Denzel Washington: Don't Blame The Prison System, 'It Starts At The Home'

[7figz]

Like I said, it's deliberately inflammatory especially with a line like this:

“So you know I can’t blame the system,” he continued. “It’s unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.”

I'm not sure if there's ever a reason to say you can't blame a systematically racist system.

I would've preferred to see a video of the interview or read it in entirety in order to qualify that shit. People be trying to append their own thoughts to shit to clean it up.

And those celebs keep falling for setup questions. If I said some shit like that, I'd expect it to be taken out of context / misconstrued - because there's a whole lot of shit you could blame the system for. And then there's some shit you can't.

It's not always one way, some shit is nuanced.

 

[The_Jackal]

I've said it before and I'll say it again I'm proud to be in the Army and to continue to serve. But you can ask @Black_Samson What he saw in Afghanistan and Iraq when the War first started and which fields were protected.

I'll give you a hint it's Afghainstan number one export, it's highly illegal, and you can bet that CIA smuggles it to increase revenue.

 

[7figz]

Speaking of military, you think MFs in the middle east saying "Stop blaming the Americans for everything, Ahmed - pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It starts at home" ?

 

[sunlord]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

 

[The_Jackal]

Fuck that damn straight I blame the system as far as the overall community goes. On an individual basis yes personal responsibility plays but having your father, mothers, leaders, imprisoned or killed does no help. Such system was systematic put in place to specifically weaken the community.

 

[The_Jackal]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

Again foolishness that attempts to disregard America's history. Yes of course you first point is correct but if you have no other way to provide for your family what are you expected to do? I'll drop a little note to explain. All through NJ at least on record schools are desergrated but off record it's a different story. Even in my town there were two public schools, one in my part of town and one in the noticeably whiter part of town. Guess which school the majority of blacks went to. Then guess which school had overall better funding. These has been and continues to go on.

 

[playmaker88]

Speaking of military, you think MFs in the middle east saying "Stop blaming the Americans for everything, Ahmed - pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It starts at home" ?

Listen fam..All it starts at home means that.. if you as a family put your best foot forward and provide and equip your kids with more than just a roof over their head and sustenance

you did your job but at the end of the day.. that dirty word accountability comes back into play...

faulty logic here.. not everyone in the middle east is strapping a bomb to their chest.. just like every nigga aint out here fucking up

 

[7figz]

And @Cain, don't get me wrong - I'm not saying we can't talk about issues in the Black community but you can't see how one-sided the quote presented from Denzel is ?

So now we gonna act like prison exists in a vacuum ? And there ain't no traps to lock people up.

Read his quote. He said that we're making easy for them. He never said that white supremacy never existed or that prison system isn't set up to get you locked down.

Let it go

These dudes in here can’t understand a basic sentence right now

No-sign. People are explaining exactly the faults they find with dude's statements and MFs ignoring it.

More like "dudes in here can't seem to think about more than one aspect of an issue."

Simple question - did he mention racism / white-supremacy / socio-economic issues in his quote or not ?

 

[twenty2]

Are we in agreement that our condition today is directly caused by being human trafficked from Africa to the states???

If you knock over a tall glass of milk in my house , I’ll clean it because it’s my house, and i won’t let you forget that you knocked the glass over

But if you kidnap me, take me to your house,lock me in a small ass room, knock over a glass of milk and tell me to clean it up, ima look at you like you crazy nigga...fuck is you talkin bout...

So... If you in that small ass room with the spilled milk...and you got yo wife in there with you...and y'all just tryin to survive in that small ass room...and the milk starts to curd and stink and mold...and then y'all have a child...while still in that small ass room...and let's say you absolutely CAN'T get out of that small ass room...and that curded, stinking, rotten milk is still in there...and by now you've figured out that the muthafucka that kidnapped you has no intention of coming back to clean up the milk........Will you allow your kid to roll around and play in it?

