TMZ staffer Van Lathan discusses confronting Kanye West for saying slavery is a choice

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Lathan, who is black, has long been a fixture on TMZ Live and TMZ on TV. Now he's being described as a "new hero" for "schooling" the rapper after his controversial slavery comments in the TMZ offices this morning. "I’m incredibly proud of that staffer from TMZ," tweeted ESPN's Stephen A. Smith. "Brilliant, Eloquent & totally appropriate response." For his part, Lathan said of the Kanye confrontation: “You can endorse somebody that goes against the grain, but what they’re saying matters. What they’re putting out into the world matters. And for us to pretend like it doesn’t matter what someone is saying, as long as their brave enough to say it, is f*cking (ridiculous). I’ve never heard something that stupid before.”

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• "This is why it’s important to have diversity on your staff," tweeted comedian Chloe A. Hilliard. "No one else was gonna speak up. And #Kanye wasn’t going to respect anyone else speaking to him like this."
• "Van Lathan fired back with an answer that embodied," said Marwa Eltagouri, "what many confused and disappointed fans have been thinking in the days since West returned to Twitter, where he’s posted a nearly constant stream of abstract musings, many outlining his support for Trump, whom the rapper called his 'brother.'"