Kanye West Eviscerated For Alleged Nazi Symbols In New Yeezy Merch

Kanye West continues to draw a lot of controversy for many sad reasons, although it's been a minute since his blatant antisemitism took center stage in the headlines. Unfortunately, that all changed with his latest Yeezy merch drop on Thursday (December 26), which includes T-shirts, hoodies, jackets, and more for $20 each. The reason as to why these new clothing items drew backlash is because of its use of a logo that eerily seems to resemble Nazi and white supremacist imagery. The symbol in question is the Wolfsangel, worn by multiple SS units during World War II and thus irrevocably tied to Nazi Germany.

Furthermore, in modern times, the Wolfsangel symbol is prevalent among neo-Nazi groups, such as its use as the logo for the white supremacist organization, Aryan Nations. Kanye West obviously caught a lot of flack for this even if he has plausible deniability, despite the clear similarity and evocation given his past bigoted remarks. The "Life Of The Party" artist even had fan accounts online cutting ties and calling this design out as one of his most abhorrent and thinly veiled references.

Kanye West's New Alleged Nazi-Evoking Yeezy Designs

Of course, this is far from the first time that Kanye West caused controversy due to his merch and clothing designs. We can point all the way back to his use of Confederate flags during the Yeezus era, and there are probably some earlier examples to lesser degrees. But this is another level of shameless, rage-baiting provocation that is even less conducive to the benefit of the doubt. This new VULTURES era incorporated a lot of other bigoted and Nazi-adjacent logos, imagery, and references before, so this new rollout is sadly not as surprising, albeit nonetheless outrageous.

Meanwhile, more recent Kanye West headlines deal more with antics than with this disheartening double-down. Whether it's his wild deposition, Bianca Censori outfits, or new music rumors, it's easy to forget about the big picture. But it's hard to deny that the Chicago multi-hyphenate continues to create from this misguided and harmful place. We'll see if 2025 yields a change or if this will taint his behavior for the rest of his career.

[via]