This week, Kanye West sparked media outrage while making the claim that "slavery was a choice". Obviously, this is a very offensive thing to hear for many people, as it seems that he is suggesting that slavery was voluntary, or that the slaves were somehow to blame for their own condition.
I don't think this is what he was trying to say, and if you listen to the entire interview, you can see him try to walk the statement back, and clarify that he was trying to express the idea of mental slavery.
In most cases where people are oppressed, they usually outnumber their oppressors by a wide margin, and could end their enslavement in a single day, if they were to all decide to topple it all over collectively..unfortunately, there are cultural barriers in the way, all of which are figments of the imagination, although they have real-life consequences.
Slavery is mental, today and in history, it is not the chains that keep us enslaved, it is the ideas that justify the relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed. The cultural justifications that gave social permission for slavery, played a bigger role in keeping slavery going than the overt violence against the slaves did. Even the overt violence was actually a form of psychological warfare, which again creates chains in the mind that are more powerful than chains on the body.
It's not a "choice" but its something people were forced into accepting until the point that they could no longer imagine living another way. I really think that is what he was trying to express. He just happened to say it with the worst choice of words that he could have possibly chosen, because he is just likely starting to think about these types of ideas for the first time, so he can't articulate what is running through his head
As for his support of Trump, I don't think he cares for Trump's policies, Kanye just wants to be president, and Trump has set the precedent that celebrities can be presidents, so he sees Trump as his spirit animal in some weird way, while intentionally disregarding Trump's policies. Let's remember, all of these rappers and celebrities that supported Obama also disregarded his policies also, and instead supported the cult of personality, Kanye is doing the same thing.
I don't agree with those types of ambitions, and of course, I'm against anyone being president, but that's my read on it after watching a few of the interviews.
Below are two quotes from the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, to better illustrate the mind control that was used against slaves in early America.
"I had very strangely supposed, while in slavery, that few of the comforts, and scarcely any of the luxuries, of life were enjoyed at the north, compared with what were enjoyed by the slaveholders of the south. I probably came to this conclusion from the fact that northern people owned no slaves. I supposed that they were about upon a level with the non-slaveholding population of the south. I knew they were exceedingly poor, and I had been accustomed to regard their poverty as the necessary consequence of their being non-slaveholders. I had somehow imbibed the opinion that, in the absence of slaves, there could be no wealth, and very little refinement. And upon coming to the north, I expected to meet with a rough, hard-handed, and uncultivated population, living in the most Spartan-like simplicity, knowing nothing of the ease, luxury, pomp, and grandeur of southern slaveholders. Such being my conjectures, any one acquainted with the appearance of New Bedford may very readily infer how palpably I must have seen my mistake.”
"I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer; nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was absolutely false; for I always measured the kindness of my master by the standard of kindness set up among slaveholders around us. Moreover, slaves are like other people, and imbibe prejudices quite common to others. They think their own better than that of others. Many, under the influence of this prejudice, think their own masters are better than the masters of other slaves; and this, too, in some cases, when the very reverse is true. Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others. At the very same time, they mutually execrate their masters when viewed separately. It was so on our plantation. When Colonel Lloyd's slaves met the slaves of Jacob Jepson, they seldom parted without a quarrel about their masters; Colonel Lloyd's slaves contending that he was the richest, and Mr. Jepson's slaves that he was the smartest, and most of a man. Colonel Lloyd's slaves would boast his ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson. Mr. Jepson's slaves would boast his ability to whip Colonel Lloyd. These quarrels would almost always end in a fight between the parties, and those that whipped were supposed to have gained the point at issue. They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves. It was considered as being bad enough to be a slave; but to be a poor man's slave was deemed a disgrace indeed!
The full context of the interview can be seen below:
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
My name is John Vibes and I am an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. I write for numerous alternative media websites, including The Free Thought Project 
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