Soon after receiving criticism and being the cause of #IfSlaveryWasAChoice, Kanye West tweeted some clarification on his remark that 400 years of slavery "sounds like a choice" on TMZ Live.
West made the comment on the Tuesday afternoon episode of the show and was met with a quick rebuke from TMZ newsroom employee Van Lathan.
Related: Kanye West at center of uproar after saying 400 years of slavery a ‘choice’
“Do you feel like I’m thinking free and feeling free?” West asked the newsroom after making the comment.
“I actually don't think you’re thinking anything,” Lathan said. “I think what you're doing right now is actually the absence of thought and the reason why I think that is because, Kanye, you’re entitled to your option. You’re entitled to believe whatever you want, but there is fact and real-world, real-life consequence behind everything that you just said and while you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was a choice.
“Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled and, brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that’s not real,” Lathan said.
West offered to come over and give Lathan a hug. He also repeatedly said that he loved him.
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“To make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will,” West tweeted after appearing on TMZ Live.
He continued the thought with a series of other tweets, including a reference to the William Lynch speech, widely considered to be a hoax, and a quote attributed to Harriet Tubman that she never actually said.
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