By Mairin Hoffman ’25
Towards the end of 2022, Kanye West’s name was all over the news but for all the wrong reasons. Kanye West, known for his iconic songs and style, recently made absurd and disturbing Anti-Semitic comments on his Twitter account. His comments caused outrage over social media, as it was shocking to hear these remarks from such an influential artist. His behavior has been shocking, along with his hateful comments, and at one point, he even went missing.
In October of 2022, Kanye West was spotted wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt during Paris Fashion Week, which goes against the Black Lives Matter movement and is tone-deaf to the struggles of others. After this incident, Adidas announced its partnership with Kanye West was pending. Kanye West defended his actions by saying it was a “gut instinct, a connection with God, and just brilliance.” (Via theweek.com). In response to Diddy reacting in outrage over the “White Lives Matter shirt,” Kanye made an anti-semitic post about rapper Diddy, suggesting he was being controlled by Jewish individuals. Instagram then restricted his account, in which Ye tweets to Mark Zuckerburg, “How you gone kick me off of Instagram.” But later that night, Ye released the most upsetting tweets yet: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” and claiming, “I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone who opposes your agenda.” These tweets caused outrage on social media. Celebrities and supporters of his music were outraged. The next day, Twitter confirmed that Ye’s account had been locked “due to a violation of Twitter’s policies.” The tweet was removed.
However, these events did not stop Ye from speaking his mind. Ye went on multiple talk shows and podcasts and said insensitive comments about his controversial thoughts. He claims things like, “Jewish people have owned the Black voice.” He expressed confidence that he believes Adidas won’t end their business relationship with West: “I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me.” After all these comments, on October 21st, a spokesperson for Vogue tells Page Six Magazine that “neither the magazine nor its editor-in-chief Anna Wintour intend to work with Kanye West again.” Balenciaga announced that they do not intend to work with Ye again either. A couple of days later, on October 24, Adidas officially announced their departure from working with Kanye West, saying “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.” They added “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.” Although not public information, we assume this caused outrage for Kanye, as he showed up to Sketchers headquarters trying to get a deal with them, as he recently lost his major deal with Adidas. Sketchers rejected Ye’s proposal and kicked him out.
Various celebrities and companies have spoken vocally about their disappointment with Kanye West’s comments and behavior, as he has been claimed as one of the most influential artists of this century. Ye has lots of young and impressionable fans, so his actions may appear acceptable to his fans when it is really just plain wrong. His actions are full of nothing but hate and there is absolutely no excuse for them. His career may not recover fully from these incidents.
