F*** You Kanye... Adidas, You Know What You Did(n’t) Do
Written by: Allegra Ravitz
I watched in disbelief as Adidas delayed its response to Kanye West’s Antisemitic comments in October 2022. Seeing my community be the target of so much hate over the years has been extremely troublesome. West's comments and Adidas' minimal response needs to be a wake-up call – Antisemitism is real and it needs to stop.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022, was the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for Jews - a day of reflection and repentance. Jews all around the world celebrated this day. And just a week later, we were hit with horrifying headlines. “Kanye West’s Twitter Account Locked Over Anti-Semitic Tweet.” “Kanye West canceled? Here’s why it probably won’t happen.” “Kanye’s Instagram and Twitter restricted after antisemitic posts.” “Kanye West doubles down on antisemitic tropes, rejects invitation to Holocaust Museum.” With each headline I read, the more enraged I became. Why haven’t companies associated with Kanye made a statement? What will be the reaction to his comments? Sarah Camhi, a US-based Adidas employee, posted on LinkedIn on October 24, 2022, “We have dropped Adidas athletes for using steroids and being difficult to work with but are unwilling to denounce hate speech, the perpetuation of dangerous stereotypes and blatant racism by one of our top brand partners. Until Adidas takes a stand, I will not stand with Adidas.”
Adidas, the German multinational sportswear corporation, was explicitly called out by West during an episode of the ‘Drink Champs’ podcast when he said he could make antisemitic comments and the company would never cut ties with him. Two weeks later, Adidas finally made a statement about West’s Antisemitic comments. Two weeks! It took two weeks for them to say anything, even after facing pressure from at least three legal organizations and anti-racism groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and Campaign Against Antisemitism. The Campaign Against Antisemitism created a petition urging Adidas to cut ties with West - it reached 169,000 signatures by Tuesday morning, including my own.
When I read Adidas’s statement for the first time, I thought, “great, finally, they released a public statement that they don’t tolerate any hate speech. But it still took them 14 days to develop this, which is the bare minimum.” It took pressure from celebrities, including David Schwimmer, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Josh Gad, legal organizations, hundreds of thousands of people, AND a group of Neo-Nazis standing above the 405 Los Angeles freeway with signs that read “Kanye is right about the Jews,” for Adidas to say anything. What took the sportswear giant so long? After all, West’s behavior had been troubling for some time. For several weeks, it appeared that Kanye was right - he could say whatever he wanted and spew hate with no response from the sportswear giant.
Antisemitism is not new; it is something thousands of Jews worldwide have faced for hundreds of years. I grew up hearing stories about my Nona and her family in Greece hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust. I grew up being careful about wearing a Magain David necklace. Antisemitism is constantly in the back of my mind, keeping me on high alert wherever I go. The American Jewish Committee’s 2021 State of Antisemitism in America reported that “nearly a quarter of American Jews had been targeted personally and nearly half knew someone who had been targeted by antisemitism.” As long as people with massive platforms, like Kanye, perpetuate this hate; Antisemitism will never get better, which terrifies me.
Rabbi Noah Farkas, the president and chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, pointed out that West’s social media following is greater than the entire Jewish population worldwide (15 million people). He says, “We know from all the research that hateful speech leads to hateful actions. When influencers like Kanye West have the opportunity to say what they say, and it goes unchecked, ... it normalizes the experience of hatred.”
I have never bought Yeezy’s or any of Kanye West’s merchandise because I have never been a fan of his. I purchased from Adidas a few years ago. But after looking deeper into the company’s history, I don’t think I’ll ever buy from them again. Two brothers, Adi, and Rudi Dassler, started Adidas in 1924. Just nine years after the brand’s launch, the Dassler brothers joined the Nazi party. During World War II, the Dassler brothers converted their shoe factories into munitions for the Nazi military. The company recognizes Adi Dassler as its “founding father” but does not mention its dark history with the Nazis. On their website, Adidas’ official history defines its pre-1949 years simply as “only the start of our story,” without any references to Nazis. I am not saying they need to shove it in consumers’ faces, but ignoring the history is not helpful for anyone. Many argued that Adidas had higher obligations to comment on West’s comments because of its historical association with the Nazis - and I couldn’t agree more.
