Kanye West receives heavy backlash for requesting jewelers to design him a swastika chain
Los Angeles, California - Rapper Kanye "Ye" West is receiving backlash after he put out a request for someone to help him design a swastika chain.
On Thursday, Ye shared a post on X that included a video mock-up of a diamond-encrusted swastika chain amid his ongoing social media frenzy of antisemitism.
"For all jewelers, I'm looking for swastika chain designs," Ye wrote in the post, adding an email address for potential jewelers to send him proposals.
In a follow-up post on Friday, he admonished musicians who "rap about how many people they killed" but are "scared to wear a swastika t-shirt," and in another post, he declared, "It was always a dream of mine to walk around with a Swastika T on."
In a statement to Billboard, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said "There is no excuse – none – for praising [Adolf Hitler]."
West's post has garnered tons of criticism from social media users, but has also been met with tons of memes seemingly joking about his rhetoric.
"Glorifying a genocidal dictator with swastika jewelry is not 'edgy,' 'cool,' or 'controversial,'" Greenblatt said.
"When someone with Kanye's influence spreads Nazi glorification, it emboldens extremists. It's unacceptable and downright dangerous."
Cover photo: FRAZER HARRISON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP