Controversial rapper and producer, Kanye West, does not seem like a man who has given up on his support for Donald Trump and his acolytes.
On Sunday, during his popular music-themed and quasi-religious Sunday Service in Salt Lake City, Utah, West took the chance to tell the thousands present that he has “never made a decision only based on my colour. That’s a form of slavery. Mental slavery.”
Even though the Graduation hitmaker said his decisions were not solely because of his skin colour, West ventured into a bit of history reminding the crowd that it is the Republican Party’s Abraham Lincoln who freed black slaves.
He justified his support for Trump and today’s Republican Party, saying he won’t be told who to choose as a president based on his skin colour.
“They try to tell me because of my colour who I’m supposed to pick as the president”, said West in one of the videos that went viral after the programme.
He mimicked what he claimed are Trump critics saying, “You’re black, so you can’t like Trump.”
Over 7,000 people according to the Huffington Post, attended West’s service in Utah. The venue also hosted another religious event over the weekend by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
West is an outspoken supporter of Trump, a president with historically low approval rating among America’s black people.
The musician has in the past made several arguments as to why he loves Trump, often making rants devoid of sociological or historical contexts.
It is based on such outbursts that Kanye West has been the subject of many attacks by other prominent black people including rappers T.I. and Snoop Dogg.
Others among West’s critics are CNN presenter Don Lemon and ‘popstar’ Harvard scholar Cornel West.
In 2018 on TMZ Live, West said he believed slavery lasting for so long is partly the fault of black people who he said, chose to be enslaved.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years… for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West said.
“Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? It’s like we’re mentally in prison.”
West added: “I like the word ‘prison’ because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. It’s like slavery, Holocaust. Holocaust, Jews. Slavery is blacks. So, prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”
The rapper’s comments on race and politics since Trump became president usually go well with white conservatives and Republicans.