Rapper Kanye West who recently changed his name to “Ye” has once again divided the internet, this time over his controversial decision to wear a “White Lives Matter'” T-shirt at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris.
At his Paris fashion show on Monday, Ye wore a shirt with the phrase “White Lives Matter” on the back. Alongside him was conservative commentator Candace Owens, who wore the same shirt in white.
White Lives Matter T-shirts:
The phrase ‘White Lives Matter’ is problematic because it was created in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. According to the Anti-Defamation League, ‘White Lives Matter’ is a “white supremacist phrase”.
Ye further took it to his social media and posted, “EVERYONE KNOWS THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER WAS A SCAM NOW ITS OVER YOU’RE WELCOME”
See Ye’s Social Media Post on BLM below;
Ye’s choice of dressing did not please Jaden Smith, Jaden tweeted that he had left the show due to the “message” being put out, whilst many former Kanye fans took to social media to call him out. “Kanye west making Black models wear ‘White Lives Matter’ shirts is a culmination of his anti blackness and his immersion in white supremacy ideologies and methods. Disgusting,” someone tweeted.
Many activists condemned West’s shirt and comments. Marc Lamont Hill, an activist, author and professor, tweeted that West’s “decision to wear a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt is disgusting, dangerous, and irresponsible.”
In 2018, Ye said 400 years of slavery in the US “sounds like a choice”, although he later apologized for making the comment. The same year, he backed former US President Donald Trump and wore a controversial Make America Great Again cap on several occasions.
