Kanye’s comments incredibly damaging
There’s at least one thing Kanye West needs to get straight. As long as there was slavery, there was resistance. As long as there is racism, there will be resistance.
And as long as there are history erasers who say things such as “slavery was a choice,” there will be resistance.
It might take the form of #MuteKanye protest, or a helpful list of books to strengthen free thinking, or even a brilliant explosion of satirical comedy on Twitter under #IfSlaveryWasAChoice. Jamie Foxx joined a chorus of voices suggesting West was mentally unwell.
It is very possible that West — who on Tuesday told TMZ, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years? That sounds like a choice” — is carefully orchestrating outrage to time the ensuing publicity with the release of his upcoming album. Heck, if capitalism enables exploitation of social ills for financial benefits — think of advertising companies using racism as a publicity stunt — why can’t a Black man get his share?
But even pretzels can be twisted only so much.
West isn’t operating in an America of the ’90s, bursting with health with a good economy and optimistically wearing a so-called post-racial glow.
He is operating in an era when an openly racist and xenophobic U.S. government has deliberately brought an ugly past to the forefront, when white nationalism is on the rise and xenophobia considered debate-worthy again.
Only days before West spouted his embarrassing views, a top staffer at a pro-Trump advocacy group was defending past racist comments as “statistical observations.”
In 2013 and 2014, Carl Higbie, now director of the non-profit group America First Policies, commented on “a lax of morality” in “the Black race,” and on how Black women thought having babies was “a form of employment.” And then, this:
“I believe wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly, that the Black race as a whole, not totally, is lazier than the white race, period.”
This, in a country that became a superpower and built white wealth off of Black labour.
When West, a Black man, supports a racist president and denigrates the collective Black experience, it’s not a simple matter of disagreement. It damages the cause immeasurably.
This is because, unlike white people, people of colour are unfairly burdened with the expectation of speaking in one voice, especially on issues of racism. A non-white minority who might not experience racism, or is simply sidling up to white power, is held up as proof positive that all the others advocating for racial equality are liars or exaggerators.
While this is true in any circumstance, in a time of height- ened racial tensions West’s words have no chance of harmlessly bouncing off internet walls.
Instead of treating him like the modern-day court jester he is — the man also said MLK and Malcolm X are “too far in the past and not relatable” in that interview — his words are being seized on with delight by racists everywhere, who are hailing his ignorance as independence.
He’s talking about mental slavery, they say. About not letting the past drag you down today.
Kanye himself backpedalled somewhat later on Tuesday. “The reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally impris- oned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought. It was just an idea. Once again I am being attacked for presenting new ideas.”
Right. The very new idea of victim blaming. As someone promptly said on social media, “slavery was only successful due to mental imprisonment.” Uh, no. How comforting to skim over chains, whips, guns, castration, amputation, rape and torture, and call it mental imprisonment.
How wonderfully absolving of white supremacy to think that Black people are struggling simply because they haven’t shaken off their self-imposed slavery mentality. Let them change.
No need then to think of freed slaves left illiterate and hungry, segregation, targeted criminalization with vagrancy laws and drug laws, denial of housing, denial of proper education, continued denial of social value, and discrimination in education and the job market.
No need to think of studies that definitively end the raceversus-class debate, with data showing how even the wealthiest Black boys turn into adults who earn less than white men who began with similar backgrounds and how they are likely to become poorer over time.
Instead, if only they — Black people — pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. No need for the rest of us to change.
As you were, society. As you were.