Kanye West has made the bold claim that black Americans are ‘brainwashed’ into voting for the Democratic Party, despite the party promoting policies he believes are harmful to them.
The rapper made the confession during a radio interview with host Big Boy on Friday, while promoting his new Christian-themed album, Jesus is King.
When Big Boy asked Kanye about his support for President Donald Trump, Ye told him he doesn’t believe it’s clever for black Americans to vote for the Democrats.
‘You are quite easily controlled if they know everybody gonna be blue [Democrat],’ he said. ‘If you go to a white [person] bar, you gonna hear people talking Independent, you gonna hear people talking Democrat, you gonna hear people talking Republican.’
In the 2016 Presidential Election, which saw Trump take to the White House, 88% of black Americans voted Democrat, while just 8% of the same demographic voted Republican.
The 42-year-old musician went on to criticise Democratic lawmakers, saying:
We’re [black Americans] brainwashed out here, bro. Come on, man. This is a free man talking.
Democrats had us voting for Democrats with food stamps for years. What are you talking about guns in the 80s, taking the fathers out the home, Plan B, lowering our votes, making us abort children.
Kanye famously spoke about voting Trump last year when he visited the president at the White House while wearing a red cap with the Republican tagline ‘Make America Great Again’ emblazoned on the front.
When asked whether he was essentially supporting racism by supporting Trump, he said:
The most racist thing a person can tell me is that I’m supposed to choose something based on my race.
Bizarrely, Kanye then went on to say despite his views, he would never try to tell black Americans how to vote, adding: ‘I’m not telling nobody to not vote Democrat, I love Obama, I love lemonade, I love Wingstop, I love polos, I love Jordans.’
But the rapper isn’t concerned about being ‘cancelled’ over his controversial opinions.
He said:
I’m only afraid of my daddy, God. I done been 15 years. I’m telling you that God is showing you that you can have your own thoughts, bro. I been cancelled before there was cancel culture.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.