Stevie Wonder doesn’t get enough credit for being a civil rights icon. Stevie has always been right, about civil rights, disabled rights, gun control and more. Recently, I learned that Stevie also makes a home for himself in a gated community of Calabasas, the same gated community as most of the Kardashian clan. Stevie knows all of the Kardashian-Jenners. Stevie knows Kanye West too. And Stevie is not impressed at all with Kanye’s latest political rants.
Stevie Wonder has called out Kanye West for saying slavery is a choice, calling the idea “foolishness” and likening it to Holocaust denial. Wonder brought up West without prompting during an interview Thursday after a show at a West Hollywood club.
“There’s been a lot of talk about what was said by Kanye,” Wonder said. “I want people to understand that the truth is the truth and a lie is a lie. We all know that slavery was not a choice. So I just think that people need to understand that if you know your history, if you know the truth, you know that’s just foolishness.” Wonder said saying slavery is a choice is like saying the Holocaust is not real.
West made the remarks May 1 in an interview with TMZ. “When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years, that sounds like choice,” West said. An email to his representatives seeking a response to Wonder’s comments was not immediately returned.
Wonder spoke softly, not angrily, and said he also felt sympathy for West, especially over the rapper losing his mother, who died after having cosmetic surgery procedures in 2007.
“You know he lost his mother, the horrible thing that happened,” Wonder said. “I don’t know if he had a chance to really mourn about all that.”
If anything, Stevie Wonder is being too kind and too generous with Kanye’s foolishness. How many times are we going to say that Donda’s passing is “the reason” for his current behavior? He still grieves for his mom, absolutely. He likely misses Donda’s voice of reason. But Kanye’s sh-t is his own. He knows enough to know that he needs to stop and get healthy. Stevie needs to sit Kanye down and tell him some hard truths. But I suspect that won’t do any good either.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Yeah, everybody has their own shit. Losing Donda altered his life. But you don’t get a free pass to be an a-hole. I think he just needs help he isn’t getting.
I agree with Stevie Wonder; for Kanye to lose his mom must have been some sort of Trigger to what was lying dormant already. Just a guess anyway.
I’ve always loved Stevie and not just his music.
There are none as blind as those who won’t see Kanye. I’m sure I’ve paraphrased but you all get the gist.
<3
Stevie never disappoints. I DO think he’s being way kinder than Kanye deserves, though. Also, that picture of Bigly. Gross.
Thank you, Stevie Wonder. You are a gentleman and a genius. Keep telling the truth to the people. You are a legend.
Not only is he insulting the ancestors who were tortured, raped and killed during slavery, he’s an alleged free thinker who is doing nothing but spouting a white savior narrative, ignoring the fact that there were hundreds of slave rebellions across the diaspora including the Americas. You think white people are the ones who ended slavery because they finally wanted to be nice? Look up Nat Turner, Mother Ya Asentewaa, Queen Nzinga, the Dahomey, the maroons, Tacky, Toussaint Louvertere, Queen Nanny, Quilombo, Denmark Vesey, Madison Washington, etc. As quiet as white folks like to keep it, the impact of all these rebellions as well as the financial costs of keeping them down is an enormous part of what ended it in the long run. He’s a free thinker who doesn’t even know his history and neither do any of the people who agree with him or even the ones who don’t but only bring up how the slaves were brutalized. Black people have never laid down and accepted it in the way he claims he has, whether it was in open rebellion or through quiet ones like learning to read or write or carrying their religions like Islam or obeah or Yoruba. And further, my grandfather’s grandmother is still alive. She is turning 100 in June. She is the direct descendant of slaves. Her daughter my grandmother is a result in one way or another of a rape that splits their relationship up even now, and that same daughter would walk to school and get spit on by white people. I’m glad Stevie called him out becuz everything he said was repulsive. I met Stevie briefly at Simply Wholesome by the way, and he was totally sweet.
I must thank you for posting this outstanding response. I am thoroughly enjoying reading these magnificent and powerful stories that you have shown me. I must admit that I am captivated by the story of Mother Ya Asentewaa. What an incredible woman.
I realize that everyone is different and some of us take longer to grieve than others. But eleven years have gone by since the death of Kanye’s mother. He needs to get a hold of himself and other people need to stop using his mother’s death as a reason for him to talk and act like a fool.
It’s not mutually exclusive. You can feel sorry for Kanye, but still think his comment is wrong, hurtful, and as Stevie said a lie. Even if you attribute a bit of Kanye’s behavior to his grief, it doesn’t diminish the fact that his comment was wrong. Honestly, I don’t know how people don’t attribute some of it to his mental state. He’s either mentally sick in some way, aching for publicity, or dumb as a box of nails. Slavery by definition isn’t a choice, and historically if you are talking about the European and US civilizations it wasn’t. We need to send Kanye the miniseries Roots, and see if he can explain how it is a choice to pulled from your family and forced to come here to work for nothing and beaten.
The only possible thing I thought he could be going for, which is a big stretch, was some have said people since they have knowledge and forethought can never be enslaved or owned as their mind allows them to be free. A bit of psychology, but when you are forced to work in crappy situations and beaten, not sure being free in your mind, although important, really means you chose to be enslaved. Kanye’s comment was simply a lie.
This. I do think there could be something going on with Kanye mentally, but that doesn’t explain away his comments about Trump, his victim-blaming comment about slavery, or some of the other things he’s said over the years. What he’s doing right now is sad and dangerous. I feel bad for his kids too.
I am repeatedly told my friends that I will refuse to buy, listen or watch what Kanye West is doing or saying. I am still deeply hut after the stupid and ignorant statement ye said weeks ago on TMZ. However, I do wish him well and I hope he gets the help he deserves and grieve for his mother correctly. After that I hope he makes an apology tour to all black people for what he said earlier. Then I would forgive him.
2 things…
1. Everyone mourns differently. Theres mo way to know how it will go. Intensity. Or duration. It’s a personal hell you figure out as you go and try to survive it.
2. Kanye was always crazy. And he had Donda to center him. And he carries her still. The I’m gonna let you finish moment with swift highlights this. Her mother went to him and asked how his mother would feel about his actions. He knows. He’s just not aware. He’s rarely held truly accountable in his bubble.
I stand with my POC brothers and sisters against crazy revisionists of history! Native Americans were slaughtered/ Africans were brutally rounded up and shipped here for abusive slavery/ POC to this day are brought up on low level drug charges at a higher rate that whites use surpasses (marijuana)/ Flint MI still has no drinking water and P. R. is stiill a shambles. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ! VOTE! RISE UP!
I love him.
How long are people going to excuse Kanye’s awful words and actions because his mother died over 10 years ago?
Thank you Stevie!