Kanye West Invited to BLM Black Power Class After White Lives Matter Uproar

Kanye West angered many on Monday after he wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt to a Yeezy fashion show in Paris. Now, a Black Lives Matter collective is offering to educate the rapper on "Black Power."

West wasn't the only one who sported the controversial clothing. Conservative commentator Candace Owens, who is also Black, was pictured standing next to West in her own "White Lives Matter" shirt.

On Tuesday, Black Lives Matter Grassroots wrote to Newsweek that it's extending invites to West and Owens for a free online "Black Power class," taught by Director Melina Abdullah.

"We invite them into courageous conversation on race, racism, and why we say 'Black Lives Matter,'" said Abdullah, who's also a professor of pan-African studies at California State University, Los Angeles.

Black Lives Matter Grassroots describes itself as "a collective of 26 chartered chapters globally working on the ground since 2013." For roughly a decade, social justice advocates with the Black Lives Matter movement have protested against systemic racism and police brutality.

Black models were made to wear the problematic shirt at the Paris fashion show, the collective noted. Yet the phrase "White Lives Matter"—and its sister slogan, "All Lives Matter"—have been wielded by white supremacists in response to BLM.

The Anti-Defamation League has also flagged "White Lives Matter" as a rallying cry for Ku Klux Klan groups.

Following the fashion show, West blasted Black Lives Matter on Instagram, calling the movement a "scam." Undeterred, Black Lives Matter Grassroots said it "sees this as a teachable moment," adding that the harmful stunt could be "used to legitimize violent assaults on Black people."

For her part, Owens hasn't appeared to directly address her critics, but she did post a tweet that seemed to reference the backlash.

"It's always the people that say 'I don't feel safe' that are doing the aggressing," she wrote on Tuesday. "It isn't safety they are after, it's compliance. Just something I've noticed."

West likely understands that white people haven't had to endure targeted oppression, the collective told Newsweek.

"Black folks, in contrast, are at the bottom of virtually every economic, social, and political measure because of centuries of individual and institutional racism," the group wrote. "Building a world of Black freedom means upending systems that harm and building new systems of care.

"Ultimately this benefits everyone," the collective continued. "When Black people get free, everybody gets free."

Newsweek reached out to Owens and a West representative for comment.