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October 27, 2022 - 10:10am
Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has seen his financial fortunes take a downturn since he made a number of anti-Semitic remarks. As is de rigueur in the risk-averse corporate world of 2022, many companies terminated their relationships with Ye. Some, like the design house Balenciaga, could simply erase all mention of the rapper from their websites. Others, such as Adidas and Foot Locker, had to act quickly to remove Ye’s Yeezy apparel line from production as well as the retail stores where these products were sold. West had already ended his relationship with Gap prior to this controversy, but the company shut down YeezyGap.com and removed all Yeezy products from its store after his remarks had circulated widely.
West’s exodus — some might term it an expulsion — from the mainstream economy also occurred in the financial, legal, and media service sectors. Creative Artists Agency, the talent agency that has represented Ye since 2016, swiftly ended their relationship. MRC studio executives announced they were shelving a completed documentary about Ye. Cohen Clair Lans Greifer Thorpe & Rottenstreich, the law firm that represented Ye in his divorce from Kim Kardashian, dropped him as a client. Although some have tried to connect Ye’s severing of ties with JPMorgan Chase to the controversy, Ye told CNBC a month earlier he was planning to move his assets to Bank of America — though who can say what future indignities await him in the world of banking.
Unlike other recent cancellations tied to politically sensitive language, Ye’s ostracism due to anti-Semitism has a much longer lineage. Many of us can recall Mel Gibson’s 2006 driving under the influence arrest and his resulting rant about how “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” This, along with a recorded use of a racial slur directed at black people, precipitated a decade-long blacklist from Hollywood before re-emerging in 2016 due to the critical success of the film Hacksaw Ridge. In 1996, Marlon Brando — already in the twilight of his prolific career — drew criticism for stating that Hollywood was “run by Jews,” prompting the late comedian Norm MacDonald to joke on Saturday Night Live that “the Jewish leaders accepted the actor’s apology and announced that Brando is now free to work again.”
Ye, who following the loss of his Adidas deal showed up unannounced at one of athletic shoe company Skechers’ Los Angeles buildings only to find himself escorted off the premises, now faces a stark choice. Like Brando, Gibson, and others before him, he has accumulated enough critical goodwill to possibly return to the mainstream if he performs a sufficient amount of penance.
It is possible, however, that Ye no longer wishes to be part of that world. His decision to purchase the Parler social media platform — which has been hemorrhaging users but has always had an overwhelmingly Right-wing user base — indicates a desire to part company with the mainstream. And there are certainly numerous stories of companies and individuals who have made fortunes targeting Right-wing audiences, from Evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham to businesses such as bedding giant MyPillow and leading dietary supplement distributor REDCON1.
Actors such as Kevin Sorbo, Kirk Cameron, and Jim Caviezel — all mainstream leading men at one time — now work mainly outside the Hollywood studio system, focusing on faith-based media projects directed at a conservative audience. Others, like 1980s action star Steven Seagal and mixed martial arts pioneer Jeff Monson, have travelled so far from the American mainstream that the pair now find themselves working on different propaganda projects in support of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
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SubscribeHe is already rich. If he can maintain his fortune he could easily record music on his own and be a part time commentator / pain in the butt on social media. Buying Parler sounds like a good way to lose a lot of money to me – so maybe not a good start.
If you want to convince mouthbreathing conspiracy loons that Jewish people don’t actually run “the mainstream economy [and] the financial, legal, and media service sectors”, this extraordinary crackdown isn’t a very effective way of doing it. Already ‘black Twitter’ is increasingly questioning how Jewish people are such a protected class when it comes to speech compared to themselves.
I’ve never heard his name till today. Who is he anyway? Why is he famous? Or perhaps notorious? Do I care?
Well, no, I don’t…
It’s difficult for me to say I don’t care about anything I don’t know about. It’s equally difficult to understand what you’ve achieved.
I told you in a previous post… Major Sir Piers Kayne-West Bt., a dashing fox- hunting Cavalry officer, and daring Army helicopter pilot.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross for “conspicuous gallantry in the face of the enemy” in Afghanistan.