BYE, YE: Art Institute of Chicago revokes honorary doctorate for hometown hater of Hebrews

Well, maybe Kanye West can transfer to Trump University.

CNN reported on Friday that the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has revoked an honorary degree it had earlier bestowed upon “The College Dropout” whose “Graduation” to full-blown Holocaust denialism has gotten him into plenty of hot garbage water lately.

West, a Chicago native, was awarded the honorary doctorate in 2015, in “recognition of his contributions to art and culture.”

But after an online petition started by the group Against Hate, SAIC chose to end their association with Kanye, just as Balenciaga, Gap, and Adidas have already done.

“Ye’s actions do not align with SAIC’s mission and values, and we’ve rescinded his honorary degree,” SAIC said in their official statement, which frames his words as “anti-Black, antisemitic, racist, and dangerous” and emphatically “condemns and repudiates” his hate speech.

Let’s have more Holocaust deniers losing things, please.

You know, instead of being invited to Mar-a-Lago or welcomed back on Twitter (you’re blocked, Baked Alaska, but don’t think I don’t know you’re back).

We’re at the point where the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff,  had to convene a roundtable at the White House on antisemitism and members of Congress are sending letters to Elon Musk asking him to cut down on the hate speech he’s letting run rampant on Twitter these days.

I honestly don’t know how we can stop anyone from hating each other, but at least we can make sure celebrities who spew vile hatred such as “I like Hitler” aren’t getting rewarded with millions of dollars in endorsements or honorary degrees or anything else that normalizes their hate speech.

Bye, Ye!

#Bye Ye. pic.twitter.com/SnWrgt4FBz

— Caramel Papi (@JusCallMeWill) October 26, 2022

The following organizations have dropped Kanye West since his antisemitic rant:

° Adidas
° Balenciaga
° Creative Artists Agency
° GAP
° MRC
° Vogue

…with more expected to follow suit.#ByeYe

— Elgin Charles (@ElginCharles) October 26, 2022

https://twitter.com/SCORP1OVENUS/status/1600927323011788801

https://twitter.com/frequency007Hz/status/1601426607582887943?s=20&t=EciJpH45tOcYP5ctou0fJw

Tara Dublin is a woefully underappreciated and unrepresented writer currently shopping a super cool novel that has nothing to do with politics while also fighting fascism on the daily.

Follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks.

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.

Tara Dublin

Tara is a reported opinion columnist at Occupy Democrats. She's a woefully underappreciated and unrepresented writer currently shopping for a super cool novel that has nothing to do with politics while also fighting fascism on a daily. Follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks

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