Amid controversies, one college professor says there’s value in teaching students about Kanye West

By Claretta Bellamy, NBC News

As a Black man from the South Side of Chicago like Ye, the man formerly known as Kanye West, Jeffrey McCune Jr. grew up with an appreciation for the rapper-turned-entrepreneur. Now, amid the recent controversies surrounding the rapper, this college professor sees value in launching another course on Ye.

McCune, an associate professor of African and African American studies at the University of Rochester, hopes to launch his third class on Ye focusing on the rapper’s artistry, influence and political views as a way to teach complex topics to college students. He taught his first two Ye-inspired courses, titled The Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics, at Washington University in St. Louis starting in 2017. Those classes — which covered everything from Black culture to capitalism to mental health — went on hiatus due to the pandemic. McCune now wants to launch another Ye course — but this time at the University of Rochester — which he said will help to counter the rapper’s anti-Black rhetoric.

“As a cultural critic, as a public intellectual, as a steward of my community, I have to believe that it’s important for me as a professor to counter the messages that Kanye is now advancing, using Christianity as the bedrock for it,” McCune, 44, said. “As an educator, as an intellectual, as a scholar, it will be irresponsible for me to just do away with him, knowing the kinds of impacts and effects his work and his weight could have.”

Finish the article.

Adidas recently terminated their partnership with Kanye over anti-Semitic remarks her made on social media.

More breaking news.