During a Tuesday interview with TMZ, Kanye West said, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice" social media has been in a pure rage since these comments where made even fellow celebrities are disgusted.
He continued
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice. Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of you all? Like, we’re mentally in prison,” West said, adding, “Like, slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. So prison is something that unites us as one race, blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”
Van Lathan a TMZ staffer also challenged kanye west's statement to his face and has been receiving applauds online because of that. He said
“While you are making music and being an artist, and living the life that you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives,” Lathan said. “We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was a choice. Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that’s not real.
Kanye tried to apologize but Lathan wasn't interested in listening and only walked away.
Because of the brutality on Blacks by white police the #blacklivesmatter# trend has been on, kanye has always supported the black community but these comments made by kanye made Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson to tell him to shut the hell up.
He also made comments on Twitter after the backlash
and also claimed black Americans hero Harriet tubman made these comments to support his views.
For his part, West, and those close to him, are saying that this was meant to be a metaphor, but one expressed unartfully. If you read the full quote above, he appears to be talking about a prison of the mind, the idea of allowing slavery to not only hold you back but to segregate yourself from others. Hence, his “prison” metaphor is something both blacks and whites can relate to.What are your thoughts ?