I totally missed this last month, but Lil’ Wayne said some words about racism. Lil’ Wayne was doing an interview on the Undisputed and he ended up chatting about how many white fans he has and what that means. He said: “I thought that was clearly a message that there was no such thing as racism. My crowd has always been everybody.” He said that to the younger peeps, racism is “not cool to them.” Like, there are tons of holes in that argument, but sure. Anyway, there was a lot of backlash and “????” online about Lil’ Wayne’s comments, and he ended up in another interview this week and tried to explain himself once again.

Lil Wayne has said he understands why some people criticised him for saying racism is over, but claimed people don’t see it from his perspective. The rapper was the subject of a backlash last month after he told the Fox Sports 1 show Undisputed that there is “no such thing as racism” because his concert audiences are attended by a lot of white fans. He also said millennials know racism isn’t cool.

When asked to expand on his thoughts, Lil Wayne told the Associated Press that one of the reasons he feels this way is that a white police officer saved his life when he was 12, after he accidentally shot himself in the chest. “Yeah, he was a cop, and my life was saved by a white man. I don’t know what racism is,” Wayne said. The Grammy-winning rapper said he was lying on the floor when police broke down the door, stepping over his body looking for guns and drugs. But one man stopped and chastised the others for leaving him. “He was white as snow. Them that hopped over me were blacker than me,” Wayne said.

Wayne says the man he called “Uncle Bob” personally took him to the hospital and stayed with him. “[He] stood there and waited until the doctor said ‘He’s gonna make it’.”

Wayne acknowledged that, despite what he said previously, there is such thing as racism. However, he added that when he looks out from the stage, he sees all colours. “It’s the world out there. It’s not a certain part or a certain kind or a certain culture or whatever of people. It’s people. Those people out there in that crowd,” he said. He added: “I’m blessed to have that opportunity, so with that said, I can only be honest with such a thing, I have never witnessed racism.”

[From The Guardian]

Again, there are so many holes in his argument! But I’m going to give Lil’ Wayne some credit here: I honestly think he’s trying to bring some positivity to the conversation and he’s telling a personal story about how a white man saved his life. Is this merely an anecdotal story about one man’s experience with a lack of racism in America? Of course. Statistically, of course Lil’ Wayne has experienced racism. Statistically, of course he’s encountered racist people doing and saying racist things. But there goes Lil’ Wayne, AllLivesMatter-ing.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.