Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Syrian Rejal al-Karamah (Men of Dignity) movement: What happened was a dangerous escalation that threatens civil peace and undermines the trust that authorities have worked hard to establish.
Rejal al-Karamah (Men of Dignity) movement: We condemn in the strongest terms the brutal attack on the city of Sweida and Jabal al-Arab by the Damascus government.
Maduro: We reaffirm that Palestine has the right to exist, resist, and live freely in a fully sovereign state with East al-Quds as its capital.
Maduro: Every bomb dropped on a Palestinian hospital, school, or home not only kills innocent lives but also destroys the foundations of world peace.
Maduro: What we are witnessing today in Gaza and throughout Palestine is not a conflict between equal parties, but rather a systematic plan to destroy a people and eradicate their identity.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at the Bogota summit: We raise our voices firmly outraged at the world's silence in the face of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians.
Syria: Sources to Al Mayadeen: Israeli airstrikes target supply lines of military factions affiliated with the Syrian Interim Ministry of Defense outside Sweida and around Daraa.
Al-Saadi: There were concerns that Lahham would be placed under administrative detention.
Al-Saadi: The Israeli occupation authorities could not prove any allegations leveled against Nasser Lahham.
Lawyer Oussama al-Saadi: The oppressive Israeli measures of delaying Lahham's release had vengeful motives.

Professor wants to launch class on Kanye West for sociology lessons

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 23 Oct 2022 16:07
5 Min Read

Despite criticism from social media, McCune is pushing to start his third class on Kanye West's controversial impact on both Black culture and social issues.

  • x
  • Professor Jeffrey McCune Jr (University of Rochester)
    Professor Jeffrey McCune Jr (University of Rochester)

Associate professor of African and African American studies at the University of Rochester, Jeffrey McCune Jr., is pushing to introduce his third class on rapper Kanye West's artistry, impact and political views to deliver complex topics to college students.

After teaching his first two Kanye-West-inspired courses - The Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics - at Washington University in St. Louis in 2017, delving into themes from Black culture to mental health, McCune said the third course aims to tackle the rapper’s recent 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 said, adding: “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.”

His class will comprise three sections: “the old Kanye, the new Kanye, and the who Kanye,” by analyzing Ye’s recent behavior, without excluding the rapper's past or present controversies, such as donning a “White Lives Matter” shirt during Paris Fashion Week, making antisemitic statements on social media, and ​​saying that George Floyd died of fentanyl use rather than the use of police burtality by a Minnesota police officer.

Kanye told "Drink Champs" podcast hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN that Floyd died as a result of fentanyl consumption rather than officer Chauvin’s knee on his neck: “They hit (Floyd) with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” Ye said. “They said he screamed for his mama; mama was his girlfriend. It’s in the documentary.”

The documentary, “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM" written by and starring conservative political commentator Candace Owens, contradicts Hennepin County medical examiner's office ruling that his death was a homicide caused by "cardiopulmonary arrest" by "restraint and neck compression" while being subdued by police.

Related News

Defense witness for George Floyd murderer appears in pro-Trump ad: WP

Derek Chauvin, convicted in George Floyd's death, stabbed in prison

Class is not really about Kanye

McCune actually regards Kanye's unstable behavior as a key point in explaining how white evangelical Christianity affects Black culture and how it can breed anti-Blackness, as he cited the rapper's evolution in music, he said: “Even though Kanye may not be conscious of how he’s dancing between these two worlds, it is clear in his move to Christianity … that he’s choosing a very ugly strain of white evangelical Christianity that continuously believes that Christ is a policing white man, who does not in fact revere Blackness,” 

“The course has never, ever been about Kanye,” McCune added. “He is the draw. But I, in this course, draw out the significance of Black celebrity to Black life, and for me, that continues with the person who is driving anti-Blackness into the public. I can’t ignore that.”

The course has drawn negative feedback from critics as McCune admitted to receiving hate and aggressive emails while users have been skeptical over social media of the purpose of needing such a course. McCune in turn responded that courses on celebrities like Kanye West, Nicki Minaj and Drake are crucial because they help make topics concerning history, political science, and sociology easier for students to relate to and enjoy learning about. 

In an interview with NBC News, McCune told the news channel that to make the picture clearer to students, “we have to use things that the students are listening to and are digesting every day,” he , before adding that by teaching this course, he’s going against the narrative that only certain Black figures are worthy of academic courses. 

“We can have a class about Dr. Martin Luther King, right, but we can’t have a class about Malcolm X?” McCune continued. “We can have a class about Jay Z, but we can’t have a class about Kanye West?”

Although the course does not have an official title like his previous two, the professor expressed that if the University of Rochester’s college curriculum committee approves it, he intends to launch it in the spring or fall semester of 2023. 

“I think that the catalog of Kanye is still an interesting catalog,” McCune said. “It’s an archive, quite frankly, of my life and the lives of so many other young people who have been entangled in the world of Kanye.”

  • George Floyd
  • college
  • Kanye West
  • university of rochester

Most Read

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

  • Politics
  • 9 Jul 2025
An Israeli soldier abandons an excavator during an ambush by al-Qassam Brigades. Arabic text reads "The moment the soldier fled", July, 10, 2025 (Al Qassam Military Media)

Israeli media rue al-Qassam footage, alarmed by fighters among troops

  • Politics
  • 11 Jul 2025
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage after an Iranian attack at the al Udeid Airbase outside of Doha, Qatar, June 25, 2025 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Satellite images show Iran attack damaged US comms dome in Qatari base

  • Politics
  • 11 Jul 2025
Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

  • Analysis
  • 11 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Syrian government forces deploy at the Mazraa village on the outskirts of city of Sweida, where clashes erupted between Bedouin clans and Druze factions, southern Syria, Monday, July 14, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Gulf-backed negotiations underway in Syria's Sweida to end clashes

UN: 798 Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid in Gaza
Palestine

UN: 798 Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid in Gaza

A damaged car is seen at a field that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Nabi Sheet village, in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, Wednesday, August 21, 2024 (AP)
Politics

Hezbollah condemns Israeli Bekaa massacre, urges action from Lebanon

Palestinians walk next to the closed humanitarian aid distribution center of UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Israeli regime cuts electricity, water supplies to UNRWA Gaza offices

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS