Kanye West faces backlash for sporting shirt with “White Lives Matter” slogan

At his Paris trend present on Monday, Kanye “Ye” West wore a shirt with the phrase “White Lives Matter” on the again. Alongside him was conservative commentator Candace Owens, who wore the identical shirt in white.

The rapper, who formally modified his identify to Ye earlier this 12 months, wore the shirt at a trend present for his YZY model. According to Complex, fashions additionally wore the “White Lives Matter” shirts through the present. 

The phrase “White Lives Matter” emerged as “a racist response to the Black Lives Matter motion” in 2015, and has been adopted and promoted by white supremacist teams and sympathizers, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

West and Owens not solely confirmed help for White Lives Matter, however they had been additionally vital of the Black Lives Matter motion. After Monday’s trend present, Owens posted pictures of her outfit on her Instagram story. One publish gave the impression to be a screenshot of a narrative from West’s account, which learn: “Everyone know that Black Lives Matter was a rip-off now it is over you are welcome.” The story is not on West’s account. 

Black Lives Matter gained nationwide consideration after the 2014 dying of Michael Brown, a Black teenager who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. It grew to a worldwide scale and acquired widespread consideration after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. 

The Black Lives Matter motion is supposed to “dismantle a system that was designed to criminalize Black individuals, that was designed to criminalize poor individuals and other people of shade and different oppressed individuals,” one in all its founders, Alicia Garza, informed CBS News in 2020. 

Many activists condemned West’s shirt and feedback. Marc Lamont Hill, an activist, writer and professor, tweeted that West’s “resolution to put on a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt is disgusting, harmful, and irresponsible.”

Professor and political commentator Wendy Osefo said what West is doing “is just not solely intellectually dishonest it is irresponsible and borderline harmful.”

Journalist Jemele Hill said whereas the shirt could also be “a troll transfer or advertising,” it’s a “dangerously dumb message to ship for somebody together with his large platform.”

Hannah Gais, senior analysis analyst at Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate teams, mentioned in an announcement to CBS News each West and Owens “have a proclivity for high-profile stunts designed to troll liberals.” and that their “use of rhetoric common amongst some on the racist fringe goes to point out that these slogans can turn into normalized and a part of the broader right-wing vernacular via repetition.”

Although a few of West’s previous songs make clear racism and the mistreatment of Black individuals, he has come beneath hearth for a few of his statements lately. During a 2018 interview with TMZ, West mentioned slavery wasn’t actual. He additionally made headlines in 2018 for assembly with then-President Donald Trump a number of occasions and sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat.