‘No gray area.’ Jewish California lawmakers want Adidas to drop Kanye over antisemitism
Jewish California lawmakers on Monday joined a chorus of figures calling for Adidas to cut ties with Kanye West after the rapper’s repeated antisemitic remarks.
Legislative Jewish Caucus Chair Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, and Vice Chair Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, pushed the German sportswear company to end its deal with West, now known as Ye.
“You cannot run around and say, ‘I want to start killing Jews’ and have people continue to do business with you,” Wiener said during a Zoom press conference. “And have people continue to elevate you as a celebrity and invite you to things. Kanye needs to be absolutely ostracized.”
Ye’s month of antisemitic rants
Twitter and Instagram locked Ye’s accounts in early October after the rapper posted a string of antisemitic statements, including a tweet that said, “I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” Ye also appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and other programs and repeated anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.
His behavior prompted antisemitic demonstrators to hang a banner that read “Kanye is right about the Jews” on an overpass above the 405 freeway in Los Angeles. Photos also showed them giving Nazi salutes.
In the wake of Ye’s unrepentant antisemitism, several brands and agencies have dropped him from their rosters. Women’s Wear Daily on Friday reported luxury fashion company Balenciaga would no longer be working with Ye. Booking group Creative Artists Agency on Monday announced it would no longer represent Ye.
But Adidas has said only that its relationship with Ye is “under review.” The company makes Ye’s famous Air Yeezy sneakers, and sales related to the rapper’s partnership make up about 10% of Adidas’s annual revenue, the Washington Post reported.
Adidas has ‘responsibility’ to end relationship
Gabriel and Wiener said the company has an obligation to stop working with Ye after his statements.
“I understand that Kanye is a very, very important commercial relationship for Adidas,” Wiener said. “But this is a bright line. There’s no gray area here. There is no scenario in which a company, Adidas or otherwise, should be working with Kanye, paying money to Kanye, using Kanye to represent their product when he is literally calling for the killing of Jews.”
Gabriel agreed, saying Adidas’s founders were connected to the Nazi party and the company should be especially outspoken against antisemitism. The Assemblyman said he received texts from friends and relatives throughout the Los Angeles area who also received antisemitic flyers during the weekend.
“This is a company that has a special responsibility to unequivocally condemn Kanye West and to unequivocally condemn his antisemitism and to sever their ties with them,” Gabriel said. “It is morally indefensible for them to turn an eye a blind eye to this antisemitism ... and this is not a moment for people to remain silent. We need people to speak out.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday released a statment condemning the freeway demonstration as “antisemitic hate” and saying it is a “wake-up call to all of us that we must remain vigilant to protect our values and freedoms as Californians.”
Gabriel also said Newsom had reached out to the Jewish Caucus to offer his support.
When asked whether the state has leverage over Adidas, Gabriel said legislators are not ready to exert that type of authority.
“My take on that is that we have leverage over everybody,” Gabriel said. “But certainly that’s not where we’re at. We are hoping that hearing from people in the community, hearing from folks in the Jewish community about how important this is, hearing from civic leaders about how important this is, that (Adidas) will ultimately decide to do the right thing. Because that is hopefully in line with the values of that company.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 5:35 PM.