Kanye West wears ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt during Yeezy show at Paris Fashion Week

nme.com:

Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week show over the weekend, Kanye West introduced his latest Yeezy line with his Yzy Season 9 event on Monday.’During the live-streamed presentation, the rapper wore a longsleeve shirt with the words “White Lives Matter” emblazoned on the back.

As Rolling Stone points out, the phrase – an appropriation of the Black Lives Matter slogan used to protest racial injustice, discrimination and police brutality – has been adopted by white supremacist organisations in recent years, and is categorised by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate slogan.While at the event, West was photographed standing next to conservative Black commentator Candace Owens – who has been vocally critical of the Black Lives Matter movement – who was also wearing a shirt words the words “White Lives Matter” on the back.Kanye West and Candace Owens wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts at his fashion show in Paris.

pic.twitter.com/eJekZ8cGhe— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 3, 2022West has a long history of making controversial statements when it comes to politics and race in recent years, particularly in 2018.

That year, he voiced his support for Donald Trump (publicly wearing the campaign’s red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat on several occasions) and endorsed Owens on Twitter.West also drew backlash in April 2018 when he claimed, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… for 400 years?