Media slave Kanye gets his 15 seconds
RAPPER Kanye West’s remarks about slavery being a choice were criticised yesterday by campaigners as disrespectful to victims and damaging to global efforts to eradicate the crime.
The US award-winning musician’s comments on the transatlantic slave trade came in a video interview on Tuesday at the California offices of celebrity website TMZ.com.
During the TMZ interview, shown on its website and shared widely on social media, West says: “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”
Amid outrage, he later said on Twitter: “Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will.
“My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved.”
His initial remarks belittled the nature of modern slavery, Justine Currell, executive director of British charity Unseen, said.
“Suggesting anyone chooses a life of abuse and exploitation is incredibly unhelpful and disrespectful to those who have experienced slavery and those who are still being treated in this way.”
As many as 28 million Africans are believed to have been enslaved in the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries.
About 40 million people are now thought to be trapped in forced labour and forced marriages, with women and girls making up 70% of victims, according to a landmark joint estimate by the United Nations and rights group Walk Free Foundation.
“More people are enslaved today than at any other point in history,” David Westlake, chief executive of the International Justice Mission UK, an anti-trafficking charity, said.
While condemning his comments, British anti-trafficking charity The Salvation Army said the global attention on West could cast a wider spotlight on the issue of modern slavery. – Reuters