The owners of the trademark White Lives Matter want to prevent the phrase from being used to do harm like Kanye West (EXCLUSIVE)

See gallery

kanye-west He sparked a major backlash when he wore a T-shirt that read “White Lives Matter” to his Yeezy Season 9 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week on October 3, 2022. Kanye’s use of the supremacist phrase white, categorized by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate slogan, pushed it back into the news. With the spotlight back on the toxic phrase, which originated in early 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the brand owner chose to take a stand and reached out to the hosts of the justice-focused show. racial. civic cipher for help

Ramses andwho co-hosts the show with Quinton neighborhoodsaying hollywoodlife in an EXCLUSIVE interview that he has “crossed paths” with Kanye over the years and recalls an “individual who once stood up for black people… And I’ve seen the same individual try to pass a confederate flag ever since [as fashion].” In 2013, Kanye featured the flag, which has long been a symbol of hate and racial division, on merchandise for his “Yeezus” tour, seen here. But it was their attempt to cash in on the hateful slogan “White Lives Matter” at their October fashion show that prompted an anonymous Ramses and Quinton listener to approach them and ask them to take over the trademark. of the toxic phrase.

“ME I cannot speak to their intentions, because this person wishes to remain anonymous and therefore our footprint with them is minimal,” Ramses revealed, “but I must assume that the reason they owned the trademark in the first place is not it was necessarily to make money off of it, but it was to prevent other people from making money off of what is, in effect, a really mean and mean thing to profit from. Because, and Q mentions this a lot, that phrase only exists to oppose the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’. At no time in history has it been necessary to affirm that white lives matter, we all know that the world treats that as if it were normal, it is like saying that the sky is blue.

Arizona hip-hop DJs turned racial justice activists admitted the offer was “scary” at first. “It’s funny because we laugh about it now, but back then we were walking like six miles, just talking about all the possible outcomes,” Quinton explained. “We didn’t want to offend people. We didn’t want to hurt people. Now, we can be proud of what we’re trying to do, but it was scary to accept responsibility… Because conversations like the one we’re having with you don’t always happen. A person reads a headline. They see our image. That’s all they need, to feel how they are going to feel. And to be associated with that term, when it’s something that’s genuinely painful for a lot of people, we had a lot to think about… It wasn’t an easy decision for us to make or an easy responsibility to accept. ”

As trademark holders of the phrase Kanye “reinjected into popular culture,” the co-hosts intend to protect it from others who profit from it, including Kanye. “TThe moment you see someone selling something that says [White Lives Matter] then they expose themselves to a lawsuit, and anyone who’s a decent enough businessman realizes that’s not what they want to do,” Ramses said. “So, currently, because no one has bought the T-shirts from [Kanye]in reality gave them for free [and avoided a lawsuit.]”

Any effort to prevent people from profiting from the hateful slogan “White Lives Matter” will require attorneys, at a cost that Quinton and Ramses would appreciate being helped to cover. “Everything we have to pay the lawyers comes out of our pocket,” the radio announcers explained. “So anyone who wants to support us on our way can do so on our website.” His one hour show, civic cipher on iHeartRadio, it’s available in podcast format on all major platforms and on 30 stations across the country. Ramses and Quinton started the program in 2020, amid historic protests against police brutality and racism, with the goal of bringing people together. “[The goal] it is bringing people together, informing people, educating our allies, people who want to be better,” Ramses shared.

“We give them the tools and the perspective to be better… We talk about social justice issues,” he added. “We talk about issues that are important to the Black and Latino communities. Of course, we talk about cases of police violence, police brutality, police shootings, we talk about voter disenfranchisement, we talk about political stuff, we celebrate ebony excellence. And we present a different side of what many people consider to be black culture.”