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

a reply to: Boadicea

anyone that thinks they know what kanye was saying must have some kind of kanye deciphering stone or something!!! i don't even think kanye knows what he is saying. kanye is being kanye, he has been whacked out for sometime now, i could have told you that a long time ago, pre-trump, post-trump it doesn't matter and if you're buying what he's selling now just because he said a few nice things about trump than i have a beach front villa in arizona for sale!

a reply to: Wookiep

man you really seem to think everyone is against white people. whats the matter is brownie and blackie keeping the "man" down now? that sounds like the very attitude you hate other people for having, you know playing the victim and using the race card. come on now, we are all better than that.

a reply to: conspiracy nut

I don't hate anyone. It's not my problem that you, and many others can't see what's actually going on.

a reply to: Wookiep

whats going on? the world continues to spin, people have had a negative world view since before fred flintstone and yet here we are and a greater percentage than ever before on the history of the planet have access to heat, electricity, food, medicine..dare i say internet, cell phone etc etc but yet some of us continue to have a fear of the present and future. change is inevitable, embrace it.

originally posted by: conspiracy nut
a reply to: Wookiep

whats going on? the world continues to spin, people have had a negative world view since before fred flintstone and yet here we are and a greater percentage than ever before on the history of the planet have access to heat, electricity, food, medicine..dare i say internet, cell phone etc etc but yet some of us continue to have a fear of the present and future. change is inevitable, embrace it.

You got me wrong. I'm not afraid of anything other than maybe doctors....I love doctors, but I hate anesthesia. That scares me. Otherwise? Change doesn't bother me. The thing is, YOU don't understand me. And others like me. I think that scares YOU.

Goodnight.

a reply to: Willtell

Not concerned if a trump supporter/Hillary supporter.
1 does questions the integrity of the ego attached to a consciousness of a being that addresses itself as a God or demi god...

originally posted by: Butterfinger

what it’s like being a black man when you’re not famous or creatively talented like Kanye West

"Talented" I dont think that word means what you think it means...

You beat me to the finish line. Hell the sound track to Super Mario Brothers is a masterpiece compared to his music.

For all the kids reading, this is what an inflated ego and money does to you. Learn well and study well, or you might end up making millions for making dial up modem sounds and sing like someone who sounds like he has just woken up.

a reply to: Willtell

Don't like Kanye, never have. But i will attempt to (slightly) stick up for him here. It will be difficult though as it is always difficult to interpret what he actually means when he says something!

It appears to me that he isn't saying slavery was a choice, he is saying that to still possess that "trapped" mindset is a choice - and that he believes black people (in the US) have been choosing to keep this mindset going.

originally posted by: conspiracy nut
a reply to: Boadicea

anyone that thinks they know what kanye was saying must have some kind of kanye deciphering stone or something!!!

Really? Let me quote myself... "What I take away from Kanye's words..." Apparently others, like myself, have a similar understanding of what all those words mean -- even when all those words are grouped into sentences.

But you know that right? So even if you aren't familiar with the definitions of some/all of Kanye's words, some of us are.

i don't even think kanye knows what he is saying. kanye is being kanye, he has been whacked out for sometime now, i could have told you that a long time ago, pre-trump, post-trump it doesn't matter...

Okay.

...and if you're buying what he's selling now...

I haven't spend a dime on anything "Kanye." However, the ideas and thoughts that Kanye is expressing aren't new, and aren't exclusive to Kanye. I bought into freedom of thought and action and association and the power of the individual and the people long before Kanye was even a twinkle in his daddy's eye.

...just because he said a few nice things about trump...

I haven't heard Kanye really say anything nice about Trump. I guess it's nice of Kanye to "love" Trump, but that's Kanye saying nice things about Kanye, so you can't mean that... and other than that, I really don't know what you're talking about. But since you say so, I'll take you at your word and I'll assume that Kanye did in fact say nice things about Trump, and I probably just glossed over that part because it really didn't mean anything to me. So, no, my opinions have nothing to do with Kanye saying a few nice things about Trump.

...than i have a beach front villa in arizona for sale!

No, thank you.

a reply to: Boadicea

That's all reasonable I think, but Kanye literally said he thought 400 years of slavery was a choice. So maybe black people are fools, but he implies they willingly became slaves 400 years ago. That's pretty controversial, obviously. You can't demand that Kanye's critics go out of their way to coddle him and interpret his sayings in the nicest possible way. It's Kanye's job to articulate his message, as the genius voice of a generation that he claims to be; that's not my job, that's his job.

