a shirt that read, ‘White Lives Matter’?

Can this be put it down to his unstable public behaviour that has led to many random outbursts? Should we pass it off as a distinctively American publicity stunt? Perhaps, but I think his actions may speak to a larger point.

White lives do matter, and even a black man like Kanye knows that.

Since the George Floyd furore, the media has been obsessed with Black Lives Matter, both as a movement and a hashtag. What about Kanye? We’ve forgotten his experience with The Other George; George W. Bush. After hurricane Katrina, Kanye said that Bush didn’t care about the lives of black people.

‘I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, “They’re looting.” You see a white family, it says, “They’re looking for food.” And, you know, it’s been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I’ve tried to turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help — with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realise a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way — and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us!…George Bush doesn’t care about black people!’

Bush was pretty upset, but Kanye kept calm and carried on. He even said after his gaffe at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 that when he dissed Taylor Swift it was ‘bigger than the Bush moment’.

In Kanye’s words, (during his song Runaway):

I think it’s time for us to have a toast/ let’s have a toast for the douchebags / let’s have a toast for the scumbags/ let’s have a toast for the assholes.

And let’s also have a toast for the so-called white men who have copped it big time in recent years as the favourite chew toy of various political movements. We know they’ve been called all manner of horrid things.

Kanye may be somewhat unpredictable and controversial, but his behaviour does point to a swinging of the pendulum of sorts. Most people are fed up with racial politics and the persecution of almost exclusively heterosexual, white, men.

These men are humans but also form an important part of our social fabric, as much as some don’t like it, they provide stability and have done for a long time. Why we need to go on an iconoclastic binge I have no idea. Neither does Kanye. If we both agree, I think maybe we’re onto something…

America has long been plagued with racial politics and deeply serious problems, but why must we stroke such division today? Kanye is standing up to this, as unpredictable as he may be.

He’s not a politician – he’s no Bush – but he is a public figure who is drawing attention to the fact that white lives matter too as a black man. I think he’s right.