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The rapper "Ye," better known as Kanye West, hosted a surprise fashion show in Paris on Monday, and what he wore was apparently the biggest surprise of the day.
West appeared at the secret catwalk event during Paris Fashion Week wearing a "White Lives Matter" shirt, a slogan that is a direct rebuttal to the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
The phrase "White Lives Matter" is "a racist response" to BLM, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which also claims the slogan is a "white supremacist phrase."
The iconic rapper was joined by conservative political commentator Candace Owens, who was a guest at the show. Photos at the event show them both wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts.
Following the backlash caused by the controversial slogan, West posted the following message on social media.
Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it’s over. You’re welcome."
The surprise Paris fashion show was meant to promote his new "Yeezy Season 9" apparel line, and featured models wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts as well, according to The Guardian.
Before the show began, West reportedly told his audience "everyone here knows that I am the leader. You can’t manage me.
This is an unmanageable situation.” West went on to talk about the time his ex-wife Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris in 2016, his ex-manager Scooter Braun, his struggles in the fashion industry and his recent troubles with the clothing store GAP.
While Kanye West is often making headlines for controversial statements or apparel, such as him wearing a red "Make America Great Again" cap in apparent support of former President Donald Trump, the "White Lives Matter" stunt has the rapper facing a fresh wave of backlash.
In a fashion review, The New York Times wrote that there is "no excuse" for West wearing a White Lives Matter Shirt. The publication "The CUT" called the surprise fashion show by West "harmful."
Some on social media called West's decision to wear the White Lives Matter shirt "disgusting" and "irresponsible." Others insisted it was all for attention. It was even suggested that people boycott the rapper.r
A common criticism involved invoking the infamous moment when West claimed, on live television, that former President George W. Bush doesn't care about Black people, saying that now it's Kanye West who "doesn't care about Black people."
There were some on social media who supported West in his decision to wear the shirt, however, calling him a "hero" for "trolling" BLM, and others called him "courageous."
Conservative Lavern Spicer even said that West, along with Candace Owens, together "have done more to elevate the Black experience than the next 100 Black celebrities combined."
But to some, whether West is simply "trolling" or being sincere is irrelevant.
So many folks are trying to excuse Kanye wearing a white lives matter t-shirt as just a troll move or marketing. Maybe it is.
But it’s a dangerously dumb message to send for someone with his massive platform," podcast host and Atlantic writer Jemele Hill said in a tweet. "I been off dude. But y’all go ahead labeling his foolishness as genius."
Yes it's so incredibly dangerous to say that a white person's life matters," conservative political commentator Matt Walsh said in response to Hill's tweet.
"We know you would never make such a claim, Jemele. You despise white people, which is why you are morally superior. Thank you for enlightening us once again."
You truly don’t have the range for this," Hill shot back at Walsh. "The REASON we don’t have to say white lives matter is because white lives have never NOT mattered. The default position in this country is white = worthiness. The same has never been true for Black people. You’re welcome."
