Kanye West may lose his honorary degree – ARTnews.com

A petition posted to Change.org on December 1 called on the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SIAC) to withdraw the honorary doctorate awarded to rapper Kanye West in 2015, Artnet News I mentioned Monday.

The list of losses suffered by the West due to the recent wave of anti-Semitic statements is not short: Adidas, Balenciaga and Christie have all cut ties for 2024 Presidential hope. The loss of revenue from his deal with Adidas, which was worth about $1.5 million, lowered West’s net worth, leading to a Forbes To clear his name from the list of billionaires.

Now, a group called SAIC Against Hate has published a petition to pressure the school and its president, Elisa Tenney, to speak out against the ongoing xenophobia in the West. Kanye West’s hateful rhetoric incites violence and does not represent [sic] Our community values. The school can and should revoke his honorary degree immediately,” the petition states.

Since it was first published, the petition has had nearly 1,250 signatures. Its original goal was the 500. West, who now goes by simply “Ye,” was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2015. At the time, SIAC referred to West as “an advocate for education, a thinker and maker whose work is often used … to dismantle stereotypes and stimulate cultural discourse on important social issues.”

Only the part about motivating the discourse remains true. While West has a reputation for bizarre and unpopular comments, including once noting that African Americans living through 400 years of slavery seemed like “Like check“last week I raised the rhetorical ante During an appearance on Alex Jones’s InfoWars By saying “There are a lot of things I like about Hitler”.

In case his intention wasn’t clear, West appeared on the right-wing Censored platform with Gavin McInnes, founder of white nationalist group The Proud Boys, according to Rolling StoneAnd the During which the West pledged with the Jewish people to “forgive Hitler.”

“Regardless of his contributions prior to receiving this award, it is harmful to allow me, as I am now known, to continue to use the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to help legitimize hate and violence,” the petition read. “This harm affects the artists, designers, and scholars affiliated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their values ​​of justice, compassion, and free expression without hate.”