Kanye West accused of discriminating against black employees
Kanye West's former bodyguard, Benjamin Provost, accused the rapper of racial discrimination. According to him, the musician treated black employees much worse than “their white colleagues.” Provo filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against his former boss on March 26, but this became known only now.
People writes that Benjamin worked at Kanye's private school Donda Academy and in the warehouse where the rapper stored clothes from his Yeezy brand, and also worked part-time at the musician's Sunday church services. At the same time, he was forced to put himself in danger, as he was required to take cameras away from reporters. Provost claims that he had personal encounters with West on more than one occasion, and these encounters were unpleasant because the rapper was always “abrasive, rude to black employees and treated them in a derogatory manner.”
Additionally, according to Provo's lawsuit, West paid blacks less for no apparent reason. Benjamin once complained about unequal pay to his immediate supervisor, John Hicks, and received the answer from him: “Don’t talk to Ye about money. He doesn't like to talk about money." Moreover, after Provo’s complaints, on the contrary, the salary was reduced.
Also, according to Benjamin, Kanye demanded that “everyone associated with Donda Academy get rid of books related to Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other prominent figures in the black community,” and he himself was eventually fired for that he refused to shave off his dreadlocks, which were part of his Muslim identity.
This is not the first time Kanye has been hit with this type of lawsuit. Previously, another former Donda Academy employee, Trevor Phillips, alleged that West compared himself to Adolf Hitler, supported anti-Semitism and treated the school's black staff “significantly worse than white staff.” He also mentioned that West demanded that two students shave their heads. Prior to this, in September 2023, the renovator of the rapper's Malibu mansion accused the rapper of forcing him to work in dangerous conditions and sleep on the floor, and also not paying him wages.
Kanye’s scandalous statements, primarily anti-Semitic, had previously led to the rapper being “canceled” in the West; many large companies refused to cooperate with him. The rapper, who confessed his love for Hitler, criticized the “Jewish media,” and published on social networks an image of a swastika inscribed in the Star of David, had to make a public apology.
It recently became known that Kanye plans to open his own porn studio and Yeezy Porn brand.