Kanye West shared a kiss with his wife as he received the Visionary Award at the 2015 BET Honors, which was broadcast yesterday night after being taped last month.
For his acceptance speech, Mr West turned to a human rights activist. Kanye began by saying he felt humbled for the first time in his life and then used his relationship with Kim, who is a “person not of color” to talk about race and separatism. He thanked Kim and told everyone that she wasn’t in a relationship with him for his fame or fortune
“My wife has dated broke black dudes so it ain’t got nothing to do with the money.”
He shared a story Kim once told him about her father Robert Kardashian being deemed a “n*gger lover” for representing O.J. Simpson. Kanye said, “We deal with racism because there are different races. Or the micro of it is that we focus on the different races, as opposed to the macro, which is the human race.”
While making reference to some of his past controversial remarks, Kanye said “race” and “people’s perception of celebrity” have been used to stop him from being “empowered,” and argued that the worth of black people have been misrepresented. He even said, “Harriet Tubman could have freed more if they only knew they weren’t free.” West went on, “So don’t think that because we can afford this custom Balmain suit that we’re free. And don’t think that because we can buy a $300,000 car that we’re free. And don’t think because three percent of a gated community has colored people in it that we’re free.”
“It’s the mentality, the slave mentality, that we all eventually become slaves to that car, slaves to the perception, slaves to the idea of being cool,” West continued. He concluded, “Our power, our oil, since we don’t own any oil, is our expression, is our influence. Don’t never let them take that away. And when we have the chance to express it and influence, don’t just do it for us. Do it for the human race.”
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