UPDATE (10/9/2022 @ 5:30 pm EST): Kanye has also been suspended from both Instagram and Twitter after posting anti-semitic remarks. On Twitter, this means he can no longer tweet and the posts in question were removed — while Instagram also removed a screenshot of a text exchange between Ye and Diddy that included similar offensive content. A rep for Twitter confirmed he “has been locked due to a violation of Twitter’s policies,” per the New York Post.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian reunited for their 9-year-old daughter North‘s basketball game. The Life Of Pablo rapper, 45, once again wore his headline making “White Lives Matter” shirt to the children’s sporting event in Thousand Oaks California on Friday, Oct. 7. Clean shaven Kanye stood off to the side in a white version of the shirt paired with black jeans and his black Balenciaga croc boots, while Kim was seated amongst other parents and friend SKIMS Chief Marketing Officer Tracy Romulus. It’s unclear if the exes interacted at the game.
Kanye first donned the controversial t-shirt, which takes aim at the powerful Black Lives Matter movement, during his Paris Fashion Week show on Oct. 3. He posed alongside known right-wing commentator Candace Owens, who wore a white version of the shirt. Both versions included various images of the late Pope John Paul II on the front, who passed away in 2005.
Kim, 41, “lost it” when she saw Ye in the shirt. “Kim is not surprised by Kanye’s decision to wear that on his shirt and thinks that he is, once again, trying to get attention,” a source told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “She knows that he loves to start controversy and she is not even feeding into this. Sure, she thinks that he is making a horrible choice and that the message is very offensive to so many.”
Fans were particularly confused by Ye’s choice to wear the garment given his past support of the Black Lives Matter movement which inspired mass protests after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. The Chicago-born rapper donated $2 million to their respective families in June 2020 — yet seemed to negate his own message by wearing the “White Lives Matter” shirt.
“Kim knows how much support Kanye gave to the Black Lives Matter movement,” the source said also told HL, saying the KKW Fragrance founder is “utterly confused” by her ex-husband.
In a sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson, the Yeezy founder explained why he wore the shirt. “The answer to why I wore a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt is — they do. It’s the obvious thing,” said on FOX News. “Te same people that stripped us of our identity and labeled us as a color have told us what it means to be Black. And that’s the vernacular that we’re supposed to have,” he also said.
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, 2022
Kanye also confusingly described the shirt as “funny,” alleging his father Ray West felt the same. “I thought the shirt was a funny shirt. I thought the idea of wearing it was funny,” he further explained. “And I said ‘Dad why do you think it’s funny?’ And he said ‘just a black man stating the obvious.'”
The shirt has brought on a slew of controversy for Kanye beyond the Kardashian-Jenner clan, particularly after Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson was critical of his shirt and show. Describing the shirt as “pure violence” and “irresponsible” in a live video, she added: “There is no excuse, there is no art here…I do think if you asked Kanye, he’d say there was art, and revolution, and all of the things in that T-shirt. There isn’t.” Ye then took to Instagram with a slew of insults aimed at the editor, saying, “This is not a fashion person,” on a screenshot of an image of her.
Gabriella’s friends Gigi Hadid and Hailey Bieber both game to her defense. Gigi, 25, called Kanye a “bully and a joke” in an Instagram post. “You wish u had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea,” she also wrote. “If there’s actually a point to any of your s**t she might be the only person that could save u. As if the ‘honor’ of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion?”
Hailey took to Instagram with similar sentiments. “My respect for you runs deep my friend!” the Rhode Beauty founder wrote. “To know is to adore you and to work with you is an honor…the most kind. the most talented. the most fun. the most chic.”