An explosive new investigation by the New York Times details how Adidas employees experienced frequent anti-Semitism from Grammy Award-winning rapper and Yeezy designer Kanye West for nearly a decade.

Adidas officially ended its partnership with the rapper and producer, who now goes by Ye, in October of 2022, after multiple virulently anti-Semitic remarks, including a tweet in which the rapper threatened to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”

However, West’s pattern of anti-Semitism dates back to at least 2013, according to the Times’ reporting.

At the start of her report, Megan Twohey detailed how, in his initial meeting with Adidas executives at their German headquarters in 2013, West expressed his dissatisfaction with a proposed shoe design by taking a marker and drawing a swastika — the display of which is banned in Germany — on the design. He also reportedly told Jewish Adidas executive Jon Wexler, who at the time was Adidas’ global director of entertainment and influencer marketing, to “kiss a picture of Hitler every day.”

  • @Miclux
    link
    88 months ago

    He should check for brain cancer.

    • @xkforce@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      248 months ago

      He has bipolar and he’s rich. Either one of those factors could cause someone to say and do shit like this

      • @Miclux
        link
        228 months ago

        Being bipolar or rich doesn’t make you a neo nazi.

        • @can@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          188 months ago

          No, but some mental issues could lead to paranoid and conspiratorial thinking.

          Doesn’t excuse it of course.

            • @Fisk400@feddit.nu
              link
              fedilink
              88 months ago

              It excuses the behaviour right up until there are meds you can take to become better and you intentionally don’t take them. Then you are right back at being responsible for everything you do.

              • @li10@feddit.uk
                link
                fedilink
                English
                38 months ago

                It’s still not that simple, as it’s at least in part the condition that makes it so they don’t want to take their meds or be treated.

                • @Fisk400@feddit.nu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  38 months ago

                  I am talking about when you are on meds and receiving treatment and then stop taking them. In the case of Kanye he often stops taking them because he has stated that they make him less creative.

                  • @tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                    link
                    fedilink
                    18 months ago

                    Bipolar disorder treatment is complex, often medication will act differently in different mental states. You might be low energy and depressive, so they prescribe a medication that might have a stimulating effect, then it pushes you into a manic state and you need something less energizing. It’s very common for people with bipolar to decide to stop taking their medication.

        • @li10@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          9
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          It quite literally can.

          Symptoms from the NHS website:

          • being delusional, having hallucinations and disturbed or illogical thinking
          • doing things that often have disastrous consequences
          • making decisions or saying things that are out of character and that others see as being risky or harmful

          Those are things that can lead someone to act like he does.

          • @tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            1
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            When people saying ‘mental illness doesn’t make you racist’, it makes me think what does make a person racist? Paranoia, anxiety, delusion, trauma, are tied to it often. I kind of think racism could be seen as a mental illness in itself.

        • @Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          1
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Exactly. Kanye is bipolar, rich, and he’s a fucknut.

          Same way ou can have chicken-pox and AIDS at the same time.

          They are not mutually exclusive.