Kanye "Ye" West is being taken to court. A former employee who worked with Ye at Yeezy and then his failed Donda Academy is suing him, alleging a hostile workplace and intentional emotional distress. Donda Academy was Ye’s dream school, but there have been many stories that have come out about how poorly handled the school was while it was open. A lot of new (and horrifying) accusations are lobbed against Ye in the suit, including both employees and students. Another thing highlighted in the lawsuit was Ye’s excessive antisemitic rants, which the suit claims were frequent and happened in very public spaces.
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Ye's former employee is asking for a modest amount of money.
Trevor Phillips, who is asking for $35,000, says he endured severe discrimination, harassment, and retaliation coming directly from Ye, making the claims in court documents obtained by Us Weekly. Phillips was hired in November 2022 to work at Yeezy, which is Ye’s clothing line. Eventually, his options for work expanded beyond Yeezy and he began working at Donda Academy.
Phillips was inspired by Ye's business savvy.
"Kanye represented the possibilities of what a Black man could accomplish in America: achievement, recognition and financial freedom — truly, the American Dream," Phillips’ attorneys wrote in the court documents. "With this in mind, Phillips passionately dove into his work."
Over the nine months Phillips, who is Black, worked with Ye, he began to see what he called Ye’s "dangerous rhetoric" and the way he mistreated some employees. "It was immediately apparent to him, and others, that Kanye treated the Black staff considerably worse than white employees," Phillips’ attorneys alleged.
Ye told Donda Academy students some questionable things.
Other claims in the lawsuit include Ye telling students 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." Upon hearing that, some staffers quickly ushered the kids away.
He reportedly also told students he only dates white women. Most famously, Ye’s four kids, North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm, did not attend Donda Academy.
These allegations are pretty horrifying.
Also in the lawsuit, Phillips claimed there were several times he witnessed Ye’s "discriminatory conspiracy of Jews" during meetings at Donda Academy. There was also a meeting in 2022 off campus where Ye talked about Hitler’s greatness that also made Phillips uncomfortable. He stayed at the school until August 2023 when Ye closed it with the intention to rebrand.
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Phillips just wants to be heard.
He also alleged that Ye threw a "temper tantrum" and threatened to punch him and grew angry with him over a garden he was tending.
"By filing this lawsuit, we hope our injured clients’ rights are vindicated, and that the famous artist Mr. West understands that his messages — which we alleged preach discrimination, antisemitism and Hitler-love — have no place in the world," Phillips’ lawyer, Carney R. Shegerian, said in a statement to Us Weekly.
