Currently, the internet is ablaze.
Earlier this week, Kanye West attended his Paris Fashion Week show donning a long-sleeve t-shirt bearing the words “White Lives Matter.” A picture of him standing with US conservative commentator, Candace Owens, has been circulating like wildfire all over my social feeds. The consistent demand alongside the image is that he be cancelled once and for all.
But haven’t we done this before?
Ye is certainly no stranger to controversy. In fact, this year has been rife with it, from publicly fighting with his ex-wife to ridiculing her new partner. But even before 2022, Ye has been known to stir up outrage, especially as it relates to the black community. In 2018, he reflected in an interview:
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years … For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” — Kanye West in an interview with radio host Charlamagne Tha God.
Now, I’m not here to defend Kanye West at all. Although I will say, to some degree, I don’t think he’s got it out for black people (like the many tweets I read while drinking my morning coffee seem to allege). To me, one thing is very clear: he knows what he’s doing. He is purposefully choosing inflammatory means to express his message. In exchange for encouraging outrage, he gets virality.
Cancel Culture is Fueled by Outrage
The irony is that the outrage that leads groups of people to try to work together to “cancel” someone is the same outrage that will lead people to consume their content.
I actually thought about that this morning when I tuned into Candace Owens’ podcast on YouTube to understand the “White Lives Matter” shirt controversy. There I was, giving her a stream that would never otherwise happen. I even shared the video with a friend too. (For the record, I really don’t resonate with the message she was trying to send or her reasoning behind it.)
Some people are aware of this and, if they were in my shoes, would try to learn about the incident from another source to avoid the few cents that creators are paid per stream from landing in the wrong hands.
While I appreciate that, I don’t think it leads to very honest education. If I want to actually understand something that’s happening, I personally think it’s best in forming my conclusion to see what the source has to say first before turning to outside opinions. But that’s just me.
Even if you opt to learn about a situation through a different source, you’re still giving it attention and further virality. Outrage leads not only to streams or attention given directly to the source, these days it also leads to the creation of further content about that very issue. (I don’t mean to call myself out so much in my own article, but this piece is literally my case in point.) Thus, the incident is given yet another life cycle through the creators desiring views of their social media content.
As more people share and repost about the incident to their stories on all these social feeds, there is yet another life cycle created for one singular incident that happened two or three days ago at Paris Fashion Week.
To effectively cancel someone is to disseminate their media so others understand why they have to cancel that individual. But circulating their media is giving them more attention. And more attention, particularly upon celebrities, can lead to more financial opportunity regardless of their missteps.
Virality = $$$
Even after the “slavery was a choice” comment (which, notably, is not exactly an accurate description of the actual comment but the “Telephone game” summarization), Ye was reported in March 2021 to have a net worth of $6.6 billion.
This jump was related not to his music, but to the sales of his Yeezy sneakers and projected earnings from his collaboration with Gap. After recent months, each of these collaborations appear to be on the rocks.
Despite this, I would not be surprised if he were able to come out with yet another product that the public ends up consuming despite his ties to it. Some super fans might suggest that it’s his genius that keeps him relevant across music and fashion, but I think the answer is simpler. Ye is purposefully keeping himself in our minds by playing into the outrage fueled by social media.
This is more easily done by celebrities compared to the average person. It is easier especially for those whose other work has meaning beyond themselves. Although people who haven’t paid much mind to Kanye West in the past may associate him with his missteps and poor public conduct, many others think of his music. Of the feeling they got when they listened to College Dropout for the first time from front to back. Of his spectacular and art installation-like performances on tour. Of the beautiful moments in his short film.
Can we separate the art from the artist?
Art, from music to sneaker design, transcends the individuals who make it. When art is created, it is a snapshot of time. That’s why we keep art and other artefacts in museums — to preserve them as close as possible to their original states.
While, yes, art is also an extension of the artist as the creator, art takes on new meanings when consumed by others. When an artist shares their work with the general public, it is no longer theirs anymore. It becomes something else subjectively to those who consume it.
I think it’s unrealistic, when seeing an artist doing objectively questionable things, to assume everyone should simply shut off their connection to them. There’s a difference between enabling and remaining a fan of the art (not the artist). The people who joined in on the bullying of Pete Davidson are enablers, for example. But I’m not comfortable saying that people should give up on listening to an artist’s music simply because of what they did at their fashion show halfway across the world.
In the online space, it’s easier to take those kinds of hard stances. But, in reality, people seem a lot more reasonable. Because, I think, we all enjoy the work of at least one individual who is otherwise unsavoury to the public palette. So, it doesn’t surprise me that Kanye West has yet to have been successfully cancelled. Between virality and the evergreen meaning of some of his art, the odds are stacked against it.
