On Wednesday, May 2, the hosts of “The Real” speak to TMZ’s Van Lathan about his on-air confrontation with Kanye West after the rapper’s comments about slavery being a “choice.” Lathan feels that West’s words are a disservice to Lathan’s ancestors who survived.
Adrienne Houghton: Well last night Kanye sent out a series of tweets clarifying his comments saying in part, “To make myself clear, of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will. My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved.” So Van, does that at all change how you feel?
Van Lathan: Absolutely not… and the reason it doesn’t is because of two things. Number one, slavery was a multi-front war that was fought against people of color. It involved the ripping apart of families, it involved actual physical shackles, it involved all different types of things and you can’t sum it up by any one thing. And there are history books out there that everyone can be free to read, or is free to read on the atrocities of slavery— when you start breaking it down by choice that is doing a disservice to the survivors that my ancestors were…
Tamera Mowry-Housley: Absolutely.
Van: Who endured all of those terrible things, that I could be on “The Real“ talking to you ladies right now. And whatever happens, going forward…
Loni Love: Uh-huh.
Van: People will be respected and revered.
Jeannie Mai: The way that you handled it and the words and the choices — the choice you made to use the words that you did is a great example of how we should all treat each other today and when we disrespect… when we disagree with each other…
Loni: And Van…
Jeannie: I commend you for that.
Loni: This is the thing, remember we always say on this show, Van that we think that all peopled — we need to have diversity especially in our news rooms. We need to have a “Jamal The Intern.” That’s our running joke.
Adrienne: That’s what she always calls it.
Loni: You were my “Jamal the Intern” yesterday, bro.
