Kanye West Calls Slavery A ‘Choice,’ Gets Schooled On History

originally posted by: Spider879

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: Spider879
Oh one thing, Colin Kaepernick!!,, all you folks talking about free expression of thought , where you at, he is still banned from doing what he trained for..oh should he still STFU and others like him just dribble their balls.
C'mon lemme hear from ya!!

He isn't banned...nobody wants him because he is an egomaniac....not a team player.

Said it many times before....don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Inside the Confidential N.F.L. Meeting to Discuss National Anthem 
mobile.nytimes.com...

Just in case you missed it the first time I put it out, here is the link again.

Funny...I searched word "ban" and "banned" in your link BOTH times and never found it mentioned.....

Please quote this ban you seem to imagine....

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: Spider879

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: Spider879
Oh one thing, Colin Kaepernick!!,, all you folks talking about free expression of thought , where you at, he is still banned from doing what he trained for..oh should he still STFU and others like him just dribble their balls.
C'mon lemme hear from ya!!

He isn't banned...nobody wants him because he is an egomaniac....not a team player.

Said it many times before....don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Inside the Confidential N.F.L. Meeting to Discuss National Anthem 
mobile.nytimes.com...

Just in case you missed it the first time I put it out, here is the link again.

Funny...I searched word "ban" and "banned" in your link BOTH times and never found it mentioned.....

Please quote this ban you seem to imagine....

Funny is the hairsplitting ,is " black balled". more to your liking?? Did they not say they were worried about Trump??

a reply to: Specimen

And dont forget Jimmy Crack Korn song about how is master died by some bug.

originally posted by: Dfairlite
a reply to: JosephKnecht

Funny how you think slavery and segregation are comparable.

There's a very thin line between being owned, and being obligated to do things due to the color you are. In my opinion, being forced to the back of the bus for being black is a form of slavery. In my opinion, using blacks for syphilis and vaccine experiments among the other minorities in things such as the st louis radiation experiment a form of slavery.

I consider our current tax system a form of slavery.

People who are invisible chains and pretend to be free are the worse slaves.

The poor bastards don't even know it.

Kanye is a slave, he is an insult to Rosa Parks, she made the choice he is way too pussy to make. He is a fvcking mind controlled freak spreading # for brains for the # for brains and now he is the topic of every second damn thread on ats.

Go play in traffic, or at the very least sit at the back of the fvcking bus.

Frankly, guys, he is right in a sense. One issue here is that race doesn't biologically exist--it is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. We are the human race.

He is referring to a mentality that exists within some portions of the black community. It involves such things as Black English Vernacular, which essentially separates them from the dominant culture and subsequently isolates them. It also has no roots in any actual culture, it is made-up. The problem is, it is often difficult to understand, for an outsider. You cannot have it both ways. Either go the route of the Anishinaabe and totally become a sovereign community (which they cannot, since they did not originally occupy this land), or assimilate in some form.

The difference here is, there are subsets of the black community that promote dissension (such as not attending school, joining gangs, etc.) and therefore condemn themselves to live outside of the dominant culture BY CHOICE.

Kanye is saying that it is a choice. His semantics are questionable, but what he is saying is not incorrect. If you read, for instance, Light in August by William Faulkner, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, or Everyday Use by Alice Walker, you will see that belonging/not belonging is a big source of discontent within the black community and causes a lot of cognitive dissonance.

Which is why there is a need for change. This is nothing new. People have known about this for a long time. How one CHOOSES to act within a given situation will determine the outcome, for better or for worse. Therefore, Kanye was simply highlighting that even though one might be a member of a minority group, there is no reason why one cannot become a member of the dominant culture. It is simply that many choose not to, and then complain about the consequences. For instance, in the U.K, black individuals do not speak any differently than other members of the dominant culture, and thus there are less racial disputes.

This 'inequality' that people speak of is all about one's own mentality.

a reply to: rukia

Those are some pretty ridiculous double standards you have in your post.

