Kanye West has once again made headlines, this time being for a whole new set of controversial actions and words.
During Paris Fashion Week, Kanye West staged a “surprise” Yeezy show which included a T-shirt with the phrase “White Lives Matter” written on it. The shirt had the Pope’s face printed on the front of it and was worn by models, Kanye himself, and right-wing commentator, Candace Owens.
However, this isn’t the first time Kanye has made controversial comments about race. Most notably, he said in 2018 during a TMZ interview that slavery “sounds like a choice”- a statement which he unsuccessfully tried to recant. He also openly supported Donald Trump during his time as president, and even ran for president himself in 2020.
Obviously, the t-shirt choice did not go over well on social media and with the audience. Musician Jaden Smith walked out in the middle of the Yeezy show and tweeted “I had to dip lol”, followed by a separate tweet stating “Black Lives Matter.”
Kanye did in fact respond to the many critiques with a post on his Instagram story saying “Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it’s over. You’re welcome”. He also spoke out against Vogue fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who shared critical views on the attire. But it wasn’t only GKJ that he spoke out against, the list currently includes others like: Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, Justin Bieber, Anastasia Karanikolaou, and Lizzo.
Kanye West is undoubtedly a great artist, however, West makes it hard to separate the art from the artist. His words are harmful to a large population of the United States, and it is hard to justify. A commenter on Instagram stated, “This message is reactionary to a message affirming the worth of Black lives, which have never been worth anything in America. In its intent, it’s a white supremacist notion because it posits that we can’t have a conversation about the worth of black people without having a conversation about the worth of white people.” I believe this perfectly describes the situation at hand, and it is clear that Kanye has a lot of personal work to do to gain back many loyal followers that have stopped following his music due to his actions.