Betty called me at noon. Keesha and Charlie both sent e-mails around that time. I was thinking, just as Betty called, I need to do a Ty's Corner.
"You're going to do a Ty's Corner," is how Betty greeted me on the phone. I immediately knew what she was talking about because I'd read today's snapshot, specifically this:
Starting in the United States where a presidential election is set to take place in November. Rapper, designer and influencer Kanye West held his first rally from South Carolina.
REUTERS
seems unable/unwilling to let Kanye speak. Why is that? They offer a
sentence here and a sentence there. Is there a reason for that? Does
REUTERS think this passes for 'reporting'?
By contrast, THE GUARDIAN lets him speak.
THE
WASHINGTON POST slams him as "woefully ignorant." We don't link to
garbage. In his remarks, he said, "Harriet Tubman never actually freed
slaves, she just had the slaves go work for other White people." Do I
agree with his opinion? No. But he's entitled to his opinion and an
argument can be made that he's right. These are not new positions from
Kanye. I think it's really amazing -- and entitled -- of the White
institution that is THE WASHINGTON POST to trash an African-American as
uninformed when, in fact, they are informed but they express a different
opinion. We're looking at the same facts -- Kanye and the rest of us
-- we're not disagreeing over facts. We're disagreeing over outcomes
and, in Kanye's opinion, Tubman's outcomes weren't as wonderful as some
people feel they were. It's amazing that the same press that attacked
Malcolm X and others back in the day hasn't learned a damn thing about
how their view of society is not the only view there is.
He's
entitled to his view and, more to the point, his view should be heard
and discussed. Not slammed, not shut down. Discussed. Addressed.
CELEBRITY LIFE has already tried to shut him down. Maybe CELEBRITY LIFE
should stick to gossip -- it seems what they're best suited for.
I
see Harriet Tubman as heroic, someone who risked so much to see that
others could escape slavery. But if Kanye wants to argue that she just
led them into another form of slavery, let's have that debate. And,
certainly, facts would be more on his side than mine. Look at house
ownership figures, look at poverty, look at prison figures, exactly
where did the freedom land exist because I do get Kanye's point. I
don't agree with him -- that doesn't mean he's wrong -- but I do get his
point.
I would further add that Harriet
couldn't change a landscape. She worked in the reality she lived and
she did what she could. Her actions were heroic. But, yes, I do get
the point Kanye's making.
It must be so nice to
be a so-called 'reporter' for an outlet that lets you sneer at someone
and lie about them. It must be so nice to say what you really think --
as ugly as it is. I'm guessing that many people who read these attacks
on Kanye will be able to do the math and grasp that if the same
'reporters' could write about them, they'd be attacking them too. They
don't just sneer at Kanye, they sneer at everyone.
And,
for the record, his crying really isn't a 'bad' thing -- no matter how
hard the media tries to pimp it as such. Nor is he crying that he was
almost aborted. He is crying about his mother. He cries about his
mother, that's nothing new. He misses her and he still loves her. You
can try to spin that into bad if you're a cheap whore whose outlet
allows you to lie but most people aren't going to be bothered that he
gets sad because he misses his mother. Why does he miss his mother?
Because she was always in his corner, she was always there for him.
That's why he's crying when he discusses her and maybe liars in the
press should just stop talking and stop typing.
And from C.I.'s "Krystal and Saagar REACT: Kanye 2020 Rally Goes OFF THE RAILS:"
Where's the video?
Not here.
If Krystal and Saagar think that laughing at someone is cute or funny? Well that's mighty racist of them.
And we don't need Krystal to say that Kanye's wrong about Tubman.
I've already covered this in the snapshot earlier.
If
Krystal wants to address Harriet Tubman, we're going to need someone
who's an expert and, no, Krystal's not. On liberation theology, not on
Harriet Tubman.
I find Kanye much more
relatable than War Hawk Joe Biden. How sad that Krystal and Saagar
elect to 'cover' the press conference but offer nothing of value. The
snark's getting a little old, Krystal.
And you come off racist. We expect a lot more from you.
[As
noted before, I know Kanye and I consider him a friend. I would stick
up for him for that reason alone; however, I'm getting a little tired of
the media -- and some African-American activists encouraging this --
going to town on Kanye. There seems to be less reporting and a lot more
racism in the coverage.]
