Crimson Sun

Recent gaffe involving President Obama, Kanye West and Taylor Swift sparks debate on campus

Jasmine Milton

Everyone seems to have to heard about Kanye West's outburst during the Video Music Awards when he interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech, and interjected that Beyonce should have won the award.

In addition to that, the news about President Obama’s off the record statement about Kanye West being a “jackass” has also ignited controversy.

A survey was conducted to find out how the McClellan students and staff felt about the situations. Strong feelings and candid opinions were the order of the day.

The first question asked was, "How do you feel about Kanye West's outburst during Taylor Swifts acceptance speech?"  We had a number of different responses and though the majority of people simply said it was rude, we also had students with much stronger opinions.

“It’s not as a big deal as everyone’s making it out to be! It’s not like he’s raping her or something. It’s just his opinion,” said sophomore, Tevin Wilburn.

However, one teacher who wished to not be identified strongly disagreed. "Kanye West should have sat his behind down! Who does he think he is?! He’s the king of rude!” she said.

Agreeing with her, another student said, “I feel he shouldn’t have done that. It was her time to shine, not his. He should respect her.”

The second set of questions asked caused just as much excitement as the first. We asked, "What do you think about President Obama calling Kanye West a jackass? Do you think it was wrong or do you agree?"

We started off getting many responses like  “No, I don’t think it was wrong.” and “Yes I agree." However,  some students went farther in their judgements.

One student said, “Obama’s the president, he shouldn’t have said anything like that.”

Freshman Yasmine Beasley said, “I don’t feel he should be calling my man a name like that!”

Another student tried too look deeper, “I don’t think there was anything wrong with it.  it was suppose to be an off-the-record comment. No one can fault him for saying it,  he’s only human. It was, or was supposed to be anyway, his personal, private opinion. It’s not his fault some dummy went and tweeted about it.”

It seems lots of different people had all sorts of opinions on both questions. In any case, it seems clear that this incident involving such prominent individuals has caused strong feelings to surface. We did discover that these feelings are often based on perception rather than fact.