When I saw the headlines today about Kanye West and the uproar he has caused among black people, I was like, hang on a minute, is this not the Kanye West who is constantly being mocked by black people for being ‘mad’, ‘insane’, and in a ‘sunken place’? Why is the voice of a supposed mental patient having so much power?
He has literally shaken the black world. I am finding this more shocking than what he actually said. Why are black people so riled up and upset about Kanye West supposedly saying ‘SLAVERY WAS A CHOICE’.?
I worked as a mental health nurse for years, my patients were people with psychotic disorders who have distorted minds. When they were unwell, the patients said a lot of mean, crazy and hurtful things, very irrational too, but I don’t remember any of the ‘normal’ people getting so worked up and fuming with anger at what a patient had said in their moment of insanity, instead the solution was to try and help the patient, who doesn’t even know that they are ill.
In the good old book, Solomon says it’s pointless to try and argue with a fool, in the end, the fool will look wiser than you.
After all the uproar, I had to go and watch the actual interview so I could understand why the anger is so intense.
I understand that slavery is such an emotional subject. I get very upset each time I see pictures or read about what my ancestors endured, especially black women. I refuse to watch any slave movie, for my own sanity’s sake.
But I fully understand that this controversial uncomfortable subject can’t be viewed with one eye, it’s a broad subject that’s bound to bring up different understandings and views. It’s wrong to force every black man to see slavery from one point of view.
I always find myself with three questions every time slavery is brought up.
Why were we enslaved? Why did we sell each other into slavery? Why could our men not fight back or rebel, aren’t they the strongest of them all?
I am not able to get answers or comprehend some of these troubling mysteries behind slavery. It’s not all black and white. There is no one rule book which commands black people how to think about slavery.
Now back to Kanye West.
Firstly he did not say slavery was a choice. It’s sad the media has to twist his words to make black people more angry. He said ‘400 years of slavery sounds more like a choice’. Two different things altogether. 400 years is a long time, there should be a time where you say, enough is enough and fight back. You would think intelligent people can understand that. Kanye also spoke about how twisted and controlling the media is, but maybe that’s not interesting enough.
During the TMZ interview Kanye was calm and collected, even went over to the black TMZ guy who was so angry he could not even bring himself to hug Kanye, yet Kanye told him that he loved him and was sorry for upsetting him.
After watching the whole interview, it was simple enough to understand where Kanye was coming from, or what he was trying to say. He was speaking about victim mentality. He was saying you choose to be a slave or free.
How many black people today still worship white people? Millions. How many black people worship a Jesus with blue eyes and blonde hair, and if you tell them that Jesus looked exactly like them they will attack you. How many black people boast about wearing Gucci but will never support black fashion designers? I could go on and on about the current choice slavery of black people.
Still on Kanye West, today Will.I.am appreared on Good Morning Britain to express his outrage at what Kanye said and he made quite an impact. But for me when I saw him there on ITV, being the only black man being interviewed by 3 white people on a white dominated mainstream TV channel, I felt quite embarrassed. I was like, ‘What on earth is Will.I.am even doing on Good Morning Britain today?’ Kanye West says something that upset black people and you don’t even have a mainstream black-owned television channel in the entire UK to discuss it. Will.I.am has to go to Piers Morgan, a white man, to discuss Kanye West because Black people in the UK are not able to own a mainstream TV channel. Piers Morgan rightfully said, ‘I am a white middle-aged man, this has got nothing to do with me.’ In other words, he was saying, go and discuss Kanye West with your own people on your own TV channel.
What do we own in this world? We could not even produce Black Panther. The original comic book was written by white men.
And yet today Kanye West is the enemy?
After the events which transpired today, I honestly do not know who is the mad one, Kanye West or the Black people against him. I do not know who is in a sunken place, Kanye West or his accusers.
Over the past few weeks I thought Kanye West was in a sunken place, sadly today I was forced to change my mind.
Can you all not wake up and realize what Kanye West was trying to say. We are still dependants of white people. We do not even want to be free, neither do we know that we are still slaves.
Harriet Tubman made a choice to be free. Sh tried to rescue as many slaves as she could, but the majority of slaves did not want to be rescued. They were too afraid to go.
Kanye West is allowed to express what he feels about it all. If black people were truly free, we wouldn’t be in such uproar and pain because of the way Kanye West thinks.
There are a lot of black people who betrayed each other during slavery, they sold each other to white men for 30 pieces of silver. Go to Nigeria today the bitterness is still there. I am sure a lot of our ancestors died very bitter with their own people and would probably agree with some things Kanye is saying.
Kanye has proved that we are still slaves today. We have to take out our pain and anger on him, because he has said something we just can’t handle.
Now all you black people want him to go on medication to shut him up. You want him to be like you all, controlled, manipulated and programmed.
Right now slavery is still rife in Africa, I don’t see any fellow black men going to rescue their brothers in Lybia and other African countries. Where is the outrage on the slavery in Lybia…but hey I guess it feels good to take it out on Kanye West, a supposed ‘madman’.
Where is the outage about thousands of African churches where men pretending to be prophets rob poor black people in broad daylight? Are those ‘congregants’ not choosing to be modern-day slaves?
