Kanye "Ye" West is facing two discrimination lawsuits, and more allegations, filed by former employees.
Los Angeles, CAKanye “Ye” West is facing a California labor harassment, discrimination and retaliation lawsuit – and more allegations – filed by Trevor Phillips, a Black man and former employee. Phillips, who claims West is anti-black, also included the rapper’s Yeezy company and his Christian private school Donda Academy. And last week Ye was hit with a similar discrimination suit in California state court.
According to the 47-page workplace discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Phillips worked for West’s Yeezy apparel brand and later Donda Academy from November in 2022 until August 2023. He said he overheard Kanye tell students at Donda Academy, which Phillips’ own child and younger brother attended, that “he wanted them to shave their heads and that he intended to put a jail at the school — and that they could be locked in cages.” Phillips said that Black employees were treated “considerably worse than white employees” by West. And at Paris Fashion Week in 2022, West wore a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt, which is deemed hate speech by the Anti-Defamation League.
Other allegations by Phillips include Ye allegedly showing nude photos of his sex partners to employees and instructing Phillips to do dangerous electrical work and other renovations at Donda Academy without proper electrician experience or permits.
The second 31-page lawsuit was filed by Benjamin Provo in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging severe harassment, discrimination and retaliation by West, who was known to kindle a hostile work environment by openly expressing his disdain for Black people and subjecting Black employees to disparate treatment compared to their white counterparts. Provo was hired as a security guard for Donda in August 2021, until the school was shut down six months later for unsafe conditions, Provo’s lawsuit states. Law360 reported that Provo’s job duties then expanded after the campus moved to another location due to lack of staffing.
Provo also had to provide security services for West's "Sunday Service," along with the warehouse where all the Yeezy LLC apparel and products were housed. Provo said that the racism and discrimination he suffered at the hands of West and his co-defendants were exacerbated by the dreadlocks he wore in an exercise of his Muslim faith. West ordered Provo and others to shave their heads but Provo refused and he was fired. Provo further claims that West demanded security guards to use physical force and any means necessary to prevent paparazzi from engaging with the rapper, "including acts of violence."
Donda Teachers filed Lawsuit
Last April, two teachers who were hired in January 2023 and fired two months later claimed in a lawsuit that West and Donda Academy violated health and safety codes and maintained unlawful educational practices. By June a third teacher joined that lawsuit with the same allegations. Donda Academy is a K–12 private school located in Southern California. Because it is not accredited, graduating seniors might not have credits or diplomas recognized by colleges. On its website (which appears to be down), Donda says its mission was to "prepare students to become the next generation of leaders."
The NY Post celebrity newsite 'Page Six' said that Provo’s allegations appear to be consistent with what teacher Cecilia Hailey said in her April 2023 lawsuit against the rapper. She alleged that West banned black history books.
Antisemitism
As for his antisemitism, CNN reported in late 2023 that West posted an apology in Hebrew to the Jewish community for any “unintended outburst caused” by his “words or actions.” In his lawsuit, Philips says West referred to Adolf Hitler as “great” and in front of staff members at Donda Academy, said, “the Jews are out to get me” and “the Jews are stealing all my money.” The New York Times reported that Ye (West) said the Holocaust was “fake,” and “Hitler was an innovator! He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars.”
Ye has been accused of attacking Jewish people for the past 20 years and creating a toxic work environment, but the conflict came to a head in late 2022 with Adidas, which produced Ye’s Yeezy line. After Adidas broke up a 10-year business relationship with the rapper over his antisemitic remarks on X, Philips claims West told him that, “The Jews are working with Adidas to freeze up my money to try and make me broke!”
West doesn’t just discriminate against Blacks and Jews: according to the lawsuit, he also made homophobic remarks: “Gay people are not true Christians,” and “Gay people are controlled by Bill Gates so that they don't have children for population control…Yeah I am going for the gays! FIRST the Jews, THEN the gays.” Further, the lawsuit contains a screenshot of a text message it claims Ye sent to Phillips taking issue with how he carried out a task. “I am on some complete Hitler level stuff,” Ye says, then adds, “Minus the gas chambers.”
You’d need a wild imagination to make this stuff up…Phillips is seeking $35,000 in damages and an injunction to prohibit West from owning and operating any sort of educational school for kids under 18 years of age in the state of California. The cases are Trevor Phillips v. Yeezy LLC et al., case number 24STCV08222, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles and Benjamin Deshon Provo v. Yeezy LLC et al., case number 24STCV10470, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
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