Good morning everyone and I hope you are having a spectacular day already!!
It has been a minute yes and I know you missed me and I missed you too
What are we on about today? It is a very interesting subject that has been trending since last month or maybe a culmination of last and this month. Whatever the case, you probably have seen it and seek to understand what happened and that is why I am here to make sure your curiosity is satisfied.
You know Kanye West, you know Kyrie Irving and you know Balenciaga right? Well if you don't, let me refresh your memory
Kanye West is one of the most accomplished and foremost rappers and producers of our time; a talent that is well respected all over the world. He has hits like Jesus Walks, Gold Digger, Paranoid, Heartless, Monster, and so many more. He has probably produced for your favorite rappers and written for them too like "Lucifer" for Jay Z.
He has dubbed himself greater than a lot of people and even conveniently named himself "Yeezus" for some godship proclamation or whatever. He has also dabbled in business with fashion taking the forefront as you probably have heard of his partnership with Balenciaga, Nike, Adidas, and so many more.
Most of these brands have dropped him due to some statements he made to the Jewish community, saying, "Imma go DEFCON 2 on these Jews". Maybe they found that triggering and reminding them of the Holocaust. Whatever the case, it was enough to drop him and call him "anti-Semitic"
DEFCON 2 is a US military term which entails an increase in force readiness but not beyond maximum readiness within a few hours. Basically, if you are preparing for a war and you need your squad ready, it is the second phase of readiness just before attack.
I mean he had already been on several rants talking about George Floyd not really dying from suffocating but drugs(as if we did not see what happened live), and he compared himself to Michael Jackson and made some other interesting statements but I guess DEFCON 2 is where the media drew the line and sought to react because his Twitter and Instagram were deactivated and after the drop from the shoe companies, banks were also wanting him to come and withdraw his earnings because they could not carry his money again. He tried meeting with new shoe companies like Skechers but was denied. A tragic one indeed.
AntiSemitism is prejudice against Jews or the Jewish community incase you needed context.
Kyrie Irving is a well respected basketball player with the Brooklyn Nets. A one time "Rookie of the year" during his stint with the Cavaliers, a seven-time "All Star" and a three time member of the "All NBA Team". He has won championships and is a household name in the sport. He missed some games due to not taking the jab(COVID vaccine) and that started putting him in more spotlights than I guess he would have liked.
He is also recognized for his philanthropy and has or had major sport deals, the latest drop being Nike which we will examine later. He has done some acting in movies like Kickin' it, Uncle Drew(I thoroughly enjoyed this movie) and done some voice acting for Family Guy. He is also known for being omni-religious, meaning he does not stick to one belief and instead draws from different beliefs, although he has mostly declared his Islamic faith. His sharing of controversial topics is part of our write-up today as he recently shared a movie from Amazon titled "Hebrews to Negroes:Wake Up Black America" based on a book with the same name, to his Instagram account and all hell was let loose, with most Jews(well white ones) saying he shared "anti-Semitic" material. The movie espouses that black people are the original Jews and I believe that was the message he wanted to spread but trust the media to do their thing. The thing is he had already been spouting these same ideologies last year so what makes this movie he shared different? Is it control or punishment for something? Some people say this is him being beaten into submission, like a slave to a master. Who knows??
Because of this, people like Lebron James and Shaquille O'Neal spoke against him condemning his actions, (paper before understanding and brotherhood I guess), and he was asked to pay fines, suspended from trainings and asked to meet with some Jewish leaders to properly understand the "extent" of his statements.
It took Minister Farrakhan talking to the black celebrities for Lebron to double back and kind of show some support for Kyrie to play his games regardless of whatever.
Balenciaga, owned by their parent company, a French corporation called Kering, is a major luxury fashion house founded by spaniard Cristobal Balenciaga and retails ready to wear clothing and accessories and also sells fragrances through another company called COTY
They always seem to push the envelope when it comes to controversy, making WC handbags, tattered and dirty sneakers, burnt out or dirty jeans and people for some reason seem to buy them. It's like they sit in their boardrooms and think, "how far can we go to promote controversy and still make money?" In fact, most people have called it a "social experiment for the rich" to see whether they would buy whatever because it has a stamp of a luxury house on it".
I don't disagree because you see some of the things they make and you're just appalled. Well, with their latest advertisements, they included child pornography along with bondage gear as a selling point and we can say we have reached that time where this action would determine how well people are enslaved to a brand name.
But how do these three relate, you may ask? My dears, a lot of scandal occurred within the past month, Balenciaga shared a new campaign that featured children wearing bondage gear, or holding them up, and standing in places where bondage gear was littered. Also, part of the campaign showed a ruling document detailing the PROTECT ACT which installed protections against child pornography. Everything just seemed in poor taste as the owner has in the past been rumored to have a child pornography ring that exploits children and condones pedophilia.
The store issued apologies but I don't think that was enough for the American public as most of them condemned their actions.
This action caused the media space to trend #cancelbalenciaga and it is funny that mainstream American media is not pushing this but trust me it is happening. Recently, I have seen videos of people in front of Balenciaga stores protesting and some people even dumped what they bought.
No celebrity has spoken out against this and Kanye pointed that out stating they are all slaves that is why they cannot speak out. Days later, Kim Kardashian, a long time collaborator issued a statement saying she is "reevaluating" her relationship with them and is "giving them time to take accountability". In essence, she is not condemning their actions really but just waiting for the event to blowout, then she will come back, as no one is messing with her money, that's for sure, as people have stated.
Why are these three events related? I wanted to point out the hypocrisy in the actions of the media towards these three events.
Kyrie posted something of knowledge which was not harming anyone and he was labeled prejudiced and asked to pay fines and suspended and also dropped from Nike. Well it worked for him as he recently played with his shoes without the logo and instead, an inscription saying"thank God I am free" was shining forth and on the other side, "logo here" was inscribed. A lot of Americans are happy for him because to them he is a hero and likable and they are hoping he does it himself and sells more.
Kanye has been seen for years as mentally disturbed but the thing is if you know this and have known this, why take his actions serious now? It recently came out that he used to show porn to executives during meetings and I wonder why you condoned it then but decided now was the perfect time to bring it up? Is this part of humiliation to a specific race? I guess we would never know but can only guess.
And why are these men suffering these huge consequences but Balenciaga can just issue an apology and all is right with the world? No labels, no coverage, just hush hush.
Maybe people were right when they said the Jews control the media and were in charge of Trans-Atlantic trade. This is really just proving their point but what do I know?
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think more should have been done? Let me know in the comments
PICK A K
By
Queensley Okon