SLAVERY is pretty self explanatory, but in America it was exceptionally cruel. Not only was it cruel, but slavery in America was a matter of legislating any african and his/her descendants to a life of servitude. In order to maintain control over the masses, seeing that slaves often out numbered their masters, used psychological terror...such as whippings, castration, tar & feathering, cutting off hands and feet, physical torture, hangings and a myriad of other cruel actions.
The Concepts of free will/free thinkinf were highly explored during the age of the enlightenment. It explores the question if man is an independent and free.
If a man can truly think independently and make decisions according to his/her own self interest. Is it possible that a man can be controlled or by nature is he inclined to make choices for himself.
Lastly, the concept of choices. A choice is simply an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.
So lets revisit what Kanye said.
Let me be clear...slavery was never a choice. To me, its more a condition. But when he made the comment "400 years..." it started to make me wonder eventhough they were slaves, did they have a choice. Ive concluded that they did. I dont place any judgement on their choice, but the existence of people like Harrriet Tubman, Nat Turner & Frederick Douglas are prime examples of slaves who made a choice.
I guess what id say gives my argument legs is the notion that all humans are born with Free-will. Eventhough black folk were dealt a bad hand being born into slavery, I still believe that slaves had choice. Those choices varied based on your proximity to freedom. Freedom was probably more conceivable to slaves such as Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman being Maryland slaves in contrast to Nat Turner who was in Virginia. For Harriet & Frederick, freedom was merely a matter of less than 250 miles. Slaves in the deep south faced odds less favorable.
So depending on the matters that would keep a slave on a plantation....slaves were often weighing freedom against retaliation on loved ones, whippings, castration and lynching.
Now, if you assume a slave is incapable of free thinking, then I truly get all the indignation. But being the descendant of slaves and knowing the history that is my family, there is no doubt in my mind that slaves exercised choice. Crappy hand...horrible odds, but they had choices: therefore, I conclude that if you take all the emotion out of the debate, what youll find is that Kanye aint that crazy. Maybe he is trying to force people to reconsider alternative possibilities. Maybe hes trying to spark a debate.....all i know is that slaves made choices.....all in the effort to be free and or to survive to see if there would be better choices tomorrow.