Adidas is under pressure from the Anti-Defamation League to sever connections with Kanye West after the musician and fashion tycoon had a series of public rants in which he made anti-Semitic comments.
ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt wrote a letter to Adidas officials on Thursday expressing his disappointment that the sports clothing firm had not yet distanced itself from West, whose Yeezy brand of footwear is produced in conjunction with Adidas.
Greenblatt has called on Adidas to reevaluate its support for the Ye product line and make it clear that the Adidas brand and community tolerate no antisemitism.
That’s how the letter started:
We were shocked to find that Adidas intends to keep releasing new goods under Kanye West’s Yeezy brand without any apparent awareness of the issue surrounding his most recent antisemitic statements, which have been increasingly belligerent over the previous several weeks. After he donned a shirt supporting the White Lives Matter movement two weeks ago, Adidas placed him on review. What more do you think you need to go over at this point? In light of the upcoming anniversary of the Pittsburgh synagogue murder on October 27—the worst antisemitic crime in U.S. history—we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to introduce new goods in the Yeezy line, including the Yeezy Boost 350.
You are probably aware that Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has recently utilized his public profile to promote antisemitic stereotypes about Jews. He has made numerous antisemitic statements, including that “Jewish media” and “Jewish Zionists” are to blame for everything from police brutality to the Holocaust denial, and that “Jewish people have owned the Black voice” and the “Jewish community, especially in the music industry, they’ll take us and milk us till we die.” Such ideas are rooted in long-standing antisemitic stereotypes about Jews being corrupted by their own riches, power, and control of the media.
On Friday, the Jerusalem Post reported on a video making the rounds on social media in which West is heard saying, “The thing about it being Adidas is like, I can actually say antisemitic crap and they cannot drop me.”
Pressure from the ADL comes after Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel called for a total corporate boycott of Kanye West in a recent Financial Times op-ed.
Those who keep doing business with West are providing an audience for his misplaced hatred. “Nowhere should West’s anti-Semitism be tolerated,” Emanuel stated. The stakes have never been higher, and it has never been more important to be transparent about our principles and to put them into practice. This is not a time for reflection or inactivity.
While endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the Anti-Defamation League remained silent as members of the group attacked synagogues in Los Angeles and Kenosha, according to Breitbart News.