My child literally has no choice but to play in it....or not play at all, and that’s the dilemma a lot of black parents face....what do i do?? Do i let my son play in spoiled milk...at least he can play, or do i deny him the right to play

And that sounds like you don't love your child.

Health issues and whatever else may come along with, you willing just let your child wallow in filth huh? No teaching of tactics on how to avoid that fucked up spot? No "Go play over there lil nigga!"?

And guess what that white man outside that lil ass room sayin while he peekin in at that rotten milk spot he so cleverly and intentionally spilled knowing of all the health risks involved all the while hoping that not only you would just leave it be but you wouldn't teach your child to do anything about it or even at the very least avoid it either... Just guess what he sayin???

"GOTCHA NIGGA!!!"

 

[7figz]

Speaking of military, you think MFs in the middle east saying "Stop blaming the Americans for everything, Ahmed - pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It starts at home" ?

Listen fam..All it starts at home means that.. if you as a family put your best foot forward and provide and equip your kids with more than just a roof over their head and sustenance

you did your job but at the end of the day.. that dirty word accountability comes back into play...

faulty logic here.. not everyone in the middle east is strapping a bomb to their chest.. just like every nigga aint out here fucking up

I didn't say everybody in the middle east... and I'm 100% cool with doing your best to raise your children (obviously) - can't see what reasonable person wouldn't be BUT and here's the big part people supporting this shit seem to be missing is -

Even after you "took care of home" so to speak, there are still issues that are going to affect you. That's why Denzel's quote is oversimplifying shit.

Know how much people out here did their best raising their kids and they still ended up in jail, addicted to drugs, dropped out of school, or whatever ... ?

Why the fuck MFs got a problem with people taking issue wit a half-assed, idealistic statement like that ?

For example, imagine if somebody summarized all the issues of cops, jails, police brutality, race, etc... into "It starts at home" - would that be a sufficient response ? Nope.

 

[jetlifebih]

98% of African Americans aren't doing bad. That's straight made up garbage.

That was a mistake on my end, blacks own 2% of the wealth, that’s as a whole, but what i meant was even in the AA community of 48 million there are only 35,000 millionaires.....48,000,000 black people only 35,000 millionaires....now again it may not be 98, but it ain’t lower than 88% and I’ll bet $ on that, if we look of the statistics for black wealth

 

[playmaker88]

Speaking of military, you think MFs in the middle east saying "Stop blaming the Americans for everything, Ahmed - pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It starts at home" ?

Listen fam..All it starts at home means that.. if you as a family put your best foot forward and provide and equip your kids with more than just a roof over their head and sustenance

you did your job but at the end of the day.. that dirty word accountability comes back into play...

faulty logic here.. not everyone in the middle east is strapping a bomb to their chest.. just like every nigga aint out here fucking up

I didn't say everybody in the middle east... and I'm 100% cool with doing your best to raise your children (obviously) - can't see what reasonable person wouldn't be BUT and here's the big part people supporting this shit seem to be missing is -



Even after you "took care of home" so to speak, there are still issues that are going to affect you. That's why Denzel's quote is oversimplifying shit.

Know how much people out here did their best raising their kids and they still ended up in jail, addicted to drugs, dropped out of school, or whatever ... ?

Why the fuck MFs got a problem with people criticizing a half-assed idealistic statement like that ?

For example, imagine if somebody summarized all the issues of cops, jails, police brutality, race, etc... into "It starts at home" - would that be a sufficient response ? Nope.

He wasnt writing an article.. he was responding to a question amongst many i presume. If someone ask a question about the weather you arent going to give them the environment/human factors that lead to the climate that produced the weather.. you are gonna say its raining grab an umbrella

as for the bolded people have choices in how they approach life .. barring unforeseen circumstances that are out of ones control..(that last part didnt need to be said but.. for the sake of clarity)

 

[jetlifebih]

Are we in agreement that our condition today is directly caused by being human trafficked from Africa to the states???

