Neither Balenciaga nor JPMorgan Chase has explained why Ye has been cut from their businesses, but it seems more likely than not connected to his recent outbursts.
Let me be clear: There is no place for antisemitic commentary in society. I hope we can all agree West’s words were harmful and deserving of condemnation.
And yet, I also find it extremely troubling to witness the escalating trend of financial institutions and corporate entities choosing to dole out punishment and restrict access to vital services based on political and social perception.
This trend does not just impact rich celebrities who mouth-off like Ye; it has also impacted activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens who hold political views that contravene the ruling narrative. And it has the potential to impact any of us if our views don’t perfectly align with the edicts and agendas of governmental and corporate elites.
One can condemn Ye’s words and still find it alarming that he’s potentially being punished by a financial institution for his social image.
There is a big difference between private citizens condemning a celebrity—which is important and right—and corporate, financial retaliation, which I believe should frighten us. It’s dangerous for corporate entities, especially banks, to be handed the mandate to decide who the “bad guys” are without procedure or due process.
The immense influence banks hold over our financial affairs makes their unchecked power to adjudicate on moral issues without democratic consent deeply troubling, and this is true even if we can all agree that behavior in question was immoral.
The current social climate of moral retribution makes it easy to think only people who say genuinely hateful things will suffer, but this is an illusion, one that quickly fades when one asks questions about who has the power to decide who “the bad guys” are.
We can all agree that Ye’s comments were hateful. But Balenciaga and JPMorgan dropping Ye mirrored several other high-profile incidents that are much less clear cut. Paypal recently announced it would reserve the right to take punitive measures against speech they deemed to be misinformation or “hateful,” those they deem “misinformation” spreaders a hefty sum on their financial services. The company faced a severe backlash, after which it quickly rolled back the policy and claimed it was a “mistake.” And yet, it was in line with its history of deplatforming those who don’t hold good, liberal views, like the gender critical organization “Gays Against Groomers,” which Paypal dropped from its platform. Whether or not you like the group, it should be alarming to see a financial institution exercise that kind of power.
Or think of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dystopian tactic of putting pressure on financial institutions to freeze the bank accounts of the Canadian Trucker Convoy activists protesting a vaccine mandate in 2021. Maybe you support vaccine mandates. But surely you can see how dangerous it is for the government and financial institutions to collude against a viewpoint they don’t like.
Ye’s comments were worse than opposing a vaccine mandate, or being critical of grooming. But what he said is not the point. The point is that banks and corporations should not be the ones adjudicating hate speech from acceptable speech.
We should all be concerned about financial, corporate, and governmental institutions taking drastic measures to limit or cut off access to financial services and necessities based on a person’s reputation, even if what the person has said is genuinely hateful. These institutions have no business making moral judgment calls and de-personing people based on them. They should not be in the business of propping themselves up as moral arbiters on social issues and inflicting punitive measures without due process.
It’s especially ironic when amoral companies like banks or fashion brands which have engaged in their fair share of bad behavior, turn around and act like moral arbiters of good vs. evil.
Kanye has some awful opinions. But this should not make him ineligible to have a bank account.
Angie Speaks is the cohost of the Low Society Podcast.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
