Kanye West "Slavery was a choice" memes

   On May 1st of 2018, Kanye West came in as a guest for an interview with TMZ. They talked about many different topics including politics, sports, and racism throughout the world that is still going on. During the conversation about "free thought" with TMZ host Candace Owens, Kanye says "when you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice. This had the nation in uproar, so many African Americans crossed the country were disgusted by his words. He became a big target of many memes, criticizing his foolish words. Race is the target of this topic and the memes I chose.
   The three memes I chose are listed below.
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1. The first meme is a picture from Kanye speaking during the TMZ interview, with emoji's added to the picture and the face of an African American male making a gesture of complete shock. This meme shows the disbelief if many African Americans across the world that were alarmed by his words. He spoke on such a serious topic that was one of the most egregious acts of all of human history with such disrespect. In chapter 6, the types of humor that stood out to me was "Playfulness." The face of the young African American is not a serious one at all. The gesture he is making is the reaction of someone being surprised or caught off guard that is seen in many social situations.
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2. The second meme I chose is another picture of Kanye at the interview smiling while talking to the host, Candace Owens. This picture was split with a tweet of a woman sitting on a couch, relaxed, but waiting for her friend to come home who she knows is going to be upset. The picture tweeted had the caption "me waiting on my friend to come to me crying after I told her not to sleep with massa again." This meme is making this a joke but in reality, slaves did not have a choice but to do what their master told them to do. So if the master said to sleep with him the slave had to do so. Basically saying the slave did not have a choice, proving what Kanye said to be very ignorant. The types of humor that relate to what Shifman was saying in chapter 6 was "playfulness" which is seen by the set up of the picture that was tweeted. Her face shows the confidence but also the frustration of the situation in a playful way. The face shows the "I told you so" type of expression. This meme also shows "irony" because Kanye is making a face of amazement, like he cannot believe what is going on or being said. His face sums up the African American community that looked at him like that.

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3. The third meme I chose is another picture of Kanye's face, he was listening to one of the other hosts at the TMZ headquarters speak during one of their discussions. The part that makes this meme popular is the face Kanye making is the face that sums up how a lot of African Americans looked at Kanye after his remarks that day. Kanye's face shows amazement, as if he can't believe what the other person is saying at the moment. According to Shifman, one humor that is clear in this meme is irony for sure. Kanye is making a face of disbelief at the words somebody else is saying. Little did he know that later on that day people would be making this face to him because of how insulted African Americans felt of his words. Another type of humor in this meme is Superiority because with the face Kanye is making he is not intentionally not trying to be funny but in reality he is because the way he is looking. That face can mean so many different things.