Kanye West used his platform to share that he hasn’t “read any book,” and one of the world’s most beloved and distinguished champions of literacy had thoughts.
LeVar Burton shared a HuffPost tweet which noted the father of four and head of a purportedly questionable new school is “repulsed by literature, comparing books to a vegetable often despised by children.”
The 65-year-old veteran of Reading Rainbow, Roots, and Star Trek: The Next Generation deployed the eyes emoji and wrote, “Hmmm…I’m going have to take Mr. West at his word. I hope however, that he shares a different message with the children enrolled in the school he’s founded named after his mother, who was an professor of English. I’m fairly certain she read a book or two.”
Kanye, 45, noted his distaste for the printed word on the Alo Yoga podcast Alo Mind Full.
“When you said ‘I hadn’t read this book,’ I actually haven’t read any book,” Ye volunteered. “Reading is like eating brussel sprouts for me. And talking is like getting the Giorgio Baldi corn ravioli.”
A Rolling Stone report last week questioned the bona fides and practices of West’s recently opened Donda Academy, noting it’s not yet accredited, parents are asked to sign NDAs, and the principal and executive director has allegedly not held a prior position as an educator.
A Who We Are section on the school’s official site proclaims, “Using an ethic of integrity and care, Donda Academy prepares students to become the next generation of leaders, thinkers and innovators by providing them with a world-class education that includes a rigorous core curriculum, and an emphasis on sustainability, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving.”
