The School of the Art Institute of Chicago has rescinded the honorary degree given to Kanye West after his anti-semitic comments.
Ye originally received the degree back in 2015 but since then “he has exhibited disturbing behaviors and made dangerous statements that do not align with our community values,” SAIC president Elissa Tenny said in a statement published by TMZ.
“[Kanye West’s] anti-Black, antisemitic, and incendiary statements, particularly those directed at Black and Jewish communities, are disgusting and condemnable,” Tenny wrote. “His words and actions have been painful for our entire community and, particularly, for those of us who feel that our identities and life experiences are under attack.”
Tenny also spoke on how difficult the decision was to make, but Ye’s recent behavior has been ultimately “indefensible.”
Kanye West has been losing a lot since his comments on the Jewish community. As we previously reported, Adidas ended its partnership with Kanye West following his anti-Semitic tweets. In a statement the sportswear maker said it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech” and said that his recent comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.” Adidas said they violated the company’s “values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also blasted the rapper and spoke on the controversy about Adidas’ decision is a “very positive outcome.”
“It illustrates that antisemitism is unacceptable and creates consequences. Without a doubt, Adidas has done the right thing by cutting ties with Ye after his vicious antisemitic rants,” he said in a statement. “In the end, Adidas’ action sends a powerful message that antisemitism and bigotry have no place in society.”
Kanye West has been very vocal about his recent comments and have denied that he’s anti-jewish but in a recent interview earlier this week and expressed the love he has for Hitler which added more fuel to the fire. He sat down with Alex Jones and said he feels like Hitler is a nice guy which had the whole internet in a frenzy. Howard Stern even took to his podcast and blasted the rapper for not wanting to be black after his comments.
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“He loves Nazis,” Stern said about Ye. “I guess he doesn’t know he is Black. He doesn’t understand what Hitler thought of Jews [and] Black people. [Hitler] thought they were all inferior. He wanted to sterilize Black people. And if there was a mixed race baby, a Black man with a white woman for — let’s say like Kanye and Kim [Kardashian] — he would kill the children…For a Black man to be running around saying he loves Hitler…what happened to this guy? What in his life led him to this mental illness?”
Stern added, “I could give you a psychological theory that I’m sure I’m not the only one that thinks that maybe he hates being Black so much. He’s so self-hating. He wants to wear a hood and pretend he’s a white man. A white man in the Nazi party. In a weird way [he] despises being Black and wants to be accepted by Nazis.”