A few thoughts about this whole Ye situation…
1. When I was a kid, I heard about a rapper that I liked say that they didn’t want white people buying their albums. I was 16 years old and I didn’t have all that much choice but to take it personally. So I stopped supporting said rapper. And, ever since, this person has lived in my mind as a racist that I could not support.*** (see below). As an adult, it's easier to shrug the nonsense off . But what about the kids hearing their hero say some wild sh*t about their race? And the other kids that are buying into it?
2. Speaking of kids…how will this impact Ye's children? Will this negative publicity haunt them throughout their lives? Will it do anything to their long term mental health? IMO, this whole thing looks extremely selfish (from a parent/child perspective). Has this dude spent more than a few seconds thinking about how this could affect his kids?
3. For the past few days, I’ve been expecting to see one of these IG sneakerlebrities take a torch to ‘their’ Yeezys. Just like they did when @kingjames left Cleveland and that time folks were burning monarchs and cutting the swooshes off of their socks because they disagreed with Nikes support of Kaepernick. Who’s gonna be the first sneakerlebrity to burn a pair of Yeezys?
4. Remember like 5 years ago, when @newbalance was called out for being ‘the sneaker brand of white supremacists’? Right or wrong, ‘the culture’ sure seems to have moved on from that narrative pretty quickly…hasn’t it? So is it actually ‘the culture’ that steers the corporations, or is it the corporations that steer 'the culture'? I'm starting to believe it's the latter.
5. IMO, this will NOT result in Kanye falling off the face of the earth. Remember, this is what he *asked* for. We’ve been admonishing Ye for 10+ years…is this the time it really sticks? Or is this the time he pulls all punches and does it all on his own?
***(Only today did I actually google it, and see that it was nothing more than a rumor started by a random caller into the Howard Stern show! WHAT THE F*CK?) <spotify>’Lauryn Hill, please!’</spotify> I'm sorry Lauryn I love you!