SALON

Thursday, Feb 24, 2011 9:40 PM UTC

An open letter to Kanye West about his abortion tweet

The hip-hop star's message isn't pro-life or pro-choice. It's just dumb

By

Topics: Kanye West, Abortion, Twitter, Television,

An open letter to Kanye West about his abortion tweetHe ain't saying she's a gold digger...

Dear Kanye,

I know you are very busy with “All the Lights,” I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Justin Bieber had one of the best uninformed abortion sound bites of all time. For someone who is known for his funny and irreverent tweets (they’ve been turned into New Yorker cartoons and “30 Rock” catechisms!), your tweet about gold diggers getting pregnant on purpose so they can scam money for abortions is the biggest misstep in your career.

Yesterday, Kanye sent out this message to his 2,518,037 followers:

He followed it up with a non-redemptive clarification:

“It ain’t happen to me but I know people.”

In a way, your message is egalitarian, in the sense that both pro-life and pro-choice advocates should be horrified by the disgusting misogyny in such a statement. We’re not debating that there are definitely some sad women out there who try to get knocked up with a celebrity’s baby, but doing it so they can then have an abortion? Also, your facts are wrong. Last time we checked, terminating a third-trimester pregnancy will cost $400-$2,000 not $50K-100K. And guess what? An abortion isn’t like an alimony payment: It’s an emotional and physical experience that you will never, ever have to experience. Not to get all Keith Olbermann on you, Kanye, but how dare you make such a flippant statement about your “ballin” millionaire friends and the oh-so-tragic experience of them having to pay for an abortion? Was it a traumatic experience, Kanye? Did this 1 percent of millionaires to whom you’re referring need a PSA?

Unlike Odd Future and their controversial lyrics, what you said about gold diggers doesn’t fall under the guise of artistic license. You can’t just say, “I was making a statement about the messed up society we lived in.” You were expressing your own thoughts on Twitter, and in doing so, disrespected a painful experience of womanhood more than any “Rape kill kill” lyrics ever could. 

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 22 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations