Dr. Claud Anderson Said the Same Thing as Kanye West About Slaves

“Slavery would not have lasted one month back in the 15th & 16th century if black folks would have said I’m not going to do it, I’m not going for it.  You can kill me if you want.  That’s fine.  You’re losing money because you bought me.  But if you try to enslave me, rob & rape me, steal my kids and deny me the resources and have a decent quality of life & my humanity for 3 or 400 years, I’ll die first and I’ll take you with me.  And your mama, your kids, your house and everything else and your dog.  But see black folks never stood up.  And the worst part about it, none of the African countries in all of the 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow & segregation…the African countries (that’s why I say don’t call blacks African Americans), they did not send not one boat to America or the Caribbean to rescue 15 to 16 million who had been enslaved, mistreated & slaughtered.  They didn’t send one boat.” — Dr. Claud Anderson on The Rock Newman Show, published on YouTube Mar 15, 2018

For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Claud Anderson, he is quite possibly one of the most respected thought leaders in the conscious community.  He’s a highly praised author in regards to books he’s written such as Powernomics:  The National Plan to Empower Black America & Black Labor, White Wealth:  The Search for Power and Economic Justice.  Dr. Claud Anderson has also been featured in two very popular pro-black documentaries:  Hidden Colors 2:  The Triumph of Melanin by Tariq Nasheed & a documentary called 7AM:  A Documentary by a popular YouTuber by the name of Jason Black.  As I’m sure by now, most of you are very familiar with Tariq Nasheed and a lot of you should be familiar with Jason Black (The Black Authority).  Both of these gentleman are highly praised within the conscious community for being at the forefront of black thought.  Despite my personal feelings about these two men, I do recognize the significant influence they have and whom they derive their beliefs and ideologies from in terms of black economic empowerment…people like Dr. Claud Anderson.

The reason I’m mentioning this should be fairly obvious as it relates to Kanye West’s recent comments where he stated that slavery was a choice.  As a result, Kanye has been getting dragged online relentlessly by black people ranging from everyday average social media people to high profile celebrities.  Regardless of if you agree with Kanye’s point or not (which I do), there is a serious level of hypocrisy here, especially hypocrisy coming up out of the conscious community.  You see, Dr. Claud Anderson is pretty much on rockstar status within the conscious community thanks to people Tariq Nasheed and Jason Black bringing him to the masses by way of their popular documentaries.  Even Dr. Boyce Watkins praises Dr. Claud Anderson so much so that Dr. Boyce Watkins constantly makes references to Dr. Claud Anderson’s “Black Labor, White Wealth” book like it’s his version of the pro-black bible.  Dr. Boyce Watkins also runs an online school to where Dr. Claud Anderson teaches a course within Dr. Boyce Watkins’ academy.  Now, you consider the influence that Tariq Nasheed, Jason Black & Dr. Boyce Watkins have across the conscious community and we’re talking about hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of black people who have been educated by these men on the extreme importance and influence of Dr. Claud Anderson in regards to his knowledge of economics and how this knowledge could be used to help truly uplift the black community.

So, if Dr. Claud Anderson can literally say the same thing that Kanye West said about how slavery was a choice, then why is Kanye West being demonized by so many people in the black community (especially the conscious community) when Dr. Claud Anderson literally stated the exact same thing almost 2 months ago?  Maybe Dr. Claud Anderson’s celebrity status being nowhere near the size of Kanye West’s celebrity status has something to do with it.  At the time of this writing, only 49,361 views are on this particular Rock Newman episode, so it is fair to assume that hardly anybody saw it in relation to millions around the world who saw the TMZ clip of Kanye West.  Either way, I just thought it was appropriate to point this out because to the millions of black people around the world who wholeheartedly believe in black economic empowerment & black power, yet they totally despise what Kanye West said about our slave ancestors having a choice…well, one of the biggest & most respected names in the pro-black conscious community whose ideas are highly revered by your favorite pro-black talking head, well…Dr. Claud Anderson said the exact same thing in detailed depth.  And I’m willing to bet that nobody will call Dr. Claud Anderson a coon, say he’s in the “sunken place” or kick him out of black society.  I’m even willing to bet that Tariq Nasheed, Jason Black, nor Dr. Boyce Watkins will call him out (assuming that they disagree with Kanye West’s point about slaves having a choice).  Yvette Carnell might considering she recently did a video putting Dr. Claud Anderson on blast over a lawsuit where he’s being sued by a black owned bank for money he allegedly owes them.  We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out I suppose.