On Wednesday, in conversation with Fox Business Network show host Maria Bartiromo, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice voiced her opinion on the whole brouhaha stirred up by recent controversial comments made by Kanye West in support of President Trump and on the topic of slavery. When Maria asked Rice what she thought, "as a successful woman of color," of the backlash against the rap star's remarks, Rice responded with a strong yet eloquent defense of West and take-down of his mostly left-leaning critics, saying she believes 'Kanye knows what it means to be an American'. In her own words: "First of all, I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it. But I can say, people ought to be able to express their views. Not all of us have to think politically the same way. I've said to people sometimes, 'You know, I've been black all my life. You don't have to tell me how to be black.' I think we need to recognize that in some ways the height of prejudice is to look at somebody and think you know what they think because of the color of their skin. I hope we get to the point that people get to express their views and you can agree with them or disagree." Rice also shared that, as a teacher at Stanford with "students who come from a wide variety of political views," she does not tell them what to think, only how to hone their arguments. Watch below: //video.foxbusiness.com/v/embed.js?id=5779344193001&w=566&h=363Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com - Dante Spellman