Kanye West made a grave error when he said Harriet Tubman did not actually free slaves and now a descendant of the historical figure is addressing his fictitious rant.
According to TMZ who got an exclusive from the great-great-great niece of Harriet Tubman, Ye would have surely been on a plantation right now if it weren’t for the very woman whose legacy he is trying to smear. Harriet Tubman’s relative whose name is Tina Wyatt was quite composed as she calmly explained how Kanye is wrong in so many ways.
What Kanye West claimed at his fundraiser on Sunday was that Harriet actually led the slaves to go work for “other white people” but didn’t actually liberate them. Tina says that her great aunt was already free and needless to say, she didn’t have to risk her life countless times to keep going back to help the others.
“If we were left alone, we would be in an entirely different place and what he needs to understand is that if it weren’t for people like Aunt Harriet – especially her – he would still be on that plantation,” Tina said. “He would not be able to be out there and saying the things that he says, and he wouldn’t have the money he has because they would have it all.”
Tina admitted that she is still not completely sure how to interpret Kanye’s statement but she does reckon that it needs a fact check. She believes Ye needs to brush up on his black history a little more before he uses his platform to spread more inaccurate information. “They had the freedom to supposedly be able to work where they wanna work,” she said. Tina also added that blacks began to open businesses and hold respectable positions in society before the segregation laws rivaled the progress and set black people back. “We started flourishing and then they introduced black codes to stop it,” she added.
According to Wyatt, if her great aunt was here today she would encourage Kanye to uplift the community instead of trying to give an unqualified history lesson. “She would tell him uplift,” Wyatt said offering some advice from her ancestor. “I don’t know if he’s doing it or not, I don’t know where he’s putting his money but… it seems like he wants to talk about a lot of things. But the thing is that put your money into something that will uplift other people. Him trying to run to be president is not one of them.”
Do you think Tina gave some solid advice or should Kanye carry on unchecked?