It would also be weird if a famous Jew started saying the Holocaust was a choice, no? I totally agree that they need to tone it down with the Holocaust, we'll have to get over it sooner or later. Just let it go. But to say it is a choice? To me that's not appropriate.

a reply to: conspiracy nut

I think kanye has some issues. It could be partly from the wreck

But he seems fairly clear to me. I dont completely agree with him. But he makes great points, especially about being able to have an opinion without all the hens coming to peck you to death.

Kanye West as a mentally unstable and probably crazy liberal musician in California: Normal

Kanye West as a mentally unstable and probably crazy conservative musician in California: Front page news for weeks

a reply to: jjkenobi

Sad thing is TRUTH. We are all slaves with masters that have zero accountability..... there are no racial lines , Just financial ones

originally posted by: Cutepants
a reply to: Boadicea

That's all reasonable I think, but Kanye literally said he thought 400 years of slavery was a choice. So maybe black people are fools, but he implies they willingly became slaves 400 years ago.

I really don't see that.

Even if we only look at that statement out of context to the rest of his comment:

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West said.

The "400 years" must refer to the almost 400 years since the first slaves were brought to the USA in 1619, to today -- 399 years. The slaves were freed in 1863. So the 400 years cannot refer to literal slavery. Kanye is obviously speaking figuratively. Which he makes clear in the rest of this statement, referring to mental prisons.

“Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word ‘prison’ because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. It’s like slavery, Holocaust. Holocaust, Jews. Slavery is blacks. So, prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race,” he continued.

He obviously doesn't believe that those first slaves from 1619 are still alive today, or that anyone is a literal slave today. He isn't saying that the slaves of 1619 wanted to be slaves... he's saying that those who confine themselves today to the PC mentality (for want of a better term) are choosing a form of mental slavery.

It would also be weird if a famous Jew started saying the Holocaust was a choice, no?

I think a more accurate analogy would be a famous Jew claiming the Holocaust was still happening; as in: "75 years of Holocaust", rather than accepting that the Holocaust ended with the war. Jews still claim mistreatment and abuse and discrimination, but it would be pretty weird (and wrong) if a Jew claimed they were still literally being gassed in concentration camps.

I would definitely agree that speaking in figurative terms isn't helping Kanye. (Much like Trump doesn't help himself with some of his Twitter tirades). That's always a risk when speaking figuratively. And it's exactly why you can have one takeaway and I can have another and someone else can have a completely different take.

a reply to: Willtell

I was expecting the guy to destroy Kanye with Logical facts. But nope, instead it was mostly an emotional rant based on his own feelings.
If you are being lead by emotions, it is a known fact that emotions clouds the mind. Logic and emotions are oil and water. Just saying.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Willtell

So the "take down" is someone telling kanye he isnt black enough to truly experience being black.

The reason being given is hes creatively talented.

So to be truly black you can't have creativity or talent?

I call BS.

Quoted for truth.

a reply to: Willtell

Didn't Kanye famously claim that he's not a fan of books and doesn't read books? Why would anyone take his opinion on historical events seriously when he openly admits that he doesn't read history books?

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Well now that he supports trump anything kanye says is gospel, don't you get it?

Kanye is wrong but so what, what's the big deal? He doesn't know enough to bother to respond.

What else is going on today? Oh Celtics and Philly, oh yea. I think I'll get a beer. And read The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.

Still reading how Teddy did'em right! To bad he left black people out of it but what else is new eh?

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I understand it clearly. I think you don't understand. Kanye was simply saying that for slavery to remain in place would require a calmness among the slaves that enabled its existence. Were there a resistance it likely would have been more trouble than it was worth. I don't know if i agree with it...but thats the gist behind his statement: that the slaves didn't fight against their shackles. And, as a continuation of a prior Tweet he had sent, that it was the Republican party that saved them. Which goes with prior texts that black people do not have to be tied to the Democrats, and that anyone speaking out of turn against them gets shouted down by them, and belittled.

WHich is exactly what has happened. And now you have death threats being made, too.

Just no. Kanye doesn't know what he's talking about. As for what your said, no. 5 Greatest Slave Rebellions. And those are well known ones. They created the Slave Codes in the South because the slaves rebelled against their masters and started winning their freedom in pockets in South America and the carribean, damn sugar barons. Dem Slave Codes!. You and Kanye are totally wrong about black folks just taking. I repeat, he doesn't know what he's talking about so why get in a tiff?

Did you know the Native Americans kept slaves to? Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South.

History is nasty bro. But it explains what going on today. Alright, i'm outta here