Kanye West’s latest nemesis is a fashion editor — Here’s everything you need to know

In a move that many denounced as bullying, West took aim at a fashion editor who criticised his controversial decision to send models down the runway, wearing t-shirts that read "White Lives Matter".

After Kanye West wore a ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt at yesterday’s Yeezy Season 9 show, the rapper has been facing incredible backlash and has started firing back. Ye took to his Instagram to post a screenshot of a profile belonging to Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, a stylist and global Vogue contributing editor. In the caption, the rapper wrote a cryptic message which read “broke the processor when the computer can’t read the code this is a droid.”

Well, erm, that’s pretty much bullying, Kanye. 

Ye didn’t stop there and proceeded to post another picture, this time of Karefa-Johnson herself, with a warning. “This is not a fashion person you speak on Ye imma speak on you ask Trevor Noah,” he wrote, referring to Noah’s Daily Show Segment critiquing Ye in which the rapper responded by calling Noah a slur.

Shortly after, Ye came back once more, zooming in on the previous picture to show Karefa-Johnson’s footwear and mocking it in the caption. “I KNOOOOOOW ANNA HAAAATES THESE BOOTS,” said the rapper in reference to Anna Wintour, the Editor in Chief of American Vogue, who was recently seen with Ye at NYFW.

The outburst from Ye is seemingly in response to a series of Instagram stories posted by Karefa-Johnson. She was in attendance at the Yeezy Season 9 show and took to Instagram to express her anger at Ye’s infamous T-shirt. “Here come the bullshit… I’m fuming… collecting my thoughts… dm me for my working thesis. Indefensible behavior [sic],” she wrote.

The editor also shared messages she had sent to a friend, explaining her reasoning behind her anger. “What I feel is that he is not fully aware of the difference between appropriating BLM and subverting the ‘Make America Great Again’ hat. He was trying to illustrate a dystopian world in the future when whiteness might become extinct or at least would be in enough danger to demand defense,” she added. Karefa-Johnson concluded that Ye’s intended message “didn’t land” and was “deeply offensive, violent, and dangerous.”

In a second post the writer added that: “The danger is that, this very premise, the idea that white supremacy is in danger of extinction is what justifies mass incarceration, murder en masse, indeed even the advent of slavery.”

A few hours later, In a final post, Karefa-Johnson said: “It’s become clear that some viewers think my previous post containing my working, evolving thoughts on Kanye’s show, was some sort of justification for the incredibly irresponsible and dangerous act of sending ‘W*** Lives Matter’ T-shirt’s down a runway.”

“There is no excuse, there is no art here. I’m sorry I failed to make that clear – I thought I did. I do think if you asked Kanye, he’d say there was art, and revolution, and all of the things in that T-shirt. There isn’t. As we all work through the trauma of this moment, especially those of us who suffered in that room, let’s have some grace for one another.” 

Following Ye’s rant, he took to Instagram once more, this time sharing a screenshot of texts sent to him by Mowalola, a Nigerian fashion designer who was previously working for Ye at Yeezy Gap. “I also don’t think u should insult that writer,” the text read. “U could actually hv real conversation about the tee [sic].”

Gigi Hadid even chimed in on the drama, coming to the defence of Karefa-Johnson with a comment that read: “You wish u had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea haha…. If there’s actually a point to any of your shit she might be the only person that could save u. As if the “honor” of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion..? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke [sic].” And so, the drama continues…

Writer
Chris Saunders