Jewish teacher claims students are quoting Kanye West to her
LOS ANGELES - Shayna Ross doesn’t get flustered easily. As a standup comedian and performing musician, she can come up with a quick comeback to almost everything. But the comments from fourth graders in one of the music enrichment class she teaches at several Los Angeles area schools left her speechless, and almost in tears.
In posts on her social media accounts, Ross posted that she was in class yesterday, when "A student came up to me in front of everyone and said, ‘Ms. Shayna, are you Jewish?’ And I responded with, ‘Why are you asking?’ And their response: ‘Because it’s concerning.' I asked ‘Why is it concerning,’ and they said, ‘Because it’s not good.' And then another student shouted out 'Kanye West hates Jews," Ross said.
West, who now goes by Ye, has been the focus of a lot of media attention for his recent antisemitic comments. He's lost many partnerships in the fallout, including with his representation, his sponsorship with Adidas, and athletes like Los Angeles Rams Aaron Donald dropping his sports management company Donda Sports.
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West has apologized for one of the comments. He said he did not regret saying the words, just that they hurt people.
Ross said she was hurt by her students' comments. She wrote an incident report with school management, which said they're talking to the student's families.
Ross said she is worried, even though this students are only fourth graders. She said she wonders whether their comments are coming from their following of social media, or if it's coming from family or caretakers.
Jewish community members across the LA area have been critical of West's recent comments. The Anti Defamation League decried the comments saying Ye's speech uses "age old antisemitic myths about Jewish greed and power and control of the entertainment industry."