T-Pain took a firm stance on Black History Month, citing its tendency to revolve around the negativity the Black community faced instead of focusing on progress. He spoke on the fact that constant reminders of trauma can be used as a tool to create more of the same, and it doesn’t align with his views of what the Black future should look like. Other forward-thinking members of the Black community have expressed the same notions, albeit maybe a bit less laconic and easy to understand.
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Of course, though, with new ideas comes backlash and misunderstanding. Many people took to Twitter to attack T-Pain’s views of Black History Month itself, as if he stated that Black people should never speak about Black history. Contrary to that, T-Pain stated “We want to be a part of history, not just one month of it.” Regardless of this expansive and progressive stance, people still had things to say:
While a lot of the backlash didn’t take off in the sense of retweets and likes, the responses with the same set of opinions came en masse. Many quoted the statements as ignorant, ill-informed, and lacking education.
T-Pain feels as though people are viewing his point incorrectly and their anger is misdirected:
Other artists, namely Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), have suggested viewing February as Black Future Month instead and focusing on pushing our community to greater heights.
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