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John Legend Praised For Schooling Kanye West on the History of Republicans and Slavery

Posted byBy Daryl Nelson | Published on: CommentsComments (0)
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Maybe you should fact check your information before you tweet it out to the world.

That was the overall message from John Legend and Charlamagne The God, who attempted to school Kanye West on the history of the Republicans, Democrats and slavery.

On Monday (Apr.30), West posted a screenshot of a text that he received from a person named Steve, who said the Republicans freed the slaves and helped Black people more than the Democrats did.

“Just tried you back,” read the text, which has since been deleted. “Abe Lincoln freed and protected the slaves, and he was Republican. Republicans were the ones who helped Black people. Democrats protected the rights of the slave owners in the South.”

“I’m gonna tweet this,” West wrote back.

“Those are facts,” Steve responded.

That’s where John Legend stepped in, and he said the Republican party of Lincoln’s day isn’t the same Trump led party of today that embraces the Confederacy. He also said Steve’s argument is typical, one that’s often used whenever Republicans talk about their history with the Black community.

“Abraham Lincoln was indeed a Republican,” Legend wrote to West. “They love bringing that up to deflect from the fact that now the Republicans have become the party of the Confederacy. They defend the Confederate flag and oppose civil rights advances almost uniformly.”

“When Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat) signed the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act into law, he acknowledged that the Democrats would probably lose the South for a generation, and eventually he was right,” he added. “White southerners eventually left the Democratic party because it became known as the party that fought more for equal rights for people of color.”

The R&B singer’s message to West comes just days after the two had a disagreement that went public. It was right after the “Life of Pablo” creator first embraced Trump, which sent shockwaves through the media, the entertainment world and much of the Black community.

In this latest exchange, Legend said that Kanye isn’t educated enough on the topic of political history and was duped into believing something that’s completely false.

“I know you don’t read a lot about politics or political history, and the person whose text you just posted probably knows that,” Legend wrote. “That’s why they told you to post that silly tweet about the old Republican and Democratic parties. What they fail to mention is that the party of Lincoln has transformed into the party of the Confederacy. You can tweet this too.”

Charlamagne also chimed in and said out of the two parties, it was the Democrats that helped the Black community the most when they created the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Act was initiated by John F. Kennedy and eventually signed by Lyndon B. Johnson on June 2 of that same year. And although it wasn’t initially enforced throughout the U.S., the bill would make racial, sexual, religious and others kinds of discrimination illegal.

“Whoever sent you this is leading you wrong by giving you half truths because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was put into legislation by a Democratic president,” wrote Charlamagne. “So to say Republicans helped Black people but imply Democrats never have is stupid … You gotta fact check this stuff before you put it in the world.”

West has yet to respond to Charlamagne or Legend, but folks on Twitter have praised the the R&B star for responding to his post.

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