After making emotions run high after stating that “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… for 400 years? That sounds like a choice”, Kanye West has attempted to defend himself.
The rapper was being interviewed by TMZ after previously making headlines for supporting US president Donald Trump when he said:
His comments prompted an angry, impassioned response by a black member of staff, Van Lathan, who said he believed West had an “absence of thought”.
“You’re entitled to believe whatever you want, but there is fact and real world, real life consequence behind everything that you just said,” he told West, who stood still and listened to him.
“We have to deal with the marginalisation that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice,” Mr Lathan continued, adding: “I’m appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something to me that isn’t real.”
See some other reactions that have followed his claim:
In his defence, Kanye said:
The reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years,” he added. “We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought. It was just an idea.”
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