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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bates chapter.

It is to no surprise that Kanye West has something to say about anything and everything.  Besides being one of most popular artists of our generation, he always speaks his mind. Recently, Kanye has been taking center stage in the news but not about his new albums coming out in the near future.  Over the past few weeks Kanye has been all talk about his support for Donald Trump, shocking fans and others everywhere. Like any major news that has surfaced, there is always backlash and opinions to be said.  People are going crazy over his comments about Trump and are starting to question his credibility, competence and logic. A string of events has occurred leaving Kanye in hot water.

What we know now: So far, Kanye has been seen wearing a Make America Great Again hat, posting a series of tweets in favor of Trump, screenshotting texts from others showing their concerns, saying slavery was a choice, and suggesting Michael Jordan be on the $20 dollar bill instead of Harriet Tubman. 

One tweet that specifically blew up was a screenshot of a text from John Legend asking Kanye to reconsider his alignment with Trump. Kanye responded saying “you bringing up my fans or legacy is a tactic based on fear used to manipulate my free thought”. While there were no hard feelings left between the good pals, people were still in shock that Kanye would tweet a text from his friend and not understand that his “free thought” is actually toxic. 

A recent video surfaced of Kanye bringing up slavery being around for 400 years and responded by saying that it was “a choice”.  While everyone was sitting in awe of his ridiculous remarks, a TMZ journalist had the decency to respond to him and personally shut him down.  The TMZ journalist responded to Kanye saying “while you are making music and being an artist and living the life you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives.  We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice. Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something to me that’s not real”.  Kanye continued to fight back yet again looking totally ignorant. 

Lastly, in another interview with Charlamagne tha God, Kanye blatantly expressed his “free thought” about Harriet Tubman and the $20 dollar bill by saying “why you gotta keep reminding us about slavery, why don’t you put Michael Jordan on the $20 dollar bill”.  Charlamagne tha God was quick to respond with “but Harriet Tubman was a slave who rebelled though”.  Kanye then proceeded into explaining and expressing his feelings on how historical icons are “not relatable”.  Again, it seems Kanye has no filter in anything he says lately.

Now that Kanye has said some pretty unusual and upsetting things, will he keep going or will he finally surrender his “free thought”?  Is Kim going to help him finally come to his senses? The nation is waiting. What will Yeezy say next?

Rachel Minkovitz is a senior at Bates College double majoring in Psychology and French and Francophone Studies. She spends a lot of time listening to music, hanging out with friends, reading and writing, advocating for social justice, and looking for furry animals.