Kanye West (who has announced he'd like to be elected president this November because clearly there are no necessary qualifications for the job) told a group of curiosity-seekers in South Carolina:
Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves. She just had them work for other white people.It wasn't only this mind-bendingly ignorant comment that made the entire event sound extremely trumpy. I mean, when Donald hears that West boasted about his IQ — "I went to the hospital because my brain was too big for my skull" — he's going to be pissed he didn't come up with the line first.
The extraordinary facts of Harriet Tubman's life sound like fiction. She may not have freed "the" slaves (as in, all of them), but she risked her life numerous times to rescue at least 70. And did numerous other bad-ass things. The best sources of information are Catherine Clinton's Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom and Kate Clifford Larson's Bound for the Promised Land.
This photo was taken in the late 1860s, when Tubman was in her late forties.
Harriet Tubman's headscarf had more brains and courage than Kanye West. So outrageous to hear anyone belittle her.
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