Family of Ahmaud Arbery says Kanye West’s “White Lives Matter” shirt helped “legitimize extremist behavior”
nme.commurdered by three white neighbours in the United States in 2020 in a racially motivated hate crime – say Kanye West promoting the phrase “White Lives Matter” and disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this week has helped to “legitimize extremist behavior”.On Monday (October 3), while introducing his latest Yeezy line with a show at Paris Fashion Week, West (legally known as Ye) wore a shirt with the words “White Lives Matter” on the back.
The phrase – an appropriation of the Black Lives Matter slogan used to protest racial injustice, discrimination and police brutality – has been categorised by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate slogan.West was also photographed at the event alongside conservative Black commentator Candace Owens wearing a matching shirt.
The rapper faced prompt backlash from his peers in the music and fashion worlds for the stunt. Jaden Smith, who was in attendance, walked out of the event, while Boosie Badazz decried West on Twitter.Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory, Vogue stylist and fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and Dazed fashion writer Lynette Nylander are among others who took issue with West.
Ye doubled down in response to the criticism, writing on Instagram that the Black Lives Matter movement was a “scam”.Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of the late Ahmaud Arbery, has come forward to express “extreme disappointment” with West’s actions.
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