One thing I learned recently was that there weren’t really a lot of runaway slaves. Out of the millions of slaves in the country, only a few hundred ever attempted to run away.
Overall, the slave states would have been smarter to have simply ignored the issue. They should have adopted an unofficial policy of minimal pursuit of any runaway who made it into a free state or territory. Because their efforts to enforce slavery in states that had ended it was a major cause of opposition to slavery. Enforcing fugitive slave laws in free states did a lot more harm to the cause of slavery than the successful escape of a relatively small number of runaways would have.
Cite? I suspect you’re confusing “number of slaves who attempted to run away” with “number of slaves who successfully got far enough away, for long enough, to be entered in official statistics as a ‘runaway’”.
In fact, even if it’s the latter I dispute that number.
But in terms of Kanye’s comment it’s at best stupid and misleading even if we go with the OP’s definition.
There was plenty of resistance and defiance; and yes groups that obtained weapons and tried to resist en masse (it didn’t go well for them).
Then there are those that, yeah, saw the next man get whipped to death and decided to keep their heads down. Which is perfectly understandable. And what I’d expect people of any skin color to do.
So what’s his point?
You learned wrong. In just 20 years, the Underground Railroadmoved 30,000 fugitives to Canda, alone. That doesn’t account for ones who didn’t use that route, either.
The only way it makes sense to me to call slavery is a choice is in the context of saying the owners chose to embrace slavery, or the states chose to allow it.
That other meaning of choice just seems like using the wrong word for a different concept.
If I’m doing my Stupid-to-English translation correctly, Kanye may have been attempting to suggest that black people continuing to think of themselves in terms of slavery over a century after slavery officially ended is a “choice”, and that they should instead look to the future.
Being Kanye, however, whatever he meant by it he did say it in the most ridiculous way possible. Because that’s what Kanye does.
Even if he said that, I would still think it was stupid.
I don’t know anyone that defines themselves in terms of slavery but I think it’s a valid thing to bring up. Because even if slavery was over more than a century ago, there was nothing close to a level playing field until post- civil rights. This in a country with very low social mobility. And you can’t hide your skin color.
So, yeah I’d consider it pretty naive and ignorant to imagine that the ripple effects of that history are confined to psychology and (lack of) aspiration. Bigger effects are growing up poor in a poor neighbourhood, and yes encountering passive and overt racism even now.
And in terms of psychology, more helpful would be focusing on role models and stories of achievement, and less talking about black people as one block. What a shame that people like Kanye and Ben Carson don’t talk more about the hard work they put in, how they worked through difficulties etc.
This is a man who has sold and worn merchandise with the confederate flag embedded on it just to feel edgy. He has publicly backed an openly racist president multiple times. I feel pretty safe in assuming that his callous comments on slavery stem from a place of sheer ignorance and irreverence towards his own history, not some deep philosophical musings about what constitutes a “choice”.
Also, I really wish people would stop defaulting to blaming deplorable behaviour on mental illness. Yes, I am aware that certain forms of mental illness can cause you to detach from reality and make you do/say things you normally wouldn’t dream of doing, but none of us are Kanye’s psychiatrist so we’re not in a position to ascertain that his shitty actions are in fact the result of mental illness. Most mentally ill people aren’t bigots or mass shooters in waiting. This rush to absolve a person of responsibility and blaming every terrible thing they do on mental illness contributes to the stigmatisation of mental illness, IMO.
I haven’t studied Mr. West’s comments (or indeed, read them). Does a contextualized reading of them offer any clues as to which meaning he intended his readers/listeners to infer?
Saying someone is mentally ill doesn’t absolve them of their actions, but it can help explain them. In this case, I think it’s possible that mania removes inhibitions and allowed him to vocalize a thought that anyone should be able to predict would cause problems. I think his own narcissism allows him to find commonality with Trump and supporting him is a way to support himself.
That doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s not profoundly ignorant. He is indeed an asshole who doesn’t care about other people. Removing inhibitions doesn’t make you say things like this. And it definitely doesn’t make you don’t feel bad about it later and try to make amends when you’re feeling better. Has Kanye ever apologized?
Kanye is both mentally ill and a bad person. There’s nothing wrong with both of those being true. Maybe treatment would help him be able to learn to become a better person, maybe not. But it would help explain why he doesn’t seem to know things that everyone else should know. Sure, fame and how it cuts you off and affirms your self-entitlement is also an issue, but mental illness makes those effects worse.
Kanye just learned that Lincoln was a Republican last week. He shared this on Twitter as if he thought it was an obscure fact. It’s not that he misspoke; he jumped to a conclusion and threw it out there because he doesn’t have any idea what slavery was like or about the people who did work to escape.
You guys are all missing the point, which is that Kanye has an album coming out in June (actually 2 albums if I’m not mistaken). And here we all are talking about Kanye in May.
Man, I’m REALLY hesitant to say anything at all because I know the way Dopers love to twist other people’s words around if they disagree with you. But … I, for one, agree with your interpretation, Bricker. I have a friend who is pretty obsessed with Kanye West, and he’s had me watch long interviews of Kanye’s and explained to me some details about Kanye’s philosophy towards everything. And Kanye’s attitude is “Reach out and take it.” That if someone tells him he can’t do something, that it’s too hard or too ambitious or something, he’s like “Fuck you, watch me.” So I think it’s likely that if he thinks of slavery as a choice, what he means is that you should choose to fight back even when you have a gun to your head.