Tina Wyatt, a descendant of Harriet Tubman, gave Kanye West a history lesson after he claimed the abolitionist “never actually freed the slaves.” In an interview with TMZ, Wyatt provided some fact-checking to Yeezy’s rant at a South Carolina “campaign rally.”
“If we were left alone, we would be in an entirely different place,” she explained. “And what he needs to understand is if it weren’t for people like our Harriet, especially her because she was selfless. She was already free. She didn’t have to come back. She didn’t have to risk her life, but she did it countless times. And if it hadn’t been for people like her, he would still be on that plantation. He would not be able to be out there saying the things he says and he wouldn’t have the money he has because they would have it all.”
Wyatt was also baffled by Kanye saying Tubman “just had the slaves go work for other white people.”
“So, when he says she didn’t free slaves, he doesn’t even understand who she was as a woman,” she said. “I don’t even understand what he meant when he said that. She did what she did so they could go work for white people? I don’t understand what that meant. I mean they had freedom to go, supposedly, they were supposed to go work for [and] be able to work wherever they wanted to work, create businesses. And we started doing that. We started flourishing and then they introduced Black Codes to stop it.”
AD LOADING...
Kanye West's Latest WTF Moment: Harriet Tubman Had Slaves 'Work For Other White People'
Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece concluded by sharing what she thinks the American hero would tell Kanye.
“She would tell him, ‘Uplift.'” she noted. “I don’t know if he’s doing it or not. I don’t know where he’s putting his money. But if he’s not, 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 running for president is not one of them.”
Watch Wyatt’s interview above and check out Yeezy’s remarks below.
