Jaden Smith doesn’t care who you are — if he’s not feeling “the message,” he’s out. That’s what happened on Monday (October 3) during Kanye West’s YZY SZN 9 presentation during Paris Fashion Week. The musician and actor has criticized Kanye for wearing a shirt with a “White Lives Matter” slogan across the back. Before the surprise Yeezy fashion show started, Ye had a message for the attendees: “I am Ye, and everyone here knows that I am the leader,” he said at one point, before adding: “You can’t manage me.”
Kanye West wearing a White Lives Matter hoodie‼️😳 pic.twitter.com/9Xr7UCQAdF
— RapTV (@Rap) October 3, 2022
The showcase of West’s season nine collection also saw models walk the runway in white versions of the “White Lives Matter” shirt.
YZY SZN 9🖤 pic.twitter.com/T6wvme7JKu
— Outlander Magazine (@StreetFashion01) October 3, 2022
Posting on Twitter after the show, Smith, 24, wrote that he “had to dip.” In a series of follow up tweets, Jaden continued to add commentary about Ye. “True leaders lead.” In a since-deleted tweet, he wrote: “I can’t stand behind what Kanye’s saying, he does not have the full support of the youth.” In tweets that are still on his page at the time of writing, Smith added: “Black Lives Matter.” He also wrote: “I don’t care who it is if I don’t feel the message I’m out.”
This follows the news of Jaden’s father, Will Smith, making his comeback to cinema since his famed slap-heard-round-the-world with Chris Rock. In a based-on-a-true-story film titled, Emancipation, Peter (Smith), a runaway slave journeyed north, outwitting cold-blooded hunters and surviving the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana along the way. After escaping to freedom, Peter joined the Union Army. When he showed his bare back during an army medical examination, photos were taken of the scars from a near-fatal whipping delivered by an overseer on the plantation owned by John and Bridget Lyons. The Independent published the photo, known as The Scourged Back, in May of 1863. It appeared in Harper’s Weekly‘s July 4 issue and became indisputable proof of the cruelty and barbarity of slavery in America.
The film will open in theaters on December 2 and stream on December 9. Watch the trailer below:
As noted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “White Lives Matter” is a “white supremacist phrase that originated in early 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement”. The phrase has also been used by supporters of former president Donald Trump.
See Jaden’s tweets about Ye’s Paris show below:
