A twitter account by the name of Stop anti-Semitism has shared a video of Kanye, now known as Ye, in which he claims he can say anything he wants without it affecting his career.
Listen to Kanye here: “the thing about it being Adidas I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me … now what … now what …” @adidas pic.twitter.com/Qu5LcZnmJj
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 20, 2022
Kim Kardashian has responded to the comments made by her ex-husband to say hate speech is ‘never okay or excusable’.
Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) October 24, 2022
The comment has back fired as it has now been revealed that the rapper has lost his contract with adidas. The statement found on company’s website reads as follows:
adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. 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.
After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.
This is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter.
adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership. More information will be given as part of the company’s upcoming Q3 earnings announcement on November 9, 2022.
This is not the only repercussion suffered by Ye, as he has also been dropped by his talent agency, MCR Entertainment, in a statement titled ‘Shelving of Our Kanye West Documentary and Two Important Lies’ posted to their website.
This morning, after discussion with our filmmakers and distribution partners, we made the decision not to proceed with any distribution for our recently completed documentary about Kanye West. We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.
Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years – the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia’s Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric. Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era.
Lies are an important part of all discrimination, and this one is no different. When well crafted, they create the illusion that the action is just, that the bigot is “punching up” at the victim. It’s critical to antisemites, who must explain why they are attacking a people that comprise less than half of one percent of the world’s population. Not a fair fight, numbers wise. But if the Jews are ultra-powerful because of secret evil plots, well, the argument is, it must be fair and ok.
The silence from leaders and corporations when it comes to Kanye or antisemitism in general is dismaying but not surprising. What is new and sad, is the fear Jews have about speaking out in their own defense.
Why is a group that has historically been brave and unreserved in its fight against antisemitism so quiet on Kanye?
Because of the emergence of a second lie – one that is at the center of what we call Antisemitism 2.0. It is brilliantly crafted, fast becoming part of mainstream thinking, and puts Jews is a terrible philosophical corner. That lie goes as follows:
If you support Israel’s right to exist, you are a racist.
If you are a Jew, you support Israel’s right to exist.
Therefore, if you are Jewish, you are a racist.As leaders of this company (a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian), we feel duty bound to say to all of you this is a pernicious, terrible use of false logic. It marries very well with the first “punching up” lie that all Jews are connected by conspiracy. And it is working, because many Jews are scared to speak up in defense of their religion, or Israel, for fear of being labelled racists. It is no more true than saying that if you support Palestine’s right to exist, you must be an antisemite.
For proof of how quickly a protest of Israel’s policies can jump to antisemitism, look no further than last week’s outrage at Wellesley College. The school is a historical bastion of liberalism and civil rights. But last week its newspaper editorial board saw fit not only to condemn Israel, but actually publish a MAP of Jewish places of worship, organizations and business in the area so that they could be targeted for protest – or worse. This would not be shocking from Neo-Nazis, but Wellesley?
The three of us want to make our position on this very clear.
- We support Palestine’s right to exist.
- We support Israel’s right to exist.
- Both nations represent a dream and an ideal for their peoples – one of safety, freedom, and prosperity.
- Both ideals are worthy of protection, even though we have significant objections to the policies of the governments of both nations.
- Objections to a nation’s government do not constitute grounds for discrimination against that nation’s citizens or supporters.
- We uniformly reject any assertion that we, our colleagues, or anyone else is bigoted or racist based on their support for the sovereignty and existence of any country, all of which have flaws.
If you hear or encounter the perpetuation of these intolerances and falsehoods, please let us know. It is totally unacceptable. And to those who are afraid to use their voice, hopefully this encourages you to do so.
—Asif Satchu (CEO & Co-Founder), Modi Wiczyk (CEO & Co-Founder), Scott Tenley (CBO)
The rapper has been restricted on Twitter and Instagram.