If you knock over a tall glass of milk in my house , I’ll clean it because it’s my house, and i won’t let you forget that you knocked the glass over

But if you kidnap me, take me to your house,lock me in a small ass room, knock over a glass of milk and tell me to clean it up, ima look at you like you crazy nigga...fuck is you talkin bout...

So... If you in that small ass room with the spilled milk...and you got yo wife in there with you...and y'all just tryin to survive in that small ass room...and the milk starts to curd and stink and mold...and then y'all have a child...while still in that small ass room...and let's say you absolutely CAN'T get out of that small ass room...and that curded, stinking, rotten milk is still in there...and by now you've figured out that the muthafucka that kidnapped you has no intention of coming back to clean up the milk........Will you allow your kid to roll around and play in it?

My child literally has no choice but to play in it....or not play at all, and that’s the dilemma a lot of black parents face....what do i do?? Do i let my son play in spoiled milk...at least he can play, or do i deny him the right to play

And that sounds like you don't love your child.

Health issues and whatever else may come along with, you willing just let your child wallow in filth huh? No teaching of tactics on how to avoid that fucked up spot? No "Go play over there lil nigga!"?

And guess what that white man outside that lil ass room sayin while he peekin in at that rotten milk spot he so cleverly and intentionally spilled knowing of all the health risks involved all the while hoping that not only you would just leave it be but you wouldn't teach your child to do anything about it or even at the very least avoid it either... Just guess what he sayin???

"GOTCHA NIGGA!!!"

Your oversimplifying it...

 

[sunlord]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

Again foolishness that attempts to disregard America's history. Yes of course you first point is correct but if you have no other way to provide for your family what are you expected to do? I'll drop a little note to explain. All through NJ at least on record schools are desergrated but off record it's a different story. Even in my town there were two public schools, one in my part of town and one in the noticeably whiter part of town. Guess which school the majority of blacks went to. Then guess which school had overall better funding. These has been and continues to go on.

History is what it is and it's never going to change so are you going to use history as a scapegoat forever??? And by the way Blacks were poorer in the past poverty in the 1970s - 1980s was nothing compared to the depression era but we didn't kill each other so much as we did during the crack era and forward. You being poor doesn't justify murder and it is the killings that caused even black politicians to push for harder jail sentences during the crack era.

 

[The_Jackal]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

Again foolishness that attempts to disregard America's history. Yes of course you first point is correct but if you have no other way to provide for your family what are you expected to do? I'll drop a little note to explain. All through NJ at least on record schools are desergrated but off record it's a different story. Even in my town there were two public schools, one in my part of town and one in the noticeably whiter part of town. Guess which school the majority of blacks went to. Then guess which school had overall better funding. These has been and continues to go on.

History is what it is and it's never going to change so are you going to use history as a scapegoat forever??? And by the way Blacks were poorer in the past poverty in the 1970s - 1980s was nothing compared to the depression era but we didn't kill each other so much as we did during the crack era and forward. You being poor doesn't justify murder and it is the killings that caused even black politicians to push for harder jail sentences during the crack era.

This is why I put that timeline in the previous post and said niggas aren't as smart as they think. It's not history this continues to effect present day but niggas are too blind to connect that dots. Mandatory minimum were repealed only in 2010 under the free sentencing act though some states illegally still push it. Under said laws even recreational marijuana uses was punishable up to 5 years in prison which judges usually pushed for since they also had stock in the prison industrial complex. For just using a dime bag for recreational use and taking a plea since most werent able to afford lawyers you are cut off from the job market and then cut off form receiving aid for higher education. This continues to go on today with overzealous DAs and corrupt judges. Facts.

As far as your second part you continue to oversimplify the world and refuse to truly look at history. Historically crime rates were lower specifically murder rates because we don't see a major advance in weaponry until ww2/Vietnam and secondly because by the 70s and 80s government sponsored crack dealers were actively destroying Black communities and Black families on purpose.

