WATCH: Kanye West Under Fire for Bragging ‘I Can Literally Say Antisemitic S**t and Adidas Can’t Drop Me’

FILE - Kanye West arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Feb. 9, 2020, in Beverly Hills
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Deborah Brand

Rapper Kanye West has come under fire for claiming he can make as many antisemitic comments as he wants and still keep his partnership with Adidas.

“The thing about it being Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s**t and they cannot drop me,” West said on a video that circulated on social media. “Now what? Now what?”

Prior to his latest outburst, the Anti-Defamation League called on Adidas to “reconsider” its partnership with him, citing his anti-Semitic tirades including calling for the death of Jews and slamming the “Jewish underground media mafia.”

Earlier this month, West had his Twitter and Instagram accounts suspended. JPMorgan Chase has also reportedly severed ties with the rapper’s Yeezy empire, and fashion label Balenciaga has dropped him from its campaigns.

Adidas, so far, has only said that the partnership was “under review.”

The rapper tweeted that he will go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” in an apparent botched reference to the U.S. Army’s defense readiness condition (DEFCON) alert system.

He also added that he “actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew.”

West, who legally changed his name to “Ye,” also told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson during an interview that former President Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner initiated the Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel and Arab Muslim nations “to make money.”

ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in a letter to Adidas’ CEO and chair of its board:

In light of Kanye West’s increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over the past few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue to release new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgment of the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks.

We urge Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism. I’d be more than happy to discuss this matter with you at your convenience. We stand ready to work with you in whatever way possible to ensure that antisemitism has no place in Adidas.

Legal coalition the International Legal Forum also called on Adidas to speak out against West and terminate his contract. The group’s CEO, human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky, told Breitbart that Adidas “had a particular duty to act” given that it claims to be a brand committed to fighting injustices.

In a letter to the Adidas’ CEO and chairman, Ostrovsky noted that the sportswear giant took action supporting LGBT athletes in 2016, “proudly joined” the Black Lives Matter campaign in 2020, and last year took part in the #STOPASIANHATE initiative, in solidarity with the American Asian community.

“Yet, why is it that Adidas has remained silent in the face of the vicious antisemitism and Jew hatred, as expressed by Kanye West, one of your key strategic partners?” Ostrovsky asked.

Ostrovsky noted Adidas’ “dark past” as a German company during the Holocaust. He said Kanye has “revealed himself for what he truly is – a creator of bigotry, racism and virulent antisemitism.”

Friends star David Schwimmer also joined in the fray, and shared the offensive video of West with the caption, “Now what, Adidas?”

Schwimmer wrote: “Join me and the Anti-Defamation League in demanding Adidas #RunAwayFromHate,” and shared a link to a petition from Campaign Against Antisemitism calling for West to be dropped from Adidas, which has garnered more than 5000 signatures.

“Jews make up only 2.4 per cent of the population of the US but are the victims of more than 60 per cent of all religious hate crimes,” Schwimmer wrote.

“Whether or not Kanye West is mentally ill, there’s no question he is a bigot,” he added.

“His hate speech calls for violence against Jews. If you interpret his words any other way and defend him, guess what? You are racist.

“If we don’t call someone as influential as Kanye out for his divisive, ignorant and anti-semitic words then we are complicit. Silence is complicity,” the actor said.

West’s deal with Adidas is worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes.

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