What is upsetting is that Adidas even partnered with Kanye in the first place. One of West’s earliest Antisemitic comments was back in 2011 when he compared himself to Hitler. West didn’t partner with Adidas until 2013; by then, West had made numerous Antisemitic, among other hate speech, comments. So, my question is, why did Adidas even partner with West in the first place?
Following Adidas’ statement, other companies came out of the woodwork to chime in. On December 8, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago rescinded the honorary doctorate awarded to West in 2015. Madame Tussauds told the BBC that they “removed the wax figure of Ye from their London location… Each profile earns its place at Madame Tussauds London, and we listen to our guests and the public on who they expect to see at the attraction.” Peloton banned West’s music from being played in future classes. Gap shut down YeezyGap.com, the website that sold the rapper’s capsule collection with the brand. Balenciaga terminated their relationship and any plans for projects related to West. West’s sports-marketing agency, Donda Sports, lost clients in the fallout of his hate speech, including L.A. Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald who ended his contract with Donda Sports on October 25. Seeing people take their words and turn them into actions is great, but having partnerships with people who spew hate toward others is incredibly disappointing.
Watching the aftermath of all this was very alarming. Seeing Neo-Nazis in Los Angeles standing by signs saying Kanye was right while doing a Nazi salute makes me sick to my stomach. Sophia Bush responded after seeing this image, saying, “Words matter. This is heartbreaking and enraging. The Holocaust happened less than 100 years ago. And the world said #NeverAgain. But hatred and division and evil propaganda have brought us here. What now? Will we fight our generation’s fascism? @adidas, we are waiting.”
Josh Gad, best known for voicing Olaf in Disney’s Frozen, released a statement on Twitter on October 24 condemning West’s comments. He wrote:
“For 30 years, my grandparents Joseph and Evelyn Greenblatt repeated one phrase to me again and again: ‘never forget.’ You see, when they were children, they were rounded up, tattooed with numbers like cattle, and separated from their families. They were then put into camps as their parents and siblings were slaughtered. Why? Because they were an easy target, scapegoats for Fascist monsters who turned their fellow countrymen into complicit murderers. I vowed to never forget, but never imagined I would have to once again fear the dangers of this blind and ignorant hatred towards my people. Until today. This last week has truly shocked so many like myself into being reminded how quickly and easily hate can spread and find it’s way into my own city, spoken by those who would dare to utter words once spoken by Hitler. I’m going to make this super clear: Kanye West is a raging f--king Antisemite. His mental illness is not an excuse for his Neo-Nazi propaganda. I have friends who are bipolar. They don’t suffer from vile bigotry and hate. I have stood with many again and again over the course of my life. My people are now under attack in a very disturbing and real way. Silence is no longer an option. Not when Nazi salutes are happening on the 405. Speak out now and speak out loudly. Lest we forget.”
I resonated with Gad’s statement. My Nona and her whole family hid in Greece during the war. She was the youngest of 3 sisters and was just 7 when the war started. She was separated from her mom and sisters, saw her father die in hiding because they couldn’t go to a hospital, and saw her sister, Allegra, for the last time as she was being taken away by the Nazis. So, when we say never forget, I never can. It is a part of my history, the reason I have my name, and something that I will constantly be reminded of when someone commits another heinous act of Antisemitism.
Every year in April, on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), my Instagram feed is flooded with people posting #neverforget. But these are not just words posted on social media; they must be turned into actions. Kanye acknowledging the horrors of Antisemitism now is beside the point. From his comments and actions over the past few years, it is clear he does not realize the damage and power his words have. But a company like Adidas, especially with its founding history, should know better. So to them, I say, “F*** You.”