An Open Letter To Kanye West: Slavery Was No Choice

Dear Mr. West:

As a proud Black Caribbean man, I was outraged and also saddened by
your clearly ignorant and insensitive statement that slavery in America
was a matter of choice (for Black people). There is something very
troubling about this when a well-respected, Black African-American
celebrity entertainer goes off half-cocked and sprouts such a statement
devoid and bereft of any factual basis whatsoever. And no Sir, you’re not
espousing a “new idea or ideas.” What you’ve done is rehash an old
white canard and stereotype that has recently become en vogue today to
justify continued Black oppression and racism.

Further, Sir, it shows the profound depth of your ignorance about the
historical nature of American slavery and it’s dumbfounding to me that
a simple Google search would have yielded a treasure trove of
information that would have informed your statement. That
demonstrated to me the level of your intellectual laziness and
willingness to simply “mouth off” against a people that you reflexively
believe are inferior and not worthy of your esteem. That, my friend, is
called self-hatred. And you’ve amply demonstrated this concept. You
have loads of it!

So since a history lesson is in order here – lest other naïve minds that
follow you and are influenced by you, get sidetracked and believe that
your jaundiced words have even a semblance of truth and veracity. Let’s
start with what exactly slavery is. American slavery, called chattel
slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people were
treated as thechattel (personal property) of the owner(s) and were
bought and sold as commodities. Typically, under the American chattel
slave system, slave status was imposed on children of the enslaved at
birth. In short, Black African slaves were actual property who could
be bought, sold, traded or inherited and used as collateral to secure bank
loans.

Does that sound as a choice to you Mr. West?