Ye's anti-semitic meltdown was one of the biggest stories of 2022. The debacle began when the musician, formerly known as Kanye West, wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt in Paris. "White Lives Matter" is a slogan heavily associated with white supremacist groups and other far-right entities. Ye then doubled down, posting screenshots of a conversation with Puff Daddy. The texts show Ye saying “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
Two days later, on October 9, Ye's anti-semitic remarks became even more blatant. The rapper took to Twitter to declare “I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE. You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” He was then interviewed by former Fox host Tucker Carlson, where Ye said “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.” This finally led to sportswear company Adidas cutting ties with Ye. Adidas had collaborated with Ye on the Yeezys shoe line since 2013. The final straw appeared to be a public declaration by Ye that he could be publicly anti-semitic without facing consequences from Adidas.
Shareholders Allege Financial Damage From Not Dropping Ye
Adidas is reportedly set to lose around $1.3 billion from unsold Yeezys inventory. That is just one of the reasons that they are now facing a class action lawsuit from their investors. Shareholders have alleged that the company's refusal to cut ties with Ye, as well as their inability to financially weather their eventual decision to drop him, is starting to hurt their portfolios.
However, that's not all the suit alleges. In addition to the financial impact, investors are claiming that senior Adidas executives knew about Ye's anti-semitic beliefs. The suit alleges that this information was kept from the public view to mitigate its financial impact. Furthermore, the suit alleges that this course of action led to the artificial inflation of Adidas' share price. Moreover, hiding Ye's behavior and thus inflating the share price worsened the financial impact when the stock later tanked. Adidas is yet to publicly respond to the lawsuit.
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