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Kanye West Issues Apology For Antisemitic Remarks: 'I Am Not A Nazi'

Mary Varvaris

“I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state,” Ye wrote in a full-page ad for The Wall Street Journal.

Kanye West
Kanye West(Source: Supplied)
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Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has taken out a full-page ad in the latest edition of The Wall Street Journal, in which he issued an apology for his past antisemitic remarks. In the statement, Ye blamed a brain injury he experienced following a car accident in 2002 for his “reckless behaviour.”

Last May was the tipping point for the artist. Upon releasing the single Heil Hitler, Ye’s visa to enter Australia was denied, with Federal Immigration Minister Tony Burke saying, “We don’t need that in Australia.”

In early 2023, the Anti-Defamation Commission’s Dr Dvir Abramovich called for Ye’s visa to be denied based on his antisemitic comments posted on social media. Then-opposition leader Peter Dutton also supported the call not to allow Ye entry into Australia.

Ye was dropped by Adidas and his record label, Def Jam Recordings, in October 2022. The end of partnerships with Adidas and Def Jam followed Ye’s getting locked out of Facebook and Instagram after spouting antisemitic rhetoric. In December 2022, he appeared on Alex Jones’s InfoWars, where he explicitly and repeatedly affirmed his admiration for Hitler and denied that the holocaust ever happened.

Now, it seems that Ye is attempting to make amends, claiming that he “lost touch with reality” due to a brain injury and long-undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

“Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain,” Ye’s ad reads in the 26 January edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“At the time, the focus was on the visible damage — the fracture, the swelling and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed.”

Ye added that he didn’t receive “comprehensive scans” or neurological exams during that period, and so, his frontal-lobe injury wasn’t diagnosed until 2023. “That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health,” he admitted, “and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.”

Detailing the side effects of his experience with bipolar disorder, including feelings of denial, Ye continued, “The scariest thing about this disorder is how persuasive it is when it tells you: You don’t need help. It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight. You feel powerful, certain, unstoppable.”

Ye also admitted that he “lost touch with reality” and “said and did things” that he now regrets. “In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it,” his ad reads.

In an apology to all people he offended, Ye said he is “not a Nazi or an antisemite” and that he “love[s] Jewish people.”

“One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments — many of which I still cannot recall — that led to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body-experience,” he wrote.

“I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”

Elsewhere, Ye discussed a period where he “fell into a four-month long episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior” last year and said that time “destroyed” his life. He also cited his wife, Bianca Censori, as someone who encouraged him to seek help.

“As I find my new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living, I have newfound, much-needed clarity,” he said. “I am pouring my energy into positive, meaningful art: music, clothing, design, and other new ideas to help the world.”

Ye signed off his letter “with love” but concluded that he is “not asking for sympathy, or a free pass,” though he hopes to earn forgiveness. “I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home,” he said.

The Anti-Defamation League called Ye’s apology “long overdue,” per Billboard, while Disturbed frontman David Draiman thanked Ye for apologising, but said “it doesn’t undo the damage done.”