On Thursday, Kanye West provided a brief justification for why he chose to wear a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt to a Paris fashion show: “They do,” he said.
In an hour-long interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the 45-year-old musician reiterated his decision to wear the shirt and expressed bewilderment over the negative response the stunt received.
West claimed, “I act on certain things based on feelings. I simply direct the energy because it seems correct. He described wearing the shirt as “using a gut instinct, a connection with God, and simply sheer brilliance.”
West, who is now officially known as Ye, claimed that his father had contacted him regarding the shirt, which he thought was amusing.
“I considered the shirt to be humorous. The concept of wearing it amused me. “Dad, why do you think it’s funny?” I questioned. “Just a black man expressing the obvious,” he added.
Many people, including supermodel Gigi Hadid and Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, have openly condemned West for wearing the shirt at his fashion show on Monday. The shirt was worn by additional models in the show.
The “All of the Lights” rapper said to Carlson, “They’re searching for an explanation – as an artist you don’t have to offer an explanation but as a leader you do.”
“White Lives Matter does exist, which is why I wrote it on a shirt. It’s a simple matter,” West added.
West’s contract with Adidas was reportedly “under review” following the issue.
When Carlson asked the “Gold Digger” rapper what he thought made the “White Lives Matter” statement so controversial, West blamed “a group mob” of “liberal nazis” as well as the media, which he said pushes white societal norms.
Because those who have stripped us of our identities and reduced us to a colour have also defined what it means to be black and prescribed the language you should use, he explained.
He related a personal story about how his father, a former Black Panther, experienced racism while growing up in Delaware as one of, if not the only, black families there. According to West, his father’s black friends at the black institution where he was enrolled claimed that his father “spoke white.”
He said that a black girl’s claim that she “felt traumatised” after seeing the garment caused the commotion surrounding it.
He compared it to a black woman claiming, “I was frightened when I saw a black man wearing something he wasn’t meant to wear.
He linked it to the 2012 film “Django Unchained” by Quentin Tarantino, in which Samuel L. Jackson’s house slave character is angry with Jamie Fox’s free black man character for riding on a horse in antebellum America.
West, who earlier this week dubbed the Black Lives Matter movement a “scam,” subsequently remarked that if we treated our people better, we would see ourselves as a people rather than a race.
“In America, black people will judge one another based on how well they speak. However, we do so in English. English is the whitest language there is. Actually, we’re not speaking in our mother tongue. Therefore, rather than judging one another strictly on the principles of our culture, we do so on the basis of white goal lines.
West is accustomed to wearing provocative clothing. During his infamous meeting with former President Donald Trump at the White House in 2018, he wore a MAGA hat. Additionally, back in 2013, the rapper wore a jacket with the Confederate flag on it.
He admitted to Carlson that his advocacy for President Donald Trump as well as other causes had caused him to become socially isolated and even put him at risk of violent assault.
“My so-called friends/handlers warned me that my career would be finished if I admitted that I liked Trump. that my existence would end. People get killed for wearing a headgear like that, they claimed. They made me feel in danger. They basically told me that if I wore the hat, I would be killed, West recalled.
