Trevor Noah’s Reply To Kanye West’s ‘Coon’ Slur Is How We Show Love Even When We Disagree

Trevor Noah ended up on Kanye West’s radar for his commentary on the ongoing feud between Kayne, his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and Pete Davidson, with Kanye West calling him a coon. However, Trevor Noah replied with grace, admiration, and black solidarity.

Trevor Noah Responds To Kanye’s ‘Coon’ Slur

Kanye West called Trevor Noah a ‘coon’ after The Daily Show host shared a dialogue expressing his concern over the dangerous and slippery slope of the Kanye/Pete/Kim Kardashian drama. 

Now, Trevor Noah is responding to Kanye, offering grace and admiration to the embattled rapper as well as an olive branch to unite into a “powerful rod.”  

In response to the ‘coon’ comment, Trevor Noah shared how much he admires Kanye and the impact Kanye has had on him.

“There are few artists who have had more of an impact on me than you Ye. You took samples and turned them into symphonies,” Noah began. “You took your pain and through the wire turned it into performance perfection. I thought differently about how I spend my money because of you, I learned to protect my child-like creativity from grown thoughts because of you, shit I still smile every time I put on my seatbelt because of you.”

Noah also shared that he is heartbroken to see Kanye on such a destructive path.

“You’re an indelible part of my life Ye. Which is why it breaks my heart to see you like this,” Noah continued, offering grace. “I don’t care if you support Trump and I don’t care if you roast Pete. I do however care when I see you on a path that’s dangerously close to peril and pain.”

And to the “Koon-bah-ya” slur that Kanye hurled at him, Trevor offers solidarity.

“Oh and as for Koon…clearly some people graduate but we still stupid,” Noah added. “Don’t ever forget, the biggest trick racists ever played on black people was teaching us to strip each other of our blackness whenever we disagree. Tricking us into dividing ourselves up into splinters so that we would never unite into a powerful rod.”

Kanye West Calls Trevor Noah A Coon

Kanye West posted to his Instagram a photo of Trevor Noah followed by the caption “All in together now… Koon baya my lord koon baya  Koon baya my lord Koon baya Oooo’ lord Koon baya,” seemingly referring to Trevor Noah as a ‘coon’ for his dialogue about the public drama between Kayne West, Kim Kardashian, and Pete Davidson. 

The comment earned Ye a 24-hour-ban from IG for violating their policies around bullying, harassment and hate speech.

The feud between Pete and Kanye has grown more public and more intense with Kanye sharing publically how he is being antagonized behind the scenes by the pair. Trevor Noah threw his hat into the ring in a ten minute monologue that was uploaded to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah as to why this situation warrants more serious concern for the health and wellbeing of all involved.

Trevor Noah Says Kanye Could Be In Deep Trouble

Trevor’s dialogue centered around the thought that many more people should be paying attention to the feud “but not for the reason that you think.”

He started off by stating that West’s efforts to win Kardashian back may have started out as “romantic,” but have become more “belligerent” over time, including a video that appeared to be a veiled death threats against Davidson. Kanye has refuted claims that this video was his desire to hurt Pete Davidson and that it was simply art.

Noah argues back with “I do understand art can be therapy, I do understand that. But I also understand that therapy can be therapy,” and goes on to mention the confusion Kanye has sown with his public revelation that he struggles with his mental health. “I get it. You want to have artist therapy,” snarks Noah.

The comedian then goes on to compare Kanye’s actions to Eminem who would make similarly veiled threats but saying there was a caveat. “Here’s the thing, Eminem was Eminem from the beginning,” explains Noah.   ‘I’m going to kill my ex-wife but it was his schtick and we knew it. He wasn’t that person.” Because Kayne has told the public that he has mental problems, Noah raises the question of “are we to worry or not? Do you have problems or not?”

He then also goes on to acknowledge the other side of this controversy and that while there are people who will say Kim Kardashian “loves publicity” and all of this is just a big “marketing stunt” for the family’s upcoming reality show, Noah said, “there’s also an element of a woman saying to her ex, ‘Please leave me alone.’”

“Two things can be true,” he tacked on to the previous statement. “Kim likes publicity. Kim is also being harassed.”

Then he went on to acknowledge that the entirety of the audience might not feel sorry for Kim Kardashian for “being rich, appropriating Black culture, telling women that they’re lazy,” but he states that it is “terrifying to watch and shines a spotlight on what so many women go through when they choose to leave.”

“People say that phrase to women, why didn’t you leave? Why didn’t you leave? A lot of women realize when they do leave the guy will get even crazier. When I say crazy, I don’t mean

mental health crazy, you know what I mean. The point is Kim Kardashian and countless other women find themselves in a terrible position because asking Kanye to stop clearly isn’t helping but at the same time, he hasn’t broken any laws. Can she get him arrested? I don’t think so.”

Close to the seven minute mark of his ten minute monologue, he goes on the record to state that he empathizes with some of Kanye’s stances. “There’s parts I understand, I understand Kanye saying, ‘I don’t want my daughter on Tik-Tok.’ I agree with that part of what he’s saying. I think that’s a separate issue.” 

The Daily Show host goes on to reiterate the main issue being, “What we are seeing, though, is one of the most powerful, one of the richest women in the world unable to get her ex to stop chasing her, chasing after her and harassing her. Think of how powerful Kim Kardashian is and she can’t get it to happen.”

In an effort to get his audience to understand why he is on such high alert, Trevor ultimately related his concern to the abuse that he and his mother went through from the ages of 9 to 16. He recounted how often people told his mother, from family to police to strangers, that she was overreacting. 

Trevor Noah emphasizes that he saw this happen as a child.

“You see this as a child, you know, and you see a world where women are questioned for what is happening to them as opposed to people questioning what is happening to them.”

Trevor ended the anecdote with the memory of his brother calling him to inform him his mother had been shot in the head by his stepfather.

“I’m not saying Kanye will,” Trevor Noah made clear, repeating himself several times, imploring the audience to understand. “But as a society, we have to ask ourselves questions. Do we wish to stand by and watch a car crash when we thought we saw it coming? Or do we at least want to say, ‘Slow down, let’s all put our hazards on, because there’s a storm coming and shit might go down.’”