TV and Movies

[NycVixen]

@cherry  Giving him a pass IMO is acting like what he said is not injurious or a big deal because he might be mentally ill. In other words, being complacent of his comments due to mental illness is worsening the problem. To be clear, I'm not saying this is what you imply or say with your post.

Being mentally ill doesn't reduce or eliminate the harm done. It merely explains why it occurred. I sympathize with any person struggling with any form of mental illness but not with his statements regardless of their origin.There are already posts on this thread that agree with his position.

It's their right to have an opinion but it illustrates how amplifying misconceptions about important matters such as slavery cannot be undone. Hitler may have been mentally ill as well and we all know where that went. Confirming he was doesn't undo all the harm he caused. He's a prime example of what can happen when the wrong people are given a voice regardless of where that voice comes from.

[cherry]

@NycVixen perhaps if this is discussed by the media, it will help both areas. It might explain why he said things that weren't true, giving a chance to tell what actually happened

It isn't just history that needs to be righted, it is also the fact mentally ill people, are often misunderstood ,and even persecuted for things they can't help

[NycVixen]

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@cherry wrote:

@NycVixen perhaps if this is discussed by the media, it will help both areas. It might explain why he said things that weren't true, giving a chance to tell what actually happened

It isn't just history that needs to be righted, it is also the fact mentally ill people, are often misunderstood ,and even persecuted for things they can't help

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@cherry I see your point.

However, IMO we also need to be careful calling it mental illness without  substantiating evidence. It could do more harm to those that have true mental illness to use it as a catchall excuse for his type of behavior. The same goes for using the fact that he disclosed he was addicted to opioids. Calling his behavior a symptom of addiction would minimize his responsibility and further malign the addicted. There is no excuse for what he said IMO.

I don't throw the words persecution around lightly but I will argue his words meet the criteria for continued persecution in a new form. He's being taken to task rightly so. Learning he's actually mental ill should add a level of understanding. Notwithstanding, his comments would still be egregious and IMO must be forcefully denounced by all means necessary.

Thanks for the dialogue.

[Sooner]

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@Nancy Drew wrote:

Kanye is Kanye. What I like is a tide is turning. We can all think freely. We all don’t have to have the same thoughts and that is okay. 

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And we can all choose who and what we listen to.  

[cherry]

I did read today the creepy head of the crips put a contract out to beat Kanye up. He should be arrested for it

I  don't think addiction and being bipolar is the same thing. I know Kanye was hospitalized  a couple of years ago, in a mental institution

I have black relatives, and I am sorry that this has been said, but as little as I like Kanye ,I don't want to see him beat u,p by thugs like the crips @NycVixen

[SusieQ_2]

In my opinion it's just a little bit too convenient a timeline that Kanye and his amazing non-revelations are happening just a month before his next album is due to drop.

Kanye has not changed.  Apparently it's the media's fault that he abuses drugs. It's Taylor Swift's fault that things went bad for him after he made a fool of himself at the VMAs. It's Jay-Z's fault for wanting his $20 million back and that Kanye went on several rants about him during his Pablo tour. The irony of his new album's title "Love Everyone" is not lost on me.

I agree with Van Lathan who gave an amazingly insightful, educated, and well thought out response to Kanye saying he is not a free thinker but rather he shows an absence of thought. He went on to say Kanye has morphed into someone who is not even real. Kayne refuses to look at himself in the mirror and accept responsibility for his own bad choices and couldn't care less about facts (especially in regard to history) or the consequences of how his words are nothing short of encouraging an even further divisiveness and all the while proclaiming he loves everyone. Give me a break. 

It probably doesn't help that as he's set to drop his latest album he has to live with the fact that the new young artist he chose to try to humiliate at an award show in 2009 has far surpassed anything he's been able to do by selling more than twice the amount what Kanye's "genius" has ever achieved and she did it with fewer albums. That can't sit well with someone who considers himself to be "Yeezus the Divine God of Rap." If he truly is mentally ill--that's sad. If he's not, and this is who he has become, that's also sad. Unfortunately, the guy is becoming a joke...nothing more than a pathetic caricature of what he could have been. 

[NycVixen]

@cherry. I agree. I'm a researcher and I saw the video. It's definitely a direct threat. He should be arrested. He called for bodily harm to be inflicted on him. There is no excuse. Many people within the black community are upset at Kanye West for his comments.

West is privileged so many see him using it to cause harm to African-Americans who lack the protections he has. Cosby also chastised black people from his ivory tower. West is a person of color but he has no idea what average African-Americans are going through. I can only appreciate what I've learned from my studies and from witnessing it from afar daily in NYC. My best friend is African-American and he has told me how difficult life is for him.

I think everyone should take a DNA test and learn some history regarding humanity's migration out of Africa. We are all African and therefore contain some percentage of African DNA. There is no disputing this fact.

[highmaintenancejan]

I thought it was very informative and the lady who was with him had her facts and was SO RIGHT!!!

I'm with Kayne and I don't really care for him.

They both made a ton of sense!!!  People should listen and quit their B*tching.

I'm not complaining or wanting special treatment if my relatives were gassed by the Nazis, so quit on the slavery thing!!!

EVERYONE IS IGNORING WHAT THE INTELLIGENT BLACK WOMEN WHO WAS WITH HIM WAS SAYING!!!! 

HELLLO?????

[Vivian]

What he said was despicable. I heard that his mother taught African American history. KW has boasted that he never reads. He should definitely start. He is so ignorant that it’s absurd...but it’s also hurtful and dangerous. He is apparently bipolar and stopped taking his meds because they stifle his creativity. Even if he never writes or performs again, he should start taking medication and open a good American history book, perhaps one that was on his mother’s reading list.

[Oznell]

Kanye West seems to be a troubled young man, by his own account, even.  Certainly, if he was literally insisting that slavery was a choice, he is uninformed in a way that seems utterly baffling.  We all know that slavery existed, that by its very definition it was forced labor and owning another human being (which is an absurd and evil proposition on its face) and that for much of humanity's history, there was no choice involved-- only death if one didn't go along.

I'm wondering if he was clumsily trying to make a point that one's mind can be enslaved, and that that indeed is a choice.  I briefly saw that he had tweeted out the famous quote from Harriet Tubman, to the effect that she had freed a thousand slaves, but could have freed more if they knew they were enslaved.  Apologies if the quote isn't exact, but I believe it is something to that effect.  (I would hunt it up, but unfortunately have to dash to a meeting.)

Apart from Mr. West and his troubles,  I think that an intelligent discussion about independent thinking can and should be held-- it's a topic worth exploring and even debating.  I cannot conceive of taking away an individual's right to free speech.  I did not agree with the calls for firing the Fresno State professor's despicable remarks about Barbara Bush upon her death-- it was also protected speech, in my opinion.

I must say that although you have a very different take on this, @NycVixen, I very much admire that you and some others have argued your points passionately, but within the bounds of civility.  If only there could be more of that!