Kanye West has sparked an intense racial debate (again) as he sported a “White Lives Matter” jumper at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris. Many are disgusted by West’s actions. However, some are now treating West as someone with severe mental health issues and are pitying the rapper.
West has been going somewhat off the rails recently and has switched positions on several people and entities present in his life. He went from attacking his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend Pete Davidson, to then apologising to her. However, he then changed his profile picture to Kris Jenner, which many still believe was an indirect dig directed at her.
He then took it upon himself to blast Adidas, GAP and Balenciaga on a vicious Instagram rampage, only to appear in Balenciaga’s latest showcase at Paris Fashion Week. Quite strange, he has consistently shown he can go from hating people to loving them very quickly.
Now, he has reignited the fire he created four years ago during his rant on African-American history at the TMZ offices, in which he proclaimed, “400 years of slavery, that sounds like a choice”. Completely indifferent to the feelings of African-Americans in the room at the time, he was quickly shut down by Van Lathan.
With this latest design, West has again garnered attention for his unnecessary and unwanted interjection into the discourse around race relations in the US. Having already told his community that the slavery of their ancestors was a choice, the black community are already turned off by West, and this will undoubtedly only make things worse.
The shirt, which was also emblazoned with the Pope’s face, was not just worn by West though. Some of the models in the show sported the same shirt emblazoned with “White Lives Matter”, and West’s fans were enraged. However, many have compared it to West’s previous attention-seeking, politically incorrect stunts. Some have compared it to him wearing the MAGA hat, while others have compared it to when the rapper wore a jacket with the Confederate flag.
Whether or not West is mentally ill, the majority of his fans are not impressed with this latest move by West and are waiting to see the ramifications.