Tampa Jewish Federation, FL NOW join Kanye West protest

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, is coming to Tampa at the end of the month, and different communities in the Tampa Bay area are speaking out against his appearances.

It began with Sen. Rick Scott sending a letter last week asking the Tampa Sports Authority, which operates Raymond James Stadium, to cancel the June 26 and 28 concerts.

Now, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Tampa Jewish Federation and the Florida National Organization for Women (FL NOW) have all released statements against the rapper’s performances.

In early 2025, Ye made statements on the social media platform X claiming to be a Nazi. He also alluded to Nazism in the lyrics and music video to a song called “Heil Hitler,” and promoted the sale of a T-shirt stamped with a swastika through a Super Bowl ad.

Earlier this year, Ye apologized for the comments and actions in a Wall Street Journal advertisement, blaming his behavior on a bipolar disorder and frontal lobe injury from an accident.

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Still, his words continue to have an impact on members of the Jewish community who say they don’t see the truth in his apology.

Eric Stillman, president of The Florida Holocaust Museum, is one of the people who don’t believe Ye’s remorse is genuine.

“To say he was sorry and to say it was based on a manic episode and not to take any actions after that, to demonstrate that this was a sincere change of heart, is really what is so hard for the members of the Jewish community in Tampa, and throughout the region and throughout the world to take that as sincere,” Stillman said.

The museum released a statement Monday saying hosting someone with such a history of antisemitism sends a message that “anti-Jewish bigotry can be accepted or overlooked for the sake of something as simple as a concert.”

The museum also announced it will offer free admission from June 26-28 – the days Ye will be in Tampa to perform.

Stillman said opening the museum to a wider audience on those days gives an opportunity for those who are unhappy about the concerts to further educate themselves about the Holocaust.

“They can demonstrate through their own actions that they want to create something positive from this situation as opposed to what is happening, which is that someone who’s said very hateful and very hurtful remarks against the Jewish people is getting a very big platform here in our area,” Stillman said.

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“We recognize the concerns and viewpoints being expressed about the upcoming events at Raymond James Stadium,” read a June 5 statement from the Tampa Sports Authority. “As a public agency, we follow the principles of free speech in operating our venue, although we do not condone remarks or actions from any artists that are offensive and divisive.”

But Debbie Deland, vice president of FL NOW, said free speech shouldn’t apply to this situation as what Ye promoted in the past was hate speech — and giving him a platform “normalizes and glorifies” those statements.

“It’s been a consistent pattern of hate speech and Nazism,” Deland said. “You don’t just turn that over.”

She says Ye performing in Tampa sends the wrong message about what can and can’t be said and forgiven.

“I think it sends the wrong message to the community that antisemitism, hate speech, Nazism is okay, and it’s not,” Deland said.

“We just don’t have any institutional credibility, because we’re normalizing and legitimizing his Nazi-glorifying statements.”

Tampa is the only remaining stop in the North American leg of the rapper’s tour, following a pair of sold-out shows earlier this year in Los Angeles celebrating the release of his new album Bully.

Stillman said this sends the wrong message about the Tampa Bay area, both to the local Jewish community and the rest of the country.

“Do we really want the Tampa Bay region to be known throughout the United States and throughout the world as the place that gave a stage to Kanye West when he has this long, proven history over years of making hateful and hurtful anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish people?” Stillman said.

Joana Riva is a Zimmerman Rush Family Radio News intern at WUSF, the bay area’s NPR affiliate.