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Don Lemon has some choice words for Kanye West and anyone who agrees with him.
Tuesday, the CNN anchor ripped into West while discussing his instantly viral meltdown during an appearance at the TMZ offices. A lot of things that the rapper said raised brows, but nothing drew quite as much ire as his claims that the 400 years of slavery that African-Americans experienced were a “choice.”
“You was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? You know it’s like we’re mentally in prison,” West explained to TMZ host and creator Harvey Levin.
After the swift backlash from viewers West took to Twitter to clarify.
to make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 1, 2018
My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 1, 2018
READ MORE: Black Twitter roasts Kanye savagely — and hilariously — for his ‘slavery was a choice’ comment
Later that evening Don Lemon addressed the controversy head on, looking visibly frustrated that he even had to state the obvious.
“Then there’s Kanye West, doubling down on his support for his new BFF and making what may be his most shocking claim of all,” Lemon said rolling a clip of West on TMZ.
“So, to be clear, and I can’t believe I actually need to say this, Black and Brown people who were enslaved for centuries had absolutely no choice,” Lemon explained. “They weren’t just mentally enslaved, this wasn’t some kind of mind game. They were in real chains.”
READ MORE: ‘It’s Not a Game’: John Legend reacts to Kanye posting their Trump text messages online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=55&v=IfD07cMey3c
Later radio host Ebro Darden joined the program to discuss the spectacle created by the offensive statements, at times appearing to speak to Kanye through the screen.
‘Your brain Kanye, and your mouth are not working in concert,” Darden said. “His thoughts are moving faster than his mouth, and he is embarrassing a lot of people, especially hip-hop.”
“He’s embarrassing himself actually,” Lemon agreed. “He doesn’t know history. He should read.”
Darden cut in: “He’s actually said out loud on several occasions that he doesn’t read, he experiences life. And I think what we’re seeing right now is a sad case of someone who isn’t listening to people around him, who are trying to tell him to just to think first.”
READ MORE: 10 Takeaways from Charlemagne’s interview with Kanye West
“He doesn’t know what free-thinking really is,” Lemon asserted. “Because people are free to criticize him, and just because people feel a certain way about slavery and the African-American experience in this country, there is a reason why there is a consensus around that. It’s because of facts. It’s because of history. It’s because people know what happened in the past.
Check out the segment below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22KsAmVehMk