Earlier this week, we told you that Kanye West — who now goes by Ye — bought local ad time in Los Angeles during the Super Bowl to promote the latest from his Yeezy fashion line. The ad, which was shot on his iPhone from a dentist chair (we’re also confused), encouraged viewers to visit his website where the only thing for sale...was a t-shirt with a swastika on it.
According to CBS News, online the e-commerce platform Shopify, shut down Ye’s site after learning about the tees, which were on brand for Ye considering his head-scratching three-day anti-Semitic rant on X where he called himself a “nazi” and professed his love for Adolf Hitler. Now, sellers on the online marketplace Etsy are clapping back in a major way by making their versions of a tee targeted at Ye.
A search for “Kanye shirt” on the site will produce multiple versions of a t-shirt with a Star of David inside a drawing of a middle finger. West’s name is written underneath the image. You can find the shirts in various sizes and colors for anywhere between $10 and $25.
Ye’s Super Bowl stunt also led to the creation of an AI-generated video that featured the likenesses of Jewish celebrities, including Scarlett Johannson, Drake and Lenny Kravitz wearing t-shirts similar to the ones being sold on Etsy.
The video, created by employees of an Israeli AI company, encourages others to join the fight against anti-Semitism.
Johansson, while angered by the anti-Semitic messaging, doesn’t believe AI is the right way to fight against it, saying in a statement, “I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind. But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by A.I. is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it. We must call out the misuse of A.I., no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality.”