What's Behind Kanye West's Revisionist History Of Slavery

Rapper Kanye West on TMZ on Tuesday that slavery was a choice, proclaiming his views as those of independent thinker.

West's assertion that slavery was a choice is not free-thinking, according to Harvard professor Leah Wright Riguer. The notion of slavery as a choice comes from decades' of revisionist history and the “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” narrative that permeates American cultural thought.

Leah Wright Rigueur, professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power."