Kanye Explodes Hornet's Nest with Shock Slavery Comments
As a guy who’s spent a lifetime running his mouth in public, Kanye West should be used to being in the eye of a storm of controversy.
But the mega-star entertainer, who scared the Democrat Party to death with recent Twitter posts supporting President Donald Trump, found himself in an uncharted waters on Wednesday after an off-the-cuff speech and series of Twitter posts infuriated and alienated both ends of the political spectrum with comments about slavery.
He had a point to make, but he mangled it so badly Democrats are going to bury it alive.
West kicked off the hornet’s nest Tuesday afternoon during a visit to the gossip-news website TMZ in Los Angeles, where he appeared to say blacks remained enslaved in America for four centuries of their own volition.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years,” West said in a newsroom interview. “For 400 years? That sound like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years, and there’s all you all?”
The comments caused an immediate uproar with the TMZ staff, with sportswriter Van Lathan calling West out in front of the website’s staff.
“Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled, and brother, I’m unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that’s not real,” he said.
Check out the video here:
Taking to Twitter after the TMZ visit, West tried to explain himself — and made it a little clearer, though from the reactions some liberals thought he was being even worse.
to make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 1, 2018
My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 1, 2018
the reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought It was just an idea
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 1, 2018
If you strip away the pop culture angst, there’s a certain logic to it what he was saying.
Of course, the original African slaves were kidnapped by force, then kept in submission by a brutal social regime. But for sheer numbers of people to be held in subjugation requires more than physical force.
It takes thorough indoctrination — and a climate of literally constant intimidation — to force generations of humans to accept their own slavery. For anyone to call surrender to those conditions a “choice,” as West did in the TMZ interview, is appalling. To do it, as West did, either by mistake or to be “edgy” is simply inane.
(Even for Kanye West, some lines can’t be crossed.)
It’s what’s happening today in North Korea.
And to a lesser degree, it’s the condition that the Democrat Party has kept American blacks since the 1960s. That was the point West was making, and it’s the point that scares the Democrat power structure to death.
West had already alienated the left with his support for Trump. For the right, Republicans and conservatives have better ways to reach out to blacks than by saying “we really don’t think your ancestors made a choice to be enslaved.”
As conservative commentator Tomi Lahren put it:
Conservatives/Trump supporters, please do not attach yourselves to Kanye. It will backfire. Mark. My. Words. #Kanye
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) May 2, 2018
Anyone who remembers what West said about George W. Bush not caring about black people after Hurricane Katrina know already that West is about as stable as nitroglycerin — and about as dangerous politically. So no Trump supporters should be joining the Kanye West fan club.
And trying to stand up for a guy who deliberately or mistakenly mangles his words like this is a fool’s errand.
But the reality is, the man had a point about the Plantation Politics as practiced by the Democrat Party with American black voters.
And Democrats are desperate to bury it alive.
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