Adidas Dropped the Mic: Now What Kanye?
Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks on social media result in a terminated partnership with Adidas.
by ARYN CHARTOCK ★ OCTOBER 26, 2022
If you know Ye, you know that his recent social media presence has had an extremely negative impact on his fans, followers, and society. What started with attacks on Pete Davidson turned into a disgusting attack on Jewish people across the globe.
On October 25, 2022, Adidas terminated its partnership with Kanye West for his offensive antisemitic remarks on social media. After posting derogatory comments to his over-18.2 million Instagram followers, fans, companies, and celebrities started to speak up. Multiple members of the well-known Kardashian family posted regarding their support for the Jewish community, hastily ending their relationship with Kanye West. While it was refreshing and comforting to see these posts, people across the world turned their focus to Adidas—were they going to condemn these actions or let them go?
Credit: Instagram @khloekardashian
Although his partnership with Adidas contributed $1.5 million to his net worth, Kanye West publicly said, “I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?” (Fortune, 2022). This not only further contributed to his antisemitic behavior, but left Adidas customers, fans, and the entire Jewish community baffled. Not only did millions of people across the globe call for a termination of the partnership between Adidas and Kanye West, but Adidas also “fell 4% in morning trading in Frankfurt, Germany, after Bloomberg reported early in the day it was planning to end the partnership” (CNBC, 2022). Hours after this, GAP publicly announced that they were immediately going to take Kanye’s Yeezy products off of their shelves and online storefront. They also took down the Yeezy X GAP website in response to Kanye West’s extremely offensive comments.
Gap’s statement echoed what Adidas stated: “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 said (CNBC, 2022). After the termination of these two partnerships, the people of the Jewish community definitely find comfort in the notion that antisemitism is never excused.
Credit: Financial Times
Kanye West has a huge platform with over 18 million Instagram followers, 31.5 million Twitter followers, and over 50 million monthly music listeners. There are less than 15 million Jewish people in the world. The fact that these terribly offensive, antisemitic remarks reached more people than there are Jewish people in the world has left everyone uncomfortable and saddened.
Antisemitism is very prevalent in colleges and universities across the nation. In a report done by Brandeis University, they found that “about one-third of college undergraduate respondents report having been verbally harassed during the past year because they were Jewish” (Brandeis University, 2015). As a musician and rapper with the majority of his listeners ranging from 18-25 years old, these remarks truly affect the level of support college students feel on campus. One prevalent organization at most college campuses, including here at Syracuse University, stated, “Thank you to Adidas for finally announcing it is terminating its relationship with Kanye West, effective immediately. Antisemitism and hate have no place in our world, on our campuses, in our music, or on our clothing” (Hillel International, 2022).
While it is appreciated by the Jewish Community that this partnership was terminated, this is not enough. Antisemitic actions and remarks must be taken extremely seriously and condemned immediately. It is the responsibility of our generation to rise up and educate the public on the detrimental effects social media has on society and people regardless of their religious backgrounds. I encourage you to get informed, educate yourself, and condemn hate whenever and wherever you see it.
Sources:
https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/birthright/antisemitism.html
Cover Photo Credit: Pinterest