Newsweek

A High School Teacher Explains History to Kanye West

The rapper tweeted, "Republicans were the ones [who] helped black people." It's a little more complicated than that.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, at the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Abraham Lincoln

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican?

Kanye West, American rapper and 40-year-old eighth grade history student, just found out. And boy, is he shaken.

West, who seems to be experiencing some sort of political and philosophical awakening in real time since praising President Trump and declaring the 45th president "my brother" six days ago, tweeted out a text exchange on Monday with someone named "Steve." In the texts, Steve notes that Lincoln "freed and protected the slaves and he was Republican. Republicans were the ones who's [sic] helped black people." (The tweet—which prompted an avalanche of people trying to explain grade-school history to a major rapper—has since been deleted, but you can find it archived here.)

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Newsweek

Newsweek6 min readWorld
‘We’re Living a Nightmare—Day After Day’
WHEN SHAY BENJAMIN’S FATHER RON WENT MISS-ing on October 7, she cried for 15 hours straight. She was in Dubai, returning from a vacation in the Philippines, when a flurry of cellphone messages alerted her to the unfolding events in Israel on October
Newsweek6 min readInternational Relations
Is It Time to Leave Syria?
by JOHN FENZEL FEW PEOPLE TODAY RECOGNIZE the name of Alois Brunner. As the right hand of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, he was one of the most notorious figures of the Holocaust, responsible for the deaths of an estimated 130,000 Jews in exterminati
Newsweek1 min readInternational Relations
Senseless Strike
Mourners gather at Saif Abu Taha’s funeral on April 2. Taha and six other World Central Kitchen staff members were killed the prior night in an Israeli drone strike. The Israel Defense Forces took responsibility for mistakenly targeting the convoy, c

Related