Kanye West continues to make headlines for his offensive Twitter tirade, which has since earned the Yeezy founder a great deal of backlash. He praised Adolf Hitler, called for Diddy's release from prison, dissed late designer Virgil Abloh, and much more. At one point in his rant, he even promoted T-shirts featuring the phrase "White Lives Matter" and swastikas.
"I've wanted to make this tee shirt for years," he captioned a photo of the swastika shirts. "My greatest performance art piece thus far." On Sunday, his Super Bowl commerical for Yeezy aired. At the time, there was nothing on the website but the swastika shirt. For obvious reasons, the Yeezy store was banned by Shopify shortly after. "All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms, so we removed them from Shopify," the company told CBS MoneyWatch.
Kanye West's Twitter Rant
Now, however, the move has sparked a battle between his fans and critics on Etsy. According to TMZ, various sellers are offering up T-shirts featuring the Jewish Star of David on the back of a hand flipping Ye the bird. Another seller is offering a T-shirt combining Ye's name with a swastika, though they insist the symbol is unrelated to Nazism.
"This T-Shirt is in no way intended to promote violence or antisemitism. This artwork is inspired by a ancient symbol in Hinduism that represents well-being, prosperity, and good fortune. It's a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism. an ancient symbol in the form of an equal-armed cross with each arm continued at a right angle, used especially in South Asia as a symbol of good luck or spirituality," the description claims.