Plenty of "white" people rail against colleges, academics, scholarly papers, scientists, "liberal brainwashing in schools", etc; and plenty of others support other anti-intellectual arguments. Yet this is seen as "common sense" principles, being against the powers that be, refusing to accept the liberal agenda, blah blah blah. Yet if "black" people do it, it's "promoting dissension" and "condemning themselves to live outside of the dominant culture"?

And "joining gangs" is hardly a black problem; it happens in every male demographic on the planet. East Asia has countless organized crime rings; as does Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and every "race" in the US. In fact, "white" people also glorify organized crime groups in tv shows, movies, and every other facet of pop culture (like the Mob, Mafia, Hell's Angels, etc).

And of course, you also pointed out "Black English Vernacular" as a bad thing. Have you actually talked to people in rural Tennessee, Arkansas, or Mississippi? OR in Boston, Ohio, or Indiana? Hell, even the UK itself has such a wide variety of dialects, accents, and slang that many of those dialects can almost be considered completely different languages. So why the double standard with African American accents, dialects, and slangs, especially since we also have a vast variety of different ones depending on the city?

Also, you might want to actually watch dude's meltdown/rant on TMZ. He even straight up said that he's off his meds, saying that he's supposed to take a prescribed drug 3 times a day but he only takes it once or twice a week.

And then there's this:

For instance, in the U.K, black individuals do not speak any differently than other members of the dominant culture, and thus there are less racial disputes.

WTH? Which "black individuals" are you talking about? LOL Because just like in the US, there are "black" citizens there who speak with a vast variety of accents/dialects/slangs, including the following:
And note, he was born in London, so don't pretend that he's a recent immigrant or anything like that. There are entire "counter cultures" in the UK that have vastly different economic, social, and political viewpoints from the UK mainstream, just like in the US.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Regardless, even if, hypothetically, Kane is incorrect--why is it okay to rail on him just because you disagree? I'm referring to the thread in general, not your post.

originally posted by: rukia
a reply to: enlightenedservant

Regardless, even if, hypothetically, Kane is incorrect--why is it okay to rail on him just because you disagree? I'm referring to the thread in general, not your post.

He's a public figure. How is "railing on him" any different than railing on any other public figure? ATS is full of threads where people do that, specifically when posters disagree with the person in question. And let's not forget that dude specifically injected himself into politics with his MAGA hat wearing social media post, his outspoken support of Trump, and then his recent TMZ meltdown/rant.

I see absolutely no reason why he should be given a pass from criticism on an internet forum. Ok, I take that back. The only reason I can imagine that he might deserve a "pass" is because he admitted that he was off his meds, which puts his words and recent outbursts into a different context (as in, he likely needs medical help for mental health related issues). But seeing as so many people are still taking his words so seriously and using them to justify their own ignorance about the slave trade, I think his words still need to be rebuked.

It's like a person saying that the victims of the Holocaust, the Native American genocide, or the "Rape of Nanking" must have been their own choices since they affected such a large amount of people. Who would take that viewpoint seriously? And if people started taking it seriously, wouldn't it only make sense to rebuke those words?

people are clueless, you really think black people sit around crying victim LOL. you only hear that surrounding justice issue. its generally a white person that triggers these events and yeah i dont think they should let it slide. air it out

a reply to: Willtell

It's unfortunate that the man did not think about what Kanye said, there was real wisdom in his words. The man admits that his feelings were, and so much so, he completely missed where Kanye said to join the world. The man chooses to be a slave. He blames someone else for his short comings. Kanye is right, it's a choice

Nobody would think Conye would speak in riddles, so naturally, when he suggested literally that slaves were willing participants in their bondage without declaring any nuance in what he was saying, people responded to the essence of what he averred, not interpret any underlying meaning.

