Kanye West’s honorary degree has been revoked.
The Yeezy founder has recently lost lucrative contracts with the likes of Balenciaga, Adidas and Gap after he made anti-Semitic comments on social media, and now The School of the Art Institute of Chicago has taken his degree away from him.
A letter penned by the school’s President Elissa Tenny read: “His anti-Black, anti-semitic, and incendiary statements, particularly those directed at Black and Jewish communities, are disgusting and condemnable.
“As a community, we know that there are varying opinions on what our School’s response should be – even as we all agree that his behaviour is indefensible.”
The doctorate was received by West – who has legally changed his name to Ye – in 2015 for his contributions to art and culture.
According to TMZ, students launched a petition calling for the degree to be cancelled and it garnered 4 000 signatures.
Meanwhile, Ye has poked fun at Twitter owner Elon Musk.
The Tesla boss took the rapper’s remark that Musk is a “half Chinese genetic hybrid” as a “compliment”.
On Monday, the controversial star made his return to Instagram after previously being banned for his racial slurs, to make odd comments about the Tesla founder’s genetics and his genius.
In a typed-out note, he wrote: “Am I the only one who thinks Elon could be half Chinese? Have you ever seen his pics as a child?
“Take a Chinese genius and mate them with a South African super model and we have an Elon.”
He continued: “I say an Elon because they probably made 10 to 30 Elons and he is the first genetic hybrid that stuck.. Well let’s not forget about Obama.”
In the caption, the 45-year-old designer referred to himself as the “future president” in a nod to his next bid for the highest political office and also brought up the on-going controversy surrounding designer label Balenciaga.
West wrote: “On Jay Zs birthday Future president of the United States Ye uses Mark Zuckerberg’s platform to incite a mass investigation of Elon Musk’s childhood photos in the midst of Balenciagagate I call this The theory of everything Problem solved Praise God.”
Unbothered by West’s comments, Musk replied on Twitter: “I take that as a compliment.”
The “Good Morning” rapper later insisted he did not intend to insult Musk, before once again hinting that he had beef with Obama.
Sharing his response on Instagram, he wrote in the caption: “It was meant as a compliment my friend Now Obama on the other hand.”
