Oy vey shmear! Still trending for antisemitic rants, Kanye makes a bagel run
His eventful Manhattan Beach trip also included a failed stop to Skechers headquarters
Was it an admission of defeat? An act of self-parody? Or was the canceled rapper simply hungry?
Kanye West’s bewildering rebrand as a vitriolic antisemite took an ironic turn yesterday when, reportedly on an unsolicited job interview trip to Skechers headquarters in Manhattan Beach, California, he stopped for lunch — at a bagel shop.
Pictures of West, who changed his name to Ye earlier this year, at Manhattan Bread & Bagel, in Manhattan Beach, California, surfaced on social media Wednesday and were first reported by TMZ.
The irony of a man spewing Jew hatred seeking out arguably the most iconic of Jewish foods was not lost on the people who spotted it.
Mike Ochoa posted a photo on Instagram of West standing in line, wearing a blue hoodie, matching fatigue baseball cap and pants, and black rubber rain boots on a sunny Southern California day.
“At least he like bagels,” was Ochoa’s wry caption.
In an interview Wednesday, Ochoa told the Forward that West definitely ordered a bagel, but that he was not sure what kind. Ochoa (turkey sandwich on a garlic bagel) said he was tempted to ask West for a photo but that the “Good Life” rapper looked angry. (TMZ reported that other onlookers saw West sitting at a table with a companion, eating a bagel, and that he seemed to be in good spirits.)
Commenters on Reddit seemed amused by the latest turn of the saga of a man who declared he was going “death con 3 on Jewish people” two weeks ago — and who lost lucrative business partnerships with Adidas and Balenciaga, among other companies, and has been shunned by the entertainment industry as a result.
Perhaps alluding to the report that West is no longer a billionaire after Adidas parted ways with him, one user wrote: “I hope he can afford it now. We can’t let his family starve.”
Another joked: “But will the bagel shop cut ties??”
West was escorted out of Skechers headquarters, which, like the bagel shop, is also in Manhattan Beach, after a brief conversation in the lobby, according to TMZ. A spokesperson for the company, which was founded in 1992, said it condemns West’s divisive remarks and has no intention of ever working with him.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel riffed on West’s trip to the bagel store: “He shouldn’t be allowed to eat bagels anymore, right? At the very least.”
He added: “Lox him up!”
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