Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, Kanye West, News, Racism, US News
The two activists who trademarked the phrase 'White Lives Matter' have revealed how much it'll cost for them to give up the rights to the slogan.
Two black radio hosts, Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, revealed last week that they had trademarked the phrase to prevent 45-year-old rapper Kanye West from profiting of his t-shirt line that bears the slogan.
In an interview with radio station Real 92.3, Ja said: “We are the holder of the federal trademark for White Lives Matter.
"If you want to sell that shirt, you have to come knock on my door, or you have to face Morris, my lawyer."
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The dynamic duo from Phoenix, Arizona, has now revealed to TMZ that West could buy the trademark from them if he can come up with the eye-watering, 10-digit price tag of $1 billion.
But that is still a maybe, with the radio jocks revealing that's the starting price that they would consider.
Ramses explained to the outlet that they could do a lot of good in the community with money like that, however they would still need to weigh up the morality of selling the trademark.
The trademark was originally filed by an anonymous listener of Ja and Ward's weekly racial justice radio show Civic Cipher.
Ownership has since been transferred to the radio duo, with the pair revealing that any money made from the use of the trademarked phrase went to benefit black and brown communities.
Ja said: "We know that phrases like 'White Lives Matter,' 'All Lives Matter,' and 'Blue Lives Matter' continue to cause harm and to dilute the narrative that was intended to be established by Black Lives Matter."
He added: "Those phrases are all piggybacking off of black people's creativity and efforts, so we're all for helping to use this as a measure to allow black people to retain a little bit of ownership."
The billion dollar price tag would be a particularly nasty barb for Ye, with the controversial rapper losing more than $2 billion in deals in the wake of several racist and anti-semitic comments in recent weeks.
Kanye West decision to wear a “White Lives Matter” shirt is disgusting, dangerous, and irresponsible. Some of y’all will rush to defend him. You should ask yourselves why… pic.twitter.com/YT4a6c9tKI
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) October 3, 2022
West also recently questioned the cause of death of George Floyd, the man who's passing spurred the Black Lives Matter movement into global action.
The controversial rapper claimed Floyd's death was the result of a fentanyl overdose, and not asphyxiation as per the court and coroner's ruling.
West has since apologised, but not before relatives of Floyd filed a $250 million lawsuit.
The rapper's blitz of a campaign to offend pretty much everyone kicked off when he debuted his White Lives Matter t-shirts at Paris Fashion Week, where he was showcasing season nine of his Yeezy clothing line.
The 45-year-old's attire sparked mass outrage online, with Jaden Smith - son of actor Will Smith - even tweeting he had to remove himself from the fashion show after seeing Ye's attire.
