When it comes to T-shirt sales, “White Lives Matter” will not make a dime for Kanye West. The rapper, legal name Ye, doesn’t own the trademark to the phrase and the Black men who do don’t seem inclined to license it to him.
Phoenix radio hosts Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward were given the trademark by a longtime listener to their social justice-focused show, “Civic Cipher,” Capital B Atlanta reported this week, keeping the applicant’s name anonymous.
“This person who first procured it didn’t really love owning it, because the purpose was not necessarily to get rich off of it; the purpose was to make sure that other people didn’t get rich off of that pain,” Ja told the news site.
