Kanye West Tuai Kontroversy After Selling T-shirts With Nazi Symbols

Kanye West tuai kontroversy (Photo: Instagram/@kanye_west_only)

JAKARTA - Kanye West, now better known as Ye, is back in the public spotlight after the Super Bowl ad he displayed directed people to visit his website, Yeezy.com. He sold a t-shirt with a swastika symbol, a symbol closely related to the Nazi regime in Germany on Sunday, February 9.

Swastika, which is still being used by the far-right extremism group, is in the spotlight after the sale of the t-shirt. Until finally, many people criticized Ye.

The white shirt has a black swastika on the front and is the only item sold on the front page of YEEZy.com on Monday, February 10. There is no text or explanation accompanying the item, only the words "HH-01". The shirt sells for USD 20 or IDR 327 thousand rupiah.

The Super Bowl ad, which was not broadcast nationally, according to several reports, was seen in the Los Angeles area showing Ye in a dentist seat. Apparently, Ye is undergoing treatment.

"So, how are you, guys? I spent almost all the money on this ad for my new teeth. So once again, I have to shoot on an iPhone. Um, um, um, go to YEEzy.com," he said, quoted by VOI from the NBC News page on Wednesday, February 12.

Milo Yiannopoulos, Ye's spokesman, told NBC News in an emailed statement.

"Ye is an artist and an icon between generations who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. She has temporarily disabled her X account," he said.

Yiannopoulos did not respond to questions about the t-shirt. This news comes as Ye's X account, which has 33 million followers and recently uploaded a series of highly offensive antisemitism messages that have been deactivated.

The Anti-Pendominating League (ADL) issued a statement on Monday describing the sale of the t-shirt as further evidence of Ye's antisemitism. The organization, formed to combat hatred and discrimination against Jews, confirmed that swastika was a "symbol adopted by Hitler as the main Nazi symbol".

"It motivated his followers in the 20th century and continued to threaten and cause fear for those who were subjected to white antisemitism and supremacy," said ADL.

"If that's not enough, the shirt is labeled 'HH-01' on the Kanye website, which is code for 'Heil Hitler.'" he added.

The page for the @kanyewest account, which has been around since 2010, now says "This account no longer exists". It's not clear why the account is offline, but Ye said in a message on Sunday.

"I left Twitter," he said.

"I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent my feelings. It's very healing to use the world as an outlet," he added.

The shirt appeared to have started selling on YEEZy.com over the weekend, although Ye had previously said on X that he would never sell a t-shirt with a swastika.

"I will never sell a swastika shirt because people can physically get hurt wearing it. I love fans and my supporters," he wrote on Saturday.

Before his X account went offline, Ye posted a series of new antisemitism tweets on Sunday Super Bowl, including demeaning comments and conspiracy theories about Jews.

On Friday, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, said Ye was responsible for the 'very striking appearance of antisemitism, racism and misogini from Ye on her X account'.