In news that seems to happen at least once a month nowadays, Kanye West is off doing extremely bizarre Ye things again, this time offending, enraging, and confusing the world by wearing a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt during Paris Fashion Week. Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson sat down with West for an in-depth one-on-one to try and understand where the artist’s head was at when he made the decision to wear the widely perceived hate slogan on a shirt.
West tells Carlson about the early days of his public support for Trump, recounting how his inner circle, including ex-wife Kim Kardashian, were trying to steer him away from endorsing the controversial presidential candidate for fear of being killed, before he segues the conversation to the “White Lives Matter” shirt:
“I had someone call me last night, they said ‘Anybody wearing a White Live Matter shirt is going to be greenlit’, and that means that they’re going to beat them up if they wear it. And I’m like, okay – greenlight me then.”
Carlson finally asks West outright why he brought out the “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week, and what he meant by it. He responded with a long-winded answer about a gut feeling, indirectly compares himself to figure skater Tonya Harding, and trails off into a rant about the media’s Godless agenda.
He then recounts a text he received from his father who found the apparel in question to be humorous, as Kanye wearing the shirt was essentially a Black man stating the obvious.
“The answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is, because they do. That’s the obvious thing.”
Carlson follows up by asking Ye why he thinks people might consider the move to be controversial. He pauses for a moment to think, and comes up with this response:
“Because… The same people that have stripped us of our identity and labeled us as a color have told us what it means to be Black, and the vernacular that we’re supposed to have”.
Take from all of that what you will, but shortly afterwards, Kanye trails off into another story about his father, and then segues further into justifying why he bought the house next door to Kim Kardashian following their split.
So, in short, the man seems to have worn the shirt to state the obvious, and his dad thought it was funny. Not sure what to make of that, but we know Kanye will be back for Instagram feuds with the likes of Khloe Kardashian again in no time at all.