Jason Jessee’s fall from grace as a result of an unearthed 1995 interview with Iron Horse magazine was well-documented in Vice’s exposé from this past May. His use of swastikas in artwork was punctuated by the Iron Horse piece in which Jessee used several racial epitaphs. The controversy proved to be too much for Jessee’s sponsors. Santa Cruz and Converse abruptly parted ways with him.
Since then, Jessee has been keeping a relatively low profile. We reached out for an interview last month to get his perspective on it all. It has yet to manifes. But we do have the below statement, which was received via text several weeks ago.
[This is] old news from my childhood retardedness. I don’t really need to bring that up. It’s so boring. I never killed, raped, or molested anyone. [These were] just some words [that I used] as a kid. I definitely payed for those sins, and made mistakes. I grew, apologized, and was forgiven. And [I’ve been] blessed; [the] last 15 years [have] only [been] healthy, positive living. I’m down to talk about skateboarding, and life lessons I’ve learned. But yeah, I don’t know.
The sincerity of the above statement is supported by Jessee’s new art project. All of the proceeds from his latest collection available through San Francisco’s Equal Dist. are going to Brujas—a New York-based organization that is dedicated to inclusion in skateboarding and beyond.
We still hope to hop on a call with Jason Jessee at some point in the future. Until then, have a look at his latest artistic offering below.