I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for niggas to admit that "hey for the majority of Black history and even to an extent today in American we have been hated and actively tried to be destroy."

Nobody literally NOBODY in this thread is arguing against personal responsibility simply saying don't be blind to what's happening and what continued to happen. And that YOU CAN BE RESPONSIBLE AND STILL FAIL. You can try your damn hardest and still fail. That's the reality of being Black in America

 

[twenty2]

Are we in agreement that our condition today is directly caused by being human trafficked from Africa to the states???

If you knock over a tall glass of milk in my house , I’ll clean it because it’s my house, and i won’t let you forget that you knocked the glass over

But if you kidnap me, take me to your house,lock me in a small ass room, knock over a glass of milk and tell me to clean it up, ima look at you like you crazy nigga...fuck is you talkin bout...

So... If you in that small ass room with the spilled milk...and you got yo wife in there with you...and y'all just tryin to survive in that small ass room...and the milk starts to curd and stink and mold...and then y'all have a child...while still in that small ass room...and let's say you absolutely CAN'T get out of that small ass room...and that curded, stinking, rotten milk is still in there...and by now you've figured out that the muthafucka that kidnapped you has no intention of coming back to clean up the milk........Will you allow your kid to roll around and play in it?

My child literally has no choice but to play in it....or not play at all, and that’s the dilemma a lot of black parents face....what do i do?? Do i let my son play in spoiled milk...at least he can play, or do i deny him the right to play

And that sounds like you don't love your child.

Health issues and whatever else may come along with, you willing just let your child wallow in filth huh? No teaching of tactics on how to avoid that fucked up spot? No "Go play over there lil nigga!"?

And guess what that white man outside that lil ass room sayin while he peekin in at that rotten milk spot he so cleverly and intentionally spilled knowing of all the health risks involved all the while hoping that not only you would just leave it be but you wouldn't teach your child to do anything about it or even at the very least avoid it either... Just guess what he sayin???

"GOTCHA NIGGA!!!"

Your oversimplifying it...

Nah...

I just refuse to view myself as helpless, hopeless, a victim, or any other thing these white folk would love for me to think of myself as... And I damn sho won't instill it into my children. I'm defiant.

I play chess... Right along wit these honkies...

And I try to teach as many as I can to play too...

Too bad niggas love checkers so much...

 

[sunlord]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

Again foolishness that attempts to disregard America's history. Yes of course you first point is correct but if you have no other way to provide for your family what are you expected to do? I'll drop a little note to explain. All through NJ at least on record schools are desergrated but off record it's a different story. Even in my town there were two public schools, one in my part of town and one in the noticeably whiter part of town. Guess which school the majority of blacks went to. Then guess which school had overall better funding. These has been and continues to go on.

History is what it is and it's never going to change so are you going to use history as a scapegoat forever??? And by the way Blacks were poorer in the past poverty in the 1970s - 1980s was nothing compared to the depression era but we didn't kill each other so much as we did during the crack era and forward. You being poor doesn't justify murder and it is the killings that caused even black politicians to push for harder jail sentences during the crack era.

This is why I put that timeline in the previous post and said niggas aren't as smart as they think. It's not history this continues to effect present day but niggas are too blind to connect that dots. Mandatory minimum were repealed only in 2010 under the free sentencing act though some states illegally still push it. Under said laws even recreational marijuana uses was punishable up to 5 years in prison which judges usually pushed for since they also had stock in the prison industrial complex. For just using a dime bag for recreational use and taking a plea since most werent able to afford lawyers you are cut off from the job market and then cut off form receiving aid for higher education. This continues to go on today with overzealous DAs and corrupt judges. Facts.

As far as your second part you continue to oversimplify the world and refuse to truly look at history. Historically crime rates were lower specifically murder rates because we don't see a major advance in weaponry until ww2/Vietnam and secondly because by the 70s and 80s government sponsored crack dealers were actively destroying Black communities and Black families on purpose.

