A Letter to Kanye West
Dear Kanye,
I cannot overstate how distraught you’ve left our community following your stating that 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice” on TMZ.
You’ve boasted about “free thinking”, but you’ve failed to see the line between that and uninformed thinking. Truly, your opinion comes from the deepest wells of ignorance. And ignorant opinions don’t serve free thought. Ignorant opinions serve but one purpose — to massage and inflate one’s ego. And it is because of your arrogance that you have failed to see the line.
You couldn’t have possibly formed this opinion if at any given time, you felt like you owed 5 minutes of your prestigious life to research and learn about the reality that your ancestors lived. No wonder you didn’t hesitate to say “that is some old slave shit” during your interview with Charlamagne, when referring to the replacement of Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the 20 dollar bill. You are just completely oblivious of what’s truly at stake here.
You couldn’t have possibly formed this opinion, if you had the faintest idea possible of the journey that a black African went on, from capture to enslavement.
Ye, after being captured…you are forced to march from deep within the African plains, chained and shackled, to the slave ships on the West Coast. Know that it is estimated that 10 million innocent black men, women and children perished during this march alone. But let’s say that you, Ye, survive the march.
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You get to shore and you’re put on display for potential buyers. If you don’t get bought, there’s a chance that you will get beheaded instantly on site. But let’s say that today is your “lucky” day, and you get bought by some white guy.
You’re thrown onto the bottom of a crowded ship hull, literally stacked on top of other black Africans that look just like you Ye. And then, you set off on a 4000 mile journey across the Atlantic on a sailing ship. It’ll take about 4 months until you set foot on land again.
But there is a chance that you will not live to see the day. You might just prefer to jump overboard and drown yourself like many of our brothers and sisters did, because you might not stand to bear the journey.
But let’s say you make it through.
Ship docks onto the coasts of America and……just when you thought that you had already walked through the gates of hell.
You’re going to live out the rest of your life working all day under the scorching heat of the sun in the plantations, getting the flesh whipped off your back if you disobey, hunted by dogs if you run and rendered completely powerless in protecting your female kin from being systematically raped by the people who own you.
Choice…?
Forreal Ye?
Sincerely,
A brotha on the look out
