No, we are not doing this. In 2022 (and some of 20203), Kanye West thought it would be smart to spend his time saying the most discriminatory, racist, and antisemitic things about Jewish people. That was his choice. But now that some time has passed, we’re not going to act like he’s absolved of the words he stated.
In a recent podcast called In Good Company, Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said, “I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world. Both in music and street culture. He’s extremely creative.”
He continued, “Together with Adidas [he] created the Yeezy line which was very successful. He made some statements that weren’t that good which caused Adidas to break the contract… It’s very unfortunate because I don’t think he meant what he said and I don’t think he’s a bad person, it just came across that way.”
Just because time has passed does not mean we’re giving Kanye a pass he does not deserve. Since spending the entirety of 2022 saying the most ignorant things about the Jewish community, Ye has done nothing to amend that relationship. He hasn’t apologized, he hasn’t educated himself and he hasn’t sounded remorseful. So no, I think Ye meant what he said.
So why in the world did the Adidas CEO say what he did? Is it because of revenue?
The Root has watched closely how badly Ye’s pockets were affected after he was dropped by the German shoe company. But Adidas has also been hurting a little bit too. When they discontinued the Yeezy line earlier this year, it cost the company nearly $440 million in sales in the first quarter of this year.
That doesn’t sound good.
So the idea that they are trying to warm the public up to a possible reunion with the Chicago rapper is not surprising. But it’s something that should not happen.
Kanye said what he said and Adidas correctly decided to drop his ass because of it. Don’t rewrite history by bringing him back on.