Kanye West defended wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt he debuted at Paris Fashion Week during a Thursday (6 October) appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“My so-called friends/handlers around me told me if I said that I liked Trump that my career would be over. That my life would be over,” the artist now known as Ye told the Fox News host.
“They said stuff like people get killed for wearing a hat like that. They threatened my life,” he continued. “They basically said that I would be killed for wearing the hat.
“I had someone call me last night and said anybody wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt is going to be green-lit. That means they are going to beat them up if I wear it. I’m like, you know, ‘Okay, green light me then’.”
The showcase of West’s season nine collection in Paris on Monday (3 October) also saw models walk the runway in white versions of the “White Lives Matter” shirt.
Controversial conservative commentator Candace Owens was also in attendance at the show, where she too wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt, per Complex.
As noted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “White Lives Matter” is a “white supremacist phrase that originated in early 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement”. The phrase has also been used by supporters of former president Donald Trump.
