Two Black activists, Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward are offering to give Kanye West the rights to the phrase “White Lives Matter” for a significant sum of money.
As was previously mentioned, when Kanye revealed the “White Lives Matter” outfits during the YZY Season 9 fashion show in October, he incited anger. Ja and Ward, the hosts of the widely-syndicated radio program Civic Cipher, disclosed this week that they received the trademark as a gift from an unnamed donor sometime in September, just before Kanye unveiled the shirts.
The radio DJs confessed to TMZ this weekend that while they aren’t actively attempting to sell the trademark, they would definitely consider doing so if someone made an alluring offer. The site claims that any prospective bidder would need to make a $1 billion offer to even get the seller to consider selling.
The development follows Ja and Ward’s recent interview with ABC News, during which they said that no one in America is permitted to legally sell any “White Lives Matter” merchandise without first obtaining their permission. In other words, anyone attempting to profit from the term would have to negotiate with the pair’s legal counsel and might be subject to legal action.
“I recognize that one of two things could happen. Someone could come to our lawyer or us and say, ‘Hey, you have the exclusive right to make and sell those clothes in the United States of America. I would like to buy the trademark for millions of dollars,’” Ja told Capital B News. “If we were to sell that trademark, for whatever amount of money, we could donate that money to causes that we feel would benefit Black people, like the NAACP or Black Lives Matter organizations. Because, realistically, we cannot stop the shirts from being made right now. We can write cease and desist to people selling these shirts right now, but that is a big monster that requires teams of lawyers and thousands of dollars that we do not have.”
