I was nine years old when "The College Dropout" came out; my favorite songs were tracks seven and eight: "Jesus Walks" and "Never Let Me Down." In those days my dad would yell at me because I would always put the CD (yes, those existed at one point) on repeat. He would angrily tell me that’s not how you listen to music. "You have to listen to the whole album," he would say. But I was obsessed with those two songs. I never heard the gospel proclaimed through rap music and Kanye did it in a way that was cool and innovative. He captured my attention.

However, throughout my following of Kanye, I quickly learned that I had to separate Kanye the music producer from Kanye the person. Even after “College Dropout” I loved his verses on tracks like “Go Hard,” “Monster,” and “Swagger Like Us,” all of which helped build him from a behind-the-scenes music producer to an industry-accepted rapper. He captured my attention even more.

However, while I always was a fan of Kanye's music, I was not always a fan of his arrogant behavior or his ridiculous antics. For example, the Taylor Swift episode at the VMA award show, the obnoxious rant on "Sway in the Morning," trolling Kid Cudi, and his recent concert rant on how he would have voted for Donald Trump all made it hard for me to be a fan of Kanye West. Yet, at none of these idiotic episodes did I ever stop being a fan of Kanye West’s music. It is like when some of my friends think it is cool to wear Sperrys or Vineyard Vines. Personally, I would never wear these clothes but I am still friends with them because I enjoy their personality and they enjoy mine. We just have a difference in taste, but we are still friends.

The part I don’t understand is how my college peers can’t do what I learned at nine years old: separating Kanye West the musician from Kanye West the person. Granted I understand how much people idolize Kanye West as a model for success and leader for the black community. However, how can people not ignore a long track record of outlandish behavior but walk out on Kanye now? I believe the answer is that those people who walked out on him are called fair-weather fans.

The reason this topic is important to me is because I experienced the same backlash (at a smaller scale obviously) when I wrote an article denouncing the popular millennial opinion on Trump and outlined my beliefs. Since that article, people have unfriended me, blocked me, told me to go fuck myself, just to name a few. I saw one of these people out one time and she told me "I unfriended you on Facebook," and then she turned her back on me and walked away. Stories like these expose how badly people, especially college-educated people, can’t tolerate a difference of opinions. Perhaps the reason is that college does not offer a class one can take in order to learn how to disagree with someone.

I understand that people have different beliefs, come from different backgrounds, and everyone has their own opinion on how to make their country the best place on Earth. However, real friends are able to know the person enough to know what is behind their beliefs and is able to accept a difference of opinions for the sake of a healthy friendship. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that there is no class in college that can teach you about people and basic relationship skills, so college-people maintain their point of view and assail condescending terms at anybody who disagrees with them.

Instead of teaching college students that they are the smartest people in the world, colleges should be teaching their students how to find similarities of opinion and if they can't find them, then be able to accept someone else's point of view. Some people like to wear Sperry's and some people don't. I believe part of the reason people are so upset with Kanye is because he does not fill out the stereotype of a typical Trump supporter; being that he is black and donated to Clinton's campaign. But much like Trump supporters, he does not have a college degree and much like President-elect Trump, he is frustrated that people cannot express their mind without being ridiculed. But Kanye detractors are blind to this reality. They think that Trump is crazy and because Kanye would have supported Trump the only reasonable explanation is that he must be crazy too. This is a cop-out answer and our society should demand more from the so-called smartest people in the world.