These days, you have BLACK AGENDA REPORT, THE ROOT, and a lot of websites. Back in the days of 2004?
You had THE DAILY KOS where you were welcomed if you were African-American . . . as long as you never noted racism from a Democratic Party candidate.
If you made that mistake, it was a dog pile on you, it was an attempt to destroy you, to rip you apart, to shame you into agreeing or, if that wasn't possible, to shame you out of the website.
It's in that context that THE COMMON ILLS emerged. C.I. didn't get the memo but she would have ignored it if she had.
Racism didn't play at THE COMMON ILLS.
Early on, Keesha expressed her concerns in an e-mail to C.I. She explained how the online world was. She expressed that she was hesitant to leave comments and why. C.I. replied back and explained that if anything like that ever happened at THE COMMON ILLS, not only would C.I. delete any such attacks, she would also immediately close all commenting from that point forward.
As Keesha feared, it happened.
Much to her relief, C.I. stood by what she'd told Keesha. "She didn't wait for me to e-mail her," Keesha remembered when I called her on the phone this evening, "she e-mailed me. She said, 'You were right. I have deleted several comments that attacked you and I have now closed comments. I am so sorry this happened and it will not happen again.' I thought about that today and that's why I e-mailed you."
I would love to tell you that I looked online and I found web famous African-Americans defending Kanye but I didn't. I found, as C.I. did, a lot of them making fun of Kanye.
It is racism. What Krystal Ball did was racist. That's not open to debate.
Ha-ha, let's laugh at the crazy Black guy, ha ha ha ha.
Kanye didn't do anything that was as crazy as Donald Trump or Joe Biden. As for the crying, Joe Biden weeps in public and gets away with it. In 2008, as Ava and C.I. pointed out repeatedly, Hillary Clinton was attacked because her eyes watered. "The moisty moment," fat ass Bill Moyers laughed as he then ripped her apart. But months later, Joe Biden is weeping in the middle of a campaign event, he's losing it in the middle of a campaign event. And the press looked the other way.
That's the same press that wants to mock Kanye for crying.
Kanye's mother is dead, you assholes. She's dead. It's not funny. And you mocking him is pathetic and disgusting.
When I called Charlie, he told me, "I was appalled by the way Kanye was treated. And that was before C.I. posted [about the video by Krystal Ball]. What was Ball thinking? She came off racist. I get it, a lot of Black voices should be ashamed because they waived this through with their own trashing of Kanye. As for Kanye's comments about Harriet Tubman, he's making a point. I don't agree with him but he's entitled to his opinion and, as C.I. explained, we are looking at the same facts and just coming to different conclusions. Ball made herself the ultimate Karen by explaining to us what Harriet did. Like we didn't all know that already? Like we need White Ball to inform us? We knew that. Here's something else those of us who are Black knew: We didn't get freed. That's why we needed Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement and why, right before that, we needed the anti-lynching movement."
Keesha, in her phone call, explained, "I don't agree with him but I do get his point. Harriet Tubman's actions removed certain people from plantations but it did not result in freedom because there wasn't freedom for freed slaves at that time. They weren't see as equals. They weren't seen as full citizens. I get his point. It's like Malcolm X saying, 'We are a people who formerly were Africans who were kidnaped and brought to America. Our forefathers weren't the Pilgrims. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, the rock was landed on us. We were brought here against our will; we were not brought here to be made citizens.' I didn't need Krystal Ball trying to lecture me, an African-American viewer, on who Harriet Tubman was. I do think she needs to hear from Black America because she's not willing to let Kanye speak without mocking him. I'm tired of her snark and tired of her eye rolls."
"What people like Ball don't get," Charlie shared, "is that we're watching -- non-Whites. And Kanye is a talented and smart man. If someone like him is going to be turned into Black Fool, they'd do that to everyone of us."
Betty pointed out, "He's running for president. Instead of exploring what he said or where he stands on the issue, they went to town with their 'Oh, look at the old Tom Foolery coming from the Negro. Gather round, fellow White people, it's time to take on another uppity Negro.' That's what Krystal Ball was doing and it was disgusting."
Amen.