The soured relationship between President George W. Bush and rapper Kanye West, devastated by the latter’s intimations that the former may be a racist, remains a catastrophic low point in our nation’s history, one in desperate need of repair—like, for example, a major city decimated by a hurricane, or a gaping hole in the New York skyline filled with the remains of thousands of victims in a terrorist attack, which are also things that weren’t so great, definitely.
Fortunately we’re inching ever closer to total recovery on at least one of those, with The Today Show’s Matt Lauer continuing his 2010 equivalent of the Camp David Accords by brokering a fragile detente between the two. Interviewed by Lauer for a segment taped yesterday, Kanye essentially apologized for the “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” remark, saying, “I didn't have the grounds to call him a racist. I believe that in a situation of high emotion like that we as human beings don't always choose the right words.” When Bush was then shown a tape of West’s interview, he said he appreciated them and forgave him, adding, “I'm not a hater. I don't hate Kanye West. I was talking about an environment in which people were willing to say things that hurt. Nobody wants to be called a racist if in your heart you believe in equality of races.”
But no sooner had the hurting stopped and the healing begun then Kanye took to the Twitter airwaves to tell everyone how Matt Lauer and The Today Show “did me” on the way to fulfilling its agenda—namely, underscoring Kanye’s apology with the video of him interrupting Taylor Swift, which remains his own personal Katrina. Over the course of 30 minutes, Kanye unfurled the following rant on his Twitter account, which we're pretty sure he understands other people besides him can read:
“I went up there to express how I was empathetic to Bush because I labeled him a racist and years later I got labeled as a racist. While I was trying to give the interview they started playing the 'MTV' under me with audio!!!!!!! I don't mess with Matt Lauer or the Today Show … and that's a very nice way for me to put it! … HE TRIED TO FORCE MY ANSWERS. IT WAS VERY BRUTAL AND I CAME THERE WITH ONLY POSITIVE INTENT … I feel very alone very used very tortured very forced very misunderstood very hollow very very misused … I don't trust anyone but myself! Everyone has an agenda. I don't do press anymore. I can't be everything to everybody anymore … I can't be everybody's hero and villain savior and sinner Christian and anti Christ! … I can't take anymore advice!!! I create, I'm creative, I have a good heart, everyone will see and understand one day."
As he continued to vent, conditions deteriorated, and somehow Michael Jackson got involved.
Everything sounds like noise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING SOUNDS LIKE NOISE!!!!!!! I don't trust anyone! Very judged very scrutinized very criticized! I want everyone to know I have lows all the time but I make it through them! Yo I really wonder if Matt Lauer thought that shit was cool to play the "MTV" clip while I was speaking about Bush? He played clips of Bush and asked me to look at his face while I was trying to talk to him. I wish Michael Jackson had twitter!!!!!! Maybe Mike could have explained how the media tried to set him up!!! It's all a fucking set up!!!!
So we may have found some peace, but at what cost—and by what means? The same sort of media stunt that killed Michael Jackson? And we were thisclose to solving racism, too. Our only hope now is to hope that we all manage to put aside our differences and pull together whenever the aliens attack.