Kanye West said slavery “sounds like a choice” before a TMZ staffer shut him down — and yes, Twitter is in flames
Just when you thought Kanye West had escaped his sunken place, he manages to step it up a notch, and his latest statement did more than just raise eyebrows — it sparked massive Twitter outrage. During an appearance on TMZ Live, the rapper made an extremely offensive and erroneous statement, saying that the 400 years African Americans spent being enslaved “sounds like a choice.” No, seriously.
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice," he said. "We're mentally in prison. I like the word prison cause slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. Like Holocaust is Jews, slavery is blacks. So prison is something that unites us as one race, whites and blacks being one race. The human race."
Naturally, his words caused a stir, and TMZ staffer Van Lathan stood up to respond and put Kanye in his place.
"I actually don't think you're thinking anything," he said. "I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought. And the reason why I feel that is because, Kanye, you’re entitled to your opinion. You’re entitled to believe whatever you want, but there is fact and real world real life consequence behind everything that you just said."
"While you are making music and being an artist and living a life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats in our lives," Lathan said. "We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was our choice. Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled, and brother, I’m unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that, to me, is not real."
— Elliott Wilson (@ElliottWilson) May 1, 2018
Lathan isn’t the only one who expressed his disappointment over Kanye’s misguided statements. The whole of Twitterverse seems to echo his sentiments, and didn’t hold back on their thoughts. false
I agree with Kanye West.
Slavery was absolutely a choice.
White humans chose to enslave Africans for generations.
You know what else is a choice?
To ensure Kanye is shamed out of existence.
— 🌉SusiBV_SF.CA_Native🌉 (@SusiBV) May 1, 2018
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Kanye West says slavery was a choice and says “I’m entitled to my opinion”.
You can't refute facts with opinions dumb ass. #TMZLive
— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) May 1, 2018
never been disappointed with Kanye West till today when he said "slavery for black people was a choice",this is not free-thinking this is ignorance pic.twitter.com/nHfXgqbnxj
— Pye Waw (@pyewaw) May 1, 2018
The gentleman caught the holy spirit and said what we've all been thinking to Kanye face to face. https://t.co/Wu1HeOT8sv
— Craig Bro Dude (@CraigSJ) May 1, 2018
Van Lathan gave what seems to be the most heartfelt reprimand. It wasn’t no dis rap or saucy tweet or call to get buddy beat up. You could hear the concern and disappointment.
— FOST (@GeorgeFoster72) May 1, 2018
My brother @vanlathan on @TMZ doing God’s work. He didn’t utter one lie to @kanyewest gotta get them to have a conversation later……
— Charlamagne Tha God (@cthagod) May 1, 2018
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Thank you Van Lathan for letting Kanye know that his voice is tooo big and he needs to be RESPONSIBLE.
— Terrell Mallory (@_Twinndiesel) May 1, 2018
We’re glad that there are people like Van Lathan who aren’t afraid to put influential people like Kanye West in their place, and actually put in the effort to educate him. Let’s just hope Ye listens this time.