I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for niggas to admit that "hey for the majority of Black history and even to an extent today in American we have been hated and actively tried to be destroy."

Nobody literally NOBODY in this thread is arguing against personal responsibility simply saying don't be blind to what's happening and what continued to happen. And that YOU CAN BE RESPONSIBLE AND STILL FAIL. You can try your damn hardest and still fail. That's the reality of being Black in America

What's happening is that even after blacks learn the history we keep on doing dumb shit. And want to blame the government who we already know doesn't give a fuck. We have know about the governmental involvement in the drug trade since about the mid 80's but niggas kept on selling drugs and killing for it.

Weed is illegal if you use it and get caught you face the consequence. Everyone who smokes knows that. Black Government sponsored crack dealers came from what community??? The Black community so in other words that community produced an individual of low moral character. Where did this person come from a black home.

And your technology arguments make no sense America had gun crime well before the ww2.

 

[sunlord]

If you don't listen you will feel i am just going to leave it at that.

 

[7figz]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

Again foolishness that attempts to disregard America's history. Yes of course you first point is correct but if you have no other way to provide for your family what are you expected to do? I'll drop a little note to explain. All through NJ at least on record schools are desergrated but off record it's a different story. Even in my town there were two public schools, one in my part of town and one in the noticeably whiter part of town. Guess which school the majority of blacks went to. Then guess which school had overall better funding. These has been and continues to go on.

History is what it is and it's never going to change so are you going to use history as a scapegoat forever??? And by the way Blacks were poorer in the past poverty in the 1970s - 1980s was nothing compared to the depression era but we didn't kill each other so much as we did during the crack era and forward. You being poor doesn't justify murder and it is the killings that caused even black politicians to push for harder jail sentences during the crack era.

This is why I put that timeline in the previous post and said niggas aren't as smart as they think. It's not history this continues to effect present day but niggas are too blind to connect that dots. Mandatory minimum were repealed only in 2010 under the free sentencing act though some states illegally still push it. Under said laws even recreational marijuana uses was punishable up to 5 years in prison which judges usually pushed for since they also had stock in the prison industrial complex. For just using a dime bag for recreational use and taking a plea since most werent able to afford lawyers you are cut off from the job market and then cut off form receiving aid for higher education. This continues to go on today with overzealous DAs and corrupt judges. Facts.

As far as your second part you continue to oversimplify the world and refuse to truly look at history. Historically crime rates were lower specifically murder rates because we don't see a major advance in weaponry until ww2/Vietnam and secondly because by the 70s and 80s government sponsored crack dealers were actively destroying Black communities and Black families on purpose.

I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for niggas to admit that "hey for the majority of Black history and even to an extent today in American we have been hated and actively tried to be destroy."

Nobody literally NOBODY in this thread is arguing against personal responsibility simply saying don't be blind to what's happening and what continued to happen. And that YOU CAN BE RESPONSIBLE AND STILL FAIL. You can try your damn hardest and still fail. That's the reality of being Black in America

What's happening is that even after blacks learn the history we keep on doing dumb shit. And want to blame the government who we already know doesn't give a fuck. We have know about the governmental involvement in the drug trade since about the mid 80's but niggas kept on selling drugs and killing for it.

Weed is illegal if you use it and get caught you face the consequence. Everyone who smokes knows that. Black Government sponsored crack dealers came from what community??? The Black community so in other words that community produced an individual of low moral character. Where did this person come from a black home.

And your technology arguments make no sense America had gun crime well before the ww2.

There go that losing ass argument - "We keep doing dumb shit"... who the fuck is we ?

There's drug dealers of every fuckin race - there ain't gonna be no Black drug dealers ?

All races smoke weed, same question.

Self-hatred like a MF.

 

[The_Jackal]

The government flooded the Black community with drugs but nobody made us sell or use those drugs..... and the viciousness at which we killed each other for them is all our fault. All races do crime but niggas took shit to the pit of hell and made the communities hell.

