Erykah Badu See’s the Good in Everyone… Even Hitler?

Erykah Badu has Black Twitter in an uproar for saying that she see’s good in Adolf Hitler during an exclusive interview with Vulture.com 

The 46-year-old superstar sat down with David Marchese to discuss hip-hop culture, millennials, and vibrations. All very familiar topics you could expect to hear Erykah talk about. But what we didn’t expect to hear from her claiming to see good in the man who ordered the deaths of over 6 million people.

Check out the interview:

That’s not something most of us are good at. 
We’re not, and I’m okay with that. I’m also okay with anything I had to say about Louis Farrakhan. But I’m not an anti-Semitic person. I don’t even know what anti-Semitic was before I was called it. I’m a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler.

Come again?
Yeah, I did. Hitler was a wonderful painter.

No, he wasn’t! And even if he was, what would his skill as a painter have to do with any “good” in him?
Okay, he was a terrible painter. Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood. That means that when I’m looking at my daughter, MarsBadu’s daughter with enigmatic rapper Jay Electronica. She also has another daughter, Puma, with the West Coast rapper the D.O.C., I could imagine her being in someone else’s home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn. I see things like that. I guess it’s just the Pisces in me.

I’m perfectly willing to accept that you might be operating on a higher moral plane than I am, but I think going down the route of “Hitler was a child once too” is maybe turning the idea of empathy into an empty abstraction. 
Maybe so. It doesn’t test my limits — I can see this clearly. I don’t care if the whole group says something, I’m going to be honest. I know I don’t have the most popular opinion sometimes.

But don’t you think that someone as evil as Hitler, who did what he did, has forfeited the right to other people’s empathy?
Why can’t I say what I’m saying? Because he did such terrible things?

Well, yes. But it’s also disheartening to hear you say that at a time, like now, when racism and anti-Semitism are so much in the air. Why would you want to risk putting fuel on that fire?
You asked me a question. I could’ve chosen not to answer. I don’t walk around thinking about Hitler or Louis Farrakhan. But I understand what you’re saying: “Why would you want to risk fueling hateful thinking?” I have a platform, and I would never want to hurt people. I would never do that. I would never even imagine doing that. I would never even want a group of white men who believe that the Confederate flag is worth saving to feel bad. That’s not how I operate.

As you can expect Erykah Badu fans and critics set the internet on fire with their reaction to her interview.

If we’re being honest, Erykah Badu’s discography isn’t even all that great for her to be getting away with all these problematic opinions. pic.twitter.com/SdYbTknfjJ

— Ronald Isley (@yoyotrav) January 24, 2018

Read that entire vulture interview twice and I just… LORDT.

Erykah Badu told a JEWISH JOURNALIST she saw good in Hitler. pic.twitter.com/T3U7CBVt1L

— Vaccine Shaw (@TheJazzyBelle) January 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/BlackFranFine/status/956194483087052800

Erykah Badu, nooooooo! (Erykah and I went to college together, and I’m just floored by this interview) https://t.co/5ndjVDyHiN pic.twitter.com/G7Xyh93ms9

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) January 24, 2018

Even though Erykah Badu admitted that her opinions may go against popular beliefs, she stands firmly by her statements. She has never been one to shy away from controversy and her willingness to speak freely is why many of us love her. But was this the best things to say especially during a time where the Trump Administration seems to be following in Hitler’s footsteps.

What do you think of Erykah’s statement?