CNN anchor Don Lemon on Tuesday condemned rapper Kanye West for suggesting that slavery “sounds like a choice.”
“So to be clear — and I can’t believe that I actually need to say this — black and brown people who were enslaved for centuries had absolutely no choice,” Lemon, who like West is African-American, said Tuesday evening on his CNN show. “They weren’t just mentally enslaved. This wasn’t some kind of mind game. They were in real chains.”
Lemon was reacting to comments West made while speaking with TMZ earlier in the day.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West said in an interview.
“Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of you all? You know, it’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word prison ’cause slavery goes too — too direct to the idea of blacks,” he added. “So prison is something that unites us as one race, blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”
West was also confronted by one of TMZ’s employees for the remarks.
West has sparked controversy on other issues as of late, after he tweeted support for Turning Point’s Candace Owens and President Trump.
Additionally, West claimed last week that although he doesn’t agree with all of Trump’s actions, “the mob can’t make me not love him [Trump].” He has also posted photos of himself wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.
West’s recent actions have attracted backlash from fellow music artists, friends, and others.
