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.”

  • xkforce@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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

      • can@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

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

        Doesn’t excuse it of course.

          • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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            1 year 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
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              1 year 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
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                1 year 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
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                  1 year 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.

        • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I would say that they CAN make someone more vulnerable to it especially when they’re untreated

      • li10@feddit.uk
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        1 year 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
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          1 year 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
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        1 year 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.