Again foolishness that attempts to disregard America's history. Yes of course you first point is correct but if you have no other way to provide for your family what are you expected to do? I'll drop a little note to explain. All through NJ at least on record schools are desergrated but off record it's a different story. Even in my town there were two public schools, one in my part of town and one in the noticeably whiter part of town. Guess which school the majority of blacks went to. Then guess which school had overall better funding. These has been and continues to go on.

History is what it is and it's never going to change so are you going to use history as a scapegoat forever??? And by the way Blacks were poorer in the past poverty in the 1970s - 1980s was nothing compared to the depression era but we didn't kill each other so much as we did during the crack era and forward. You being poor doesn't justify murder and it is the killings that caused even black politicians to push for harder jail sentences during the crack era.

This is why I put that timeline in the previous post and said niggas aren't as smart as they think. It's not history this continues to effect present day but niggas are too blind to connect that dots. Mandatory minimum were repealed only in 2010 under the free sentencing act though some states illegally still push it. Under said laws even recreational marijuana uses was punishable up to 5 years in prison which judges usually pushed for since they also had stock in the prison industrial complex. For just using a dime bag for recreational use and taking a plea since most werent able to afford lawyers you are cut off from the job market and then cut off form receiving aid for higher education. This continues to go on today with overzealous DAs and corrupt judges. Facts.

As far as your second part you continue to oversimplify the world and refuse to truly look at history. Historically crime rates were lower specifically murder rates because we don't see a major advance in weaponry until ww2/Vietnam and secondly because by the 70s and 80s government sponsored crack dealers were actively destroying Black communities and Black families on purpose.

I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for niggas to admit that "hey for the majority of Black history and even to an extent today in American we have been hated and actively tried to be destroy."

Nobody literally NOBODY in this thread is arguing against personal responsibility simply saying don't be blind to what's happening and what continued to happen. And that YOU CAN BE RESPONSIBLE AND STILL FAIL. You can try your damn hardest and still fail. That's the reality of being Black in America

What's happening is that even after blacks learn the history we keep on doing dumb shit. And want to blame the government who we already know doesn't give a fuck. We have know about the governmental involvement in the drug trade since about the mid 80's but niggas kept on selling drugs and killing for it.

Weed is illegal if you use it and get caught you face the consequence. Everyone who smokes knows that. Black Government sponsored crack dealers came from what community??? The Black community so in other words that community produced an individual of low moral character. Where did this person come from a black home.

And your technology arguments make no sense America had gun crime well before the ww2.

Bruh lol I don't know if I'm being trolled are what.

Niggas keep on selling drugs and killing for it because the opportunities in said communities were limited and only started to truly be desergrated until the 1990. Even today Republicans are trying to reshape borders of towns and counties to favor whites. Even today Republicans are trying to deny blacks the chance to vote with voter id laws. Facts.

Yes weed is illegal. It's also illegal to detain someone without charging them with a crime, to search there persons, or property without a warrant, to subject them to "cruel and unusual punishment" ie 5 years for a dime bag, and to deny them from speaking to there lawyer. But you sure as fuck don't seem to care about that.

Again though it goes into a circle of limited opportunities and want on destruction of the Black community. Don't get it wrong though Italian, Irish, and Columbian gangsters were also slinging to the Black community. You go blame that on blacks too?

And I'm glad you made that last point because it clearly demonstrates the whole unable to connect the dots. I said historically America crime rights as far as murder was lower across the board for all races pre ww2/Vietnam because weaponry wasn't advance. If the average weapon pre ww2 that a gangster could get there hands on were semi autopistols and shotguns and post ww2 it jumps to fully autoassualt rifles and machine guns it's only natural the crime rate would rise since the weaponry is more advance, deadly, fully automatic, and carries more rounds. Again niggas refuse to think and connect the dots to see how our past currently is affecting our present.

And again nobody shrugging personal responsibility but in American sometimes it's not enough for black people