anti-semitism
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Kanye West’s hate speech had landed him in another legal battle. A former Jewish employee has filed a claim against him for anti-semitism and more.
Variety Magazine is reporting that an unidentified woman who once worked at YEEZY is seeking damages against Kanye West. Jane Doe claims the performer harassed her and other workers via text messages because of her Jewish faith. Some of the hateful messages included “I Am A Nazi,” and “Welcome to the first day of working for Hitler.” She details that the harassment started in January of 2024. A couple of weeks later Kanye issued an apology in Hebrew but started using similar hateful language towards the staff shortly after.
The marketing executive suggested Kanye West denounce any ties to Nazism in an effort to better position his forthcoming album at the time Vultures Vol. 1. This suggestion was communicated to Ye by another employee to which West allegedly responded “I Am A Nazi” via text. Jane Doe says she was terminated from the company in March 2024 only to be rehired shortly after with her salary doubled. Later in June she claims Kanye sent out another text to several employees asking “What the F*** Is Everybody Here Getting Paid?” He targeted her a series of messages including “Come destroy me bi***.”
The suit not only alleges that Kanye West was guilty of religious discrimination but also gender discrimination and wrongful termination. “Ye waged a relentless and deliberate campaign of antisemitism and misogyny against my client,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Carney Shegerian. “His appalling treatment of women and fixation on Nazism, evident in abusive texts where he repeatedly calls himself Hitler, expose his motives. We need to stop excusing Ye’s behavior. As a father, husband, and employer, he must be held accountable. Ye dared my client to sue, and we will see him in court.”
Last week Ye’s X account, formerly known as Twitter, was deactivated due to similar rants where he referred to himself as a Nazi, complimented Adolf Hitler and even said “JEWS WERE BETTER AS SLAVES YOU HAVE TO PUT YOUR JEWS IN THEIR PLACE AND MAKE THEM INTO YOUR SLAVES.” Since then he has been dropped by his talented agency and Shopify suspended his http://www.yeezy.com e-commerce store.
Kanye West nor his representatives have yet to formally comment on the lawsuit.
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Ye aka Kanye West is stoking more outrage as a new photo of him and JPEGMAFIA shows the rapper sporting a t-shirt with the image of a notorious neo-Nazi and murderer.
Last Friday (January 19), photos of the rapper and producer JPEGMAFIA and Kanye West caught the web by surprise. Posted to his Instagram account with the caption “can’t talk right now, doing hot girl s—t,” the pictures showed the duo posing together with West sporting a new set of titanium dental grills presumably at work on new music. But West’s t-shirt caught the attention of metal fans who immediately identified the artist as Burzum, a Norwegian black metal band fronted by Varg Vikernes, a notorious pagan neo-Nazi.
The revelation got worse as fans saw that the proposed artwork for his upcoming Vultures album had similarities to the artwork on Burzum’s self-titled album from 1992. The photos caused dismay to fans of JPEGMAFIA, who had lyrics calling Burzum out for his racism on his “ALL CAPS NO SPACES” track from his album Black Ben Carson. He also had called West out on X, formerly Twitter in a since-deleted rant earlier that week. “[You] got 27 n**gas tweaking hi-hats just to make some mid [music]. Talk to a real scientist, brother,” he wrote.
Vikernes openly supported Nazism from the 1990s and would be convicted and imprisoned for murdering the guitarist of another band, Mayhem in August 1993 as well as for burning down three churches. Vikernes would serve 21 years before gaining parole in 2009, after which he and his wife moved to France. The couple would be arrested on suspicion of plotting a massacre in 2013 and a year later, Vikernes was found guilty of inciting racial hatred online against Jews and Muslims.
The photos come after Kanye West started the year out by posting an apology to Jewish people in Hebrew on his Instagram page, which was met with skepticism considering that he had been performing songs from Vultures with antisemitic lyrics. ‘There will never be a redemption arc for Kanye West, period. What will he try next? Another apology in Hebrew?’,” said Liora Rez, executive director of the StopAntisemitism organization.
As for Vikernes, when alerted to West’s attire on social media, he responded: “I know very little about him or what he says or does, and I kind of have very little incentive to ‘find out.’ it is better to spend time on something more fruitful.”
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Source: MEGA / Getty / Kanye West
adidas CEO has an interesting take on Kanye West and his penchant for saying blatant antisemitic things on social media.
Bjørn Gulden, chief executive of adidas, is finally speaking on the fallout between Ye and his company after the rapper couldn’t stop being an antisemitic clown on his social media accounts.
Spotted on Deadline, Gulden sort of put on his cape for the “Good Life” crafter whom he had to cut ties with, bringing to an end their ridiculously successful partnership, claiming he believes West didn’t mean any of the offensive things he said during a recent episode of the Norwegian podcast In Good Company.
Per Deadline:
“I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world. Both in music and what I call street culture,” Gulden said after being questioned about West on the Norwegian podcast In Good Company.
“He’s extremely creative and has together with Adi, created a Yeezy line that was very successful. And then, as a creative person, he made some statements which wasn’t that good. And that caused Adi to break the contract and withdraw the product. Very unfortunate because I don’t think he meant what he said, and I don’t think he’s a bad person – it just came across that way.”
Word?
Gulden also noted that it was “very sad” when speaking about his company losing “one of the most successful collabs in history.”
He also notes that what happened with Ye could happen with any celeb or athlete because of how unpredictable working with third parties is.
“When you work with third parties, that could happen. It’s part of the game. That can happen with an athlete — it can happen with an entertainer. It’s part of the business,” he continued.
What Has Ye Been Up To?
As of right now, Ye doesn’t have any collaborations. His comments cost him business dealings with Balenciaga, adidas CAA, and Gap, whom he distanced himself from before they could give him the boot.
You can find Ye running around the country trying to make his Yeezy Socks and dressing his wife, Bianca Censori, in nothing but pantyhose a thing.
We can’t forget allegedly getting caught with his pants down in Venice while his “wife” topped him off, earning them a well-deserved banning by the Venetian Water Taxi company.
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Photo: MEGA / Getty
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