On Sunday, Kanye West posted his first tweets after a more than two-week silence. He tweeted to check if his account was working.
“Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked,” he tweeted. He followed that up with another tweet, “Shalom,” a greeting in Hebrew.
The tweets follow a series of no-filter comments that he has given him backlash in return, including a loss of sponsors and partnerships with Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga after making antisemitic statements in an interview, and his White Lives Matter stunt at Paris Fashion Week; plus his jaw-dropping interview with Tucker Carlson.
First, it was the ‘defcon’ comment
On Oct. 11, Twitter restricted West’s account after making a comment on the social media platform regarding Jewish people. “I’m a bit sleepy but when I wake up I’m going defcon 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” West tweeted.
Shortly after Jewish podcaster Lex Fridman released a 2 ½ hour interview with Ye as he reproached the topic again, with no remorse.
Celebrities and influencers flooded social media with comments regarding Kanye’s remarks.
Ye’s ex wife Kim Kardashian was one many to pin a quick message, “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,” she tweeted.
Shortly after, the sportswear company Adidas ended its partnership with Yeezy.
“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,” the company declared in a press release. “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.”
Gap and Balenciaga followed shortly after. Ye’s net worth plummeted, according to Forbes, and as a result of his actions, he is no longer a billionaire due to his termination.
His George Floyd comments
Following the madness, Ye continued to rant, this time on the podcast Drink Champs, about the death of George Flo. West falsely claimed that Floyd’s death was fentanyl related and that the officer’s” knee wasn’t on his neck like that”.
West received tremendous backfire regarding the sensitive topic. Days went by before West told the paparazzi that he wanted to apologize for his Drink Champs remarks.
“When I questioned the death of George Floyd, it hurt my people. It hurt the black people.” West told the paparazzi. “God has shown me by what Adidas is doing and by what the media is doing – I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck now,” he told paparazzi, as reported by Rolling Stone.
But the damage was already done. Floyd’s family is set to file a $250 million lawsuit against Ye for “harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.”
This is not the first time Ye has spoken before he thought. In 2018 West starred as the guest performer on “Saturday Night Live”, hosted by Adam Driver. The initial performance of his single “Ghost Town” turned into a pro-Trump rant off-air, resulting in boos pouring from the audience.
West wore a red MAGA hat elaborating upon his claims. “There are so many times I talk to, like a white person about this and they say, how could you like Trump, he’s racist. Well, uh if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago,” West said.
Could we blame mental health?
Ye has started to become a little more open about his history of mental health issues and bipolar disorder, such as manic episodes. But what role is that playing in his behavior, if any? Despite taking full responsibility for his actions, those actions keep building and he has alienated almost everyone at this point and is running out of places to speak out, which is probably why he’s buying Parler.
But the question is- can he bounce back from the madness? And will we be able to accept him again? Needless to say, the college dropout is long gone. So what in the Ye do we have now?
