Kanye West, an American rapper, has apologised to those who have been offended by his recent anti-Semitic comments.
West appeared on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show on Wednesday, where the host called him out for making derogatory remarks about the Jewish community.
In one of the tweets that led to Twitter restricting his account, the rapper wrote, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I’ll go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I can’t actually be anti-semitic because black people are Jewish also. You people gave toyed with me and gave tried to blackball whoever opposes your agenda.”
Kanye later clarified that he meant to say Defcon 3 in the tweet. Defence readiness condition (Defcon) is an alert system used by the US military, with five levels of readiness, with level one being the highest. Defcon level 3 refers to “Increase in force readiness above normal readiness.”
While he first doubled down on the comments during the interview, West later acknowledged the fact that he had hurt people and caused “confusion”.
When asked if he regretted his “death con 3” tweet, Kanye said “No… Absolutely not.”
Afterward, the preview video cuts to him making a U-turn and tendering his apology.
“I will say I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the Defcon [comment], the confusion that I caused,” he said.
“I felt like I caused hurt and confusion. And I’m sorry for the families of the people that had nothing to do with the trauma that I have been through.
“I just want to say that it’s wrong to hold an apology hostage and I gotta let go of that, and free myself of the trauma and say, ‘Look, I’m just gonna give it all up to God right now.’ And say to those families that I hurt, you know, I really want to give you guys a big hug. And I want to say I’m sorry for hurting you with my comments.”