While Adidas employees have come forward with allegations of exceedingly bad behavior from Kanye West in the past, a lengthy new report from The New York Times delves deeper into the decade-long collaboration than before. What it found is stomach-churning.

A bombshell new report from the New York Times also discusses how the rapper (now known as Ye) would throw shoes and make staffers watch porn during meetings

Last October, Adidas finally dropped their long-term partner Kanye West after the rapper made a slew of antisemitic comments (among other things). This was despite the fact that Yeezy, their sneaker partnership, was netting the company over $1 billion annually. For many staffers, it was too little, too late. While Adidas employees have come forward with allegations of exceedingly bad behavior from the rapper (now known as Ye) in the past, a lengthy new report from The New York Times delves deeper into the decade-long collaboration than any have before. What it found is stomach-churning.

Apparently, employees were confronted with West’s rampant antisemitism as soon as their very first pitch meeting with the rapper. After reviewing a number of unsatisfactory fabric swatches and shoe designs, West allegedly grabbed one of the sketches and drew a swastika on the toe to convey his dislike of the sneaker. It only got worse from there.

As Ye ramped up his antisemitism in public last fall, he also doubled down behind the scenes. Employees reported that West repeatedly commended Hitler for his use of propaganda, calling the genocidal dictator a “marketing master” and saying he planned to name his next album after him. (It was eventually titled Ye.) Most egregiously, West apparently told TMZ that “it was important to love everyone, including Nazis” in the same interview in which he infamously said that slavery “sounds like a choice.” Back in the office, West stood by that statement, telling Jon Wexler, a Jewish Adidas executive, to “hang a photo of Hitler in his kitchen and kiss it every day to practice unconditional love.”

read more: https://www.avclub.com/kanye-west-adidas-yeezy-new-york-time-report-1850968306

archive link: https://archive.ph/RWHHH

  • @MirsheEnglish
    3•8 months ago

    To quote my favorite podcaster, “mental illness is not your FAULT, but it is your RESPONSIBILITY.”

    • flicker
      1•8 months ago

      Precisely! I feel like taking away our responsibility also takes away our agency. I hate when people have their agency restricted.

      There’s a reason AA and NA and other peer recovery services make people take responsibility for what they’ve done, even if it was illness that “made” them do those things. Because having responsibility for what you’ve done is ultimately what frees you to have responsibility for the good that you can do. I love that for us, for all of humanity.