I hate to say this but we can’t be victims forever.
Listening to Kanye West’s interview, I think that exactly what he’s saying to us all. It’s not unheard of that some slaves chose slavery over freedom. Even in the Bible, the Hebrews almost stoned Moses to death because they were angry with him from freeing them. They clearly said they were better off in Egypt as slaves because life in the wilderness was just ‘too hard’. Sadly that is the mindset a lot of us are still in today.
Instead of getting angry with Kanye and worrying about his ‘medication’, let’s find a way to be totally free from white supremacy and modern slavery. At least Kanye West is somewhat free, he can’t be told what to think and say. He may not know how to express himself eloquently, but in his own colourful way, I think he’s just trying to say GET OUT, and we are way in that sunken place to even grasp a little of what he’s trying to say.
jeangasho.com 
Well written Jean, you are a critical thinker.
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I definitely respect your opinion but I don’t believe Kanye’s genius extends further than his music. He caters to the very same culture of white supremacy that you are willing to believe can simply be done away with by using free thought.
American Slavery was the LEGALIZED dehumanization of African slaves–a holocaust that continues in the present day. So, for Ye to say that 400 years of slavery sounds like a choice only serves to absolve America’s racist founding fathers of any historical wrongdoing.
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But there is always going to be people who think like him in the world. So whats the solution then, silencing every black man like Kanye, is that going to eradicate white supremacy. We just get way too emotional, if people had not responded the way they are, there would be no impact on his words…
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I agree. There will always be people who think like him but most of them don’t have a powerful platform like he does. I also agree that silencing Kanye is not a solution in eradicating white supremacy but neither is making extremely reckless and very insensitive remarks that trivialize slavery as a matter of choice. Especially, someone who owes a lot of his success to the African American community. So, yeah, we’re going to get emotional.
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Great perspective.
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The problem with Kanye’s statement is not just rooted in the past. Slavery has morphed into the school to prison pipeline where black man are being arrested for non-violent crimes and used as slave labor in prisons. Slavery has not ended, it has shifted its face. Slavery is never a choice, one doesn’t just shed of a slave mentality, this is a system that was created to suppress people and only a system has the ability to break it down. Kanye is just ignorant and what he is trying to say has been said a million times better by Ngugi, Farnon, Baldwin, but never at any point did those man speak of slavery as ‘sounding like a choice’. People’s spirits were broken, they were ripped from home, they had no roots at all- so anyone who believes they had a choice is stupid! If you read up Well’s Browns’ Escape- he chronicles THOUSANDS of slaves tried to escape- some did escape to the north and were tracked all the way there, brought back and broken down once more. So for once let’s not speak of ‘choice’ from the comfort of our houses. And the argument that black people sold each other, of course they did, Is that right, no? But that is not a defense as a need was created that had to filled by someone.
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Victimhood, mental slavery…Bob Marley has been singing about this long before West had a stage. West is a sensationalist. He is in the business of provocation, for provocation sake. His outbursts are there for the white establishment to take hold off and just turn into a circus. The last thing the white establishment wants to do is have real discussions about racism, enslavement, racial violence, white supremacist thinking. How surprising that ‘conscious’ black man Kanye West does not know that?!?Black people fall for it all, hungry as they are for recognition, acceptance, retribution. I find it ironic that West has set hims of up as some dragon slayer when in actual fact, he is so hungry for white acceptance. It is no mistake that he has hooked up with the wife he has. Kanye needed that white validation. He is a joker, with a penchant for writing and making (I am told) great music. As they say, you can only call out what you know. Mental enslavement, which he implies is in the black masses, is in him too. Would it not have been more interesting, and perhaps more thought provoking if West had implied…as the well known chat show host said…400 years of slavery was a choice too…for white people. And that racism and racial degradation perpetuated by whites..is a choice. Why didn’t West really go against the grain, and call out white complacency? See? Kanye West is a chained up black man, that is why he posited the question the way he did. He is conditioned to think it is easier and normal to berate black thinking, whilst leaving the white collective racist thinking alone. People for or against him, matters not. He is a fraud. Plain and simple. Check how he lives his private life. A good husband to his white, not-that-conscious Caucasian wife. He is nobody’s hero. Just a smart-talking empty vessel with a hefty bank balance.
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Reblogged this on Failure to Listen and commented:
Tbh I don’t even know how to pronounce Kanye’s name. If asked to name one of his songs I’d be at a loss but am quite sure I’ve heard his music. I should be embarrassed to admit but when I saw the picture of him and Trump at the Trump Tower, he looked familiar, but I had no clue who he was until I read his name and thought, what a sellout. Since then I shook my head in disgust when I read his slavery is a choice comment. Thought nothing of Kanye West until last week when his social media presence intersected mine.
The following reblog from Jean Gasho’s blog. https://jeangasho.com/2018/05/02/kanye-west-is-trying-to-tell-you-to-get-out-of-slavery/ It is a kinder and gentler interpretation of Kanye ’s comment as well as a glimpse into African history.
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Hi, Jean, Great post! I found Kanye’s comment disappointing given he was stumping for Trump. Your post bought another perspective that was valid. Black people can be hard on each other when we are only beginning to understand what real freedom means.
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