Debate over Ye’s popularity continues as companies cut ties after his antisemitic remarks

Amna Nawaz:

Companies are severing ties with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, in the wake of his antisemitic remarks. But there are questions as well about why some companies didn't react sooner to other racist and offensive remarks he's made.

John Yang has more.

John Yang:

Amna, this week, Adidas ended a multibillion-dollar business deal with the artist, saying his antisemitic remarks went against the company's values.

Since the controversy erupted over those comments, Foot Locker, the fashion house Balenciaga, the talent agency CAA, and "Vogue"'s Deanna Ward are among those who have cut ties with him. But, so far, Spotify and Apple Music have resisted calls to drop him from their music streaming platforms.

L.Z. Granderson is an op-ed columnist for The Los Angeles Times and hosts of the podcast "Life Out Loud."

L.Z., thanks for so much for joining us.

What's — Kanye West is not just — did not just start saying controversial things. He has been criticized for denigrating Black people, for saying that slavery was a choice, for denigrating women. Why this reaction now?

L.Z. Granderson, The Los Angeles Times:

You know, that's a great question, because, to your point, he has been saying controversial things.

So, I would add that controversy is based upon the eye of the beholder. Back in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when he said that then-President Bush did not care about Black people, I can tell you, a lot of Black people didn't find that controversial.

So, controversy, this all kind of depends upon who's listening, right? And I guess these particular ears at this particular point in time are fed up with three marks that he has been saying. I don't want to make it sound as if I'm going to have an oppression Olympics, but it is interesting that he has been able to say a lot of anti-Black themes for a very long time with no financial repercussions, but once he starts wading into antisemitism, the reaction to those remarks were definitely different.

John Yang:

You talk about this struggle between the artist and the and the art.

You wrote a column about this about a week ago. And I want to read a little bit from it.

You wrote:

"Year by year, track by track, sneaker by sneaker, tweet by tweet, he shows us why we should follow and why we should tune out. Like so many people, I kept finding ways to carve the artistry from the artist, even though I knew they were one and the same. Then, one day I just stopped."

Why did you just stop? What was the breaking point for you?

L.Z. Granderson:

It was really the remarks about my ancestors, his ancestors not resisting enslavement, when he went to TMZ and he has that sort of rant.

And, within that rant, he really says some really awful things about people who survived the transatlantic slave trade. And I just couldn't — I couldn't not say, well, this beat sounds really, really good, so I'm just going to ignore these remarks from this person. That was just my breaking point, though, in retrospect, I should have reached that point much sooner than I did.

John Yang:

So you're going to stop listening to him? Even though you acknowledge in the column how much you appreciated his music, you're just going to stop?

L.Z. Granderson:

I have stopped. We used to play his music during my radio show that I co-hosted in Los Angeles. After those remarks, we stopped. I requested that we stopped. I personally have stopped.

But I'm not asking other people to follow in my footsteps. All I'm suggesting is that, if you stop and ask yourself, if the words he's saying work for you. Do you support what he is saying? Do you want him to continue saying what he is saying?

And, if you don't, then what are you prepared to do about that? And if it's nothing, that's perfectly fine. That's your prerogative. But, for myself, I was not happy will just saying nothing. I have just decided, on my own, that I'm just going to carve his work out of my life, because I don't want to appear that I'm in alignment with the things that he's saying.

John Yang:

As we mentioned, L.Z., there are calls for Spotify, Apple Music to drop — drop him from their platforms.

Do you want to see more companies, more marketers cutting ties with him?

L.Z. Granderson:

I would like to see more people follow their convictions.

If you have a corporation with a mission statement that says you are against certain ideas or comments or speech or behavior, then I would expect you to be consistent with the mission statement that you set forth in terms of saying this is what your culture is.

Similarly, I would like an individual who says they don't stand for X, Y and Z to live in the same sort of conditions. And so, again, as I said earlier, I'm not here to rally the troops to hate on Kanye West. I'm here to rally our own higher good and ask ourselves, is this the best use of our resources? Is this the best use of our time? Do we support these comments? Do you support the artists who are making these comments?

And, if not, just behave accordingly.

John Yang:

Earlier this week, we saw neo-Nazis hang a banner over an L.A. freeway that said: "Kanye was — is right."

Does someone like Kanye saying the things he says make it easier for other people to say these things out loud?

L.Z. Granderson:

Well, I would hate to give Kanye credit for things that President Trump has already established.

I will just simply say this is more of the same. When it comes to someone like Kanye West or Ye or however you want to identify him, the reality is, a lot of people that you see spewing antisemitic things did not need a Black man from Chicago to give them permission to say these days. They were already prepared to say those days.

They have already been saying those things. And while it's easy to view the situation as Kanye is giving them permission, the reality is, is that, if Kanye told them to stop, they probably wouldn't have listened to him. So they didn't listen to him to begin with.

John Yang:

L.Z. Granderson, op-ed columnist for The Los Angeles Times and host of the podcast "Life Out Loud," thank you very much.

L.Z. Granderson:

Thank you very much for having me.