The idea that some politically minded black activists overuse the slavery issue to inculcate their ideas into the mainstream is well –known, Conye could have easily referenced that concept without his ridiculous statement that obviously would incite many.

a reply to: Willtell

Did you actually watch the interview? He wasn't speaking in riddles or being poetic when he said it. He then went on to have a meltdown and admitted that he was prescribed a drug, was supposed to take it 3 times a day, but only took it once or twice a week. If he was merely speaking in riddles, then every person who's "off their meds" is also speaking in deep intellectual riddles when they go on rants.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

I can tell based on your responses, you and Kanye would make great friends.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

All I am saying is that he does have a point, even though it was worded poorly. I'm not saying that actual slavery back in the day was a choice. Neither was Kanye. Now, keep in mind, I don't really like Kanye or his music. I just think that he had a point with what he said. And yes, while he might have his issues, the fact is, feeling like a victim often just makes the situation worse. Are the Jewish people still pretending to be in concentration camps? No. Are the Indians/Anishinaabe (they dislike the term Native American because it implies assimilation, which they frown upon because of their sovereignty) playing victim? No. They refused. They refused to be enslaved. They fought back from the start and effed up Spaniards. I'm just saying that it is a mindset. Not all black people have it. But some do, unfortunately. And it is to their disadvantage in society. We are all equal. Nobody is any better than anyone else.

While much of what Kanye says is questionable, what he is saying is what black authors and advocates have been saying for centuries. It isn't new. Also, I am half-Mexican. My grandparents were legal immigrants and still did their civic duty and put their two kids through private school while working jobs cleaning hospitals, despite the language barrier. Yes, they were met with opposition, but they persevered.

My point is, people like to play the blame game and not take personal responsibility. It takes two to tango.

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

What's that supposed to mean? I don't like anything about that dude, even back when he was saying Bush doesn't care about black people.

a reply to: rukia

I'm not saying that actual slavery back in the day was a choice. Neither was Kanye.

He literally said "When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years?! That sounds like a choice". From the late 1400s with Christopher Columbus until the 1860s, we were legally enslaved in North America. That's what people refer to when they say "400 years" in the context of African slavery in the Americas.

After that comment that I quoted, he then made comments about modern artists and activists and the mental aspects. That's 2 separate time periods and 2 separate issues, and he's getting the backlash for the first part. It's not our fault that many of you either don't know this context or don't care enough to look into it to learn the context for it.

Are the Jewish people still pretending to be in concentration camps? No.

1) Did you know that Israel's still getting reparations from Germany for the Holocaust and has been since around the 1960s? It's hard to act like they've gotten over it when they're still receiving reparations for it.

2) You've never heard Israel's current leader Netanyahu constantly bring up the Holocaust when fearmongering about Iran?

3) How many African Americans constantly compare our current plight to slavery? 1%? 10%? If you only hear about black people mentioning slavery, then you should rethink your sources because they're only showing you a small fraction of our opinions and viewpoints.

Though ironically, it's a lot of people on the right wing who claim that black people had it better during slavery. And there's an entire branch of "white" people here who refuse to forget about the slave days by constantly longing for the failed confederacy, where several confederate states literally mentioned slavery as the main reason they were leaving the Union in their Articles of Seccession. So once again, your words have some pretty strong double standards here.

No. Are the Indians/Anishinaabe (they dislike the term Native American because it implies assimilation, which they frown upon because of their sovereignty) playing victim? No. They refused.

Which ones? Before you make blanket statements like that, you should probably look into the various Native American activist groups and protest groups (here's a link to get you started).

My point is, people like to play the blame game and not take personal responsibility. It takes two to tango.

If you really think it takes 2 to tango, then why are you constantly only pointing out one of the "sides"?

a reply to: magnetik

"They aren't victims. It's someone else's fault when they play the victim card."


You just posted in a circle..

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: BotheLumberJack

What's that supposed to mean? I don't like anything about that dude, even back when he was saying Bush doesn't care about black people.

I guess I'm just saying, love your enemies, even when you'd rather smash them into the earth and rip their guts out. Take the high road.