Kanye West doesn't think that racism is a black-and-white issue.
In a recent interview with Clique TV, he described it "dated," saying, "It's like a silly concept that people try to touch on...to separate, to alienate, to pinpoint anything. It's stupid."
"It's like a bouncing ball in a room with two cats, or something, when you don't feel like playing with a cat," he said. "Let them literally fight over the bouncing ball. And the bouncing ball has nothing, no purpose, anything other than that: It bounces. That's racism. It's not an actual thing that even means anything."
"It's something that was used to hold people back in the past," he acknowledged, "but now there's been so many leaps and breaking of the rules that it's like it's played out like a style from the 1800s or something." Kanye pointed out there have been many "black people that have broken the concept of race," including President Barack Obama and hip-hop mogul Jay Z.
But while Ye believes racism itself is a thing of the past, he realizes that the N-word is "difficult for black people right now."
"It does hurt when we hear that," he said, "because we're still in a generation that remembers when racism was a big thing that held people back."
Clique TV went on to ask Kanye specifically about his song "N----s in Paris" and what he thought of those lyrics being repeated verbatim by different individuals at his shows (this conversation begins about 6 minutes and 30 seconds into the clip above). "It's true," he said, "that white people use that word [the N-word] at concerts. It's like when my words get taken out of context. I can say anything I want on a beat, but when I would say it in an interview, it would be taken out of context, and all, 'Oh, he's an ego-maniac.' But it's like, 'Wait a second, this is the way people rap.'"
He went on to discuss being on a mission "of breaking down these words and these stereotypes and this imagery," bringing up his own use of a controversial symbol. "I took the Confederate flag and I just wore it on my arm like, 'Now what?' What If I as a black guy take this thing that's used to be racist against...and now what? Basically, you know, because people get so caught up in the wrong things and want to point fingers off of content over intent."