Kanye West has once again gotten himself in hot water with his views on American history. But, while his take on the past can be perplexing, his recent statements offer a window into a real historical and political debate.
The rapper — who is now going by the shortened stage name Ye — has tended to oversimplify things, at the very least, when he’s tweeted about the history of race in America. As historians have previously told TIME, his tweets about slavery being a choice overlooked important evidence to the contrary, and his tweets suggesting that African Americans should be Republicans because President Lincoln was one missed the way that party politics realigned on the issue of civil rights long after the Civil War ended.
