Kanye West, Candace Owens, Selah Marley sport White Lives Matter t-shirts at Paris Fashion Week
- Hannah Williams
- Oct 9, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 20, 2023
Kanye West is known for being bold and controversial, and his face can often be found plastered to the front page of numerous magazines. From his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to the announcement of his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election, to legally changing his name to “Ye”, West is widely popular for his unpredictable behavior and blatant disregard for the opinions of others.
Kanye “Ye” West’s most recent wave of backlash comes after a photo of him wearing a shirt with “White Lives Matter” branded on the back went viral on Monday. The photo was taken during Kanye’s surprise appearance at Paris Fashion Week where he debuted the newest line from his YZY collection, which featured models of various races wearing shirts tagged with the same phrase.
Everyone from the average Twitter user to Hollywood's biggest stars seemed to have an opinion on West's latest public appearance. Most notably, as she garnered a series of ridiculing posts from West in response, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, an editor for Vogue, sat front row for the duration of Kayne's presentation and later voiced her disapproval via her Instagram story.
"the tshirts this man conceived, produced, and shared with the world are pure violence," she said. "There is no excuse, there is no art here.”
Reactions from the media in response to West's new line have varied. Seemingly in agreement with Karefa-Johnson, Van Lathan Jr, a film producer formerly of TMZ, replied to a comment on an Instagram post of his that read, “do white lives not matter?”
“we don’t need a reminder of the worth of white lives," he said. "America is a shrine to the worth of white people.”
Andrea Vergnaud, president of PennWest California University's Hispanic Student Association, saw the photograph online and stated that if she saw someone wearing a t-shirt with "White Lives Matter" written on the back, she would assume that they "haven't done enough research."
"All lives should matter. They should, right?" she said. "Everyone, no matter what your race is. That’s not what this White Lives Matter movement is doing. They’re promoting white supremacy.”
In contrast, one user by the name of @forestforever11 tweeted that anyone who has taken offense to West and Candace Owens' choice of clothing has "just outed yourself as a racist".
Antonio Brown, an American football player, posted a video to his Instagram of himself and West with the caption, "All Lives Matter 🔔🛎 #CallGod #Boomin #Donda #Always.”
West responded to the near-constant flow of criticism during an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, in which he stated, "As an artist, you don’t have to give an explanation. But as a leader, you do. So, the answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is because they do.”
Seemingly, the most frustrating part for social media users was that not only did West have models of varying races wearing the shirt, but one of those models happened to be Selah Marley. Selah is the daughter of Lauryn Hill and granddaughter of Bob Marley, both of which are known for their activism for African American rights .
The Anti-Defamation League, a leading anti-hate organization, describes the "White Lives Matter" movement as an extremist white supremacy group that was formed as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
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