Ye’s San Antonio concert moves forward as a councilwoman’s ticket acceptance contradicts her public denunciation of the rapper.
Ye finds himself at the center of a San Antonio political firestorm after a city councilwoman’s acceptance of a ticket to his controversial show became public.
Councilwoman Misty Spears requested complimentary passes to his July 4 Alamodome show, and when Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones discovered the request via a reply-all email, she immediately made it public.
The situation exposed a major contradiction between what Spears said publicly and what she’d done privately.
Spears’ office released a statement claiming she was unaware of Ye’s documented history of antisemitic rhetoric when she initially accepted the three tickets for herself and two guests.
She’s currently traveling in Israel and unavailable for interviews, but her team emphasized that her position remains consistent.
“Councilwoman Spears’ position has been clear and consistent: there is no place for antisemitism or hate speech in San Antonio,” her office stated.
The timing of her Israel trip and the ticket acceptance created an awkward optics for the councilwoman.
Mayor Jones has been vocal about her opposition to the concert, stating that the city shouldn’t provide a platform for someone with years of documented hate speech.
“I think it’s extremely important that we are much more thoughtful about the message that we send when we invest their time, their energy, their resources into providing somebody a platform who has years worth of hate speech and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” she said during a press conference.
However, according to KSAT, the mayor acknowledged that the city council doesn’t have enough votes to actually cancel the show.
A majority of San Antonio’s city council members signed a joint statement opposing cancellation, arguing that doing so would constitute censorship.
The Jewish Federation of San Antonio weighed in strongly against the concert.
Craig Berkowitch, the organization’s CEO, stated that the decision to allow the performance was misguided.
“We believe the wrong choice was made,” Berkowitch said. The pressure from the Jewish community has been intense, but it hasn’t swayed the council’s majority position.
More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the July 4 event.
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