Michael Blackson says if slavery was a choice, so was Kim Kardashian West’s robbery.
The 45 year old comedian dropped the African accent to talk to TMZ about Kanye’s impromptu ill-informed lesson in Black history at TMZ’s office.
“He didn’t explain himself well enough”, said Michael Blackson. “There was no way you could explain that, you know? That’s like saying his wife got robbed by choice when she went to Paris.”
I get the point Yeezy was *trying to make. Ye didn’t say slaves were captured by choice.
He said for slaves to have outnumbered every White person on the plantation and not overthrow their masters, they allowed themselves to be enslaved for 400 years. They chose to stay, implied Kanye.
He’s still wrong.
Africans were kidnapped, bound, and transported at gunpoint. If they survived the voyage to the Americas, Africans were stripped of all of their resources. Yes, slaves outnumbered Whites on the plantation, but the few White people on the plantation were armed and made examples out of rebellious slaves. Any Black man traveling without a pass from White man was beaten, dismembered, or killed.
The ones who survived their second capture would either be resold to a new master or taken back to his old master to be made an example to the rest of the flock. Runaway slaves who made the dangerous trek into Canada may have been safe, but those they left behind weren’t.
Slaves would be accused of withholding information on the whereabouts of the runaways. They too would be punished, serving as another example to those who considered fleeing. If they ran, terror would rain down on the family they left behind. Black men weren’t safe in America.
Even the free ones were a walk down the wrong dirt road away from being captured and illegally sold back into slavery.
Ever heard of 12 Years A Slave? It wasn’t just a movie. It was reality for Solomon Northup and many other free Blacks during those 400 years.
So, Kanye was wrong.
Twice.
Watch Michael Blackson’s interview below: