Denzel, act like you know
18th December 2017 · 0 Comments
I used to be very naive.
Believe it or not, there was a time when I actually believed that you had to have book smarts and a solid academic background to be a doctor or the president of the United States. Then I learned of former President George W. Bush, U.S. Sen./Dr. Bill Cassidy and Dr. Benjamin Carson, the brilliant neurosurgeon who now makes me wonder how he could have possibly made it through junior high school, not to mention college and med school.
Years later, after coming to learn that one could be a millionaire, businessman or successful elected official without being a genius, I could only howl with laughter after hearing former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards say that it took former Gov. Dave Treen “three hours to watch ‘60 Minutes.’”
I also used to think that everyone involved in the struggle had the best interests of Black people at heart.
Then I began to listen more closely and pay attention and found out otherwise.
Finally, I used to think that you had to be kind, compassionate and patient to be a schoolteacher.
Or that to be an actor or actress, you had to have a brilliant mind, a hunger for knowledge and a boatload of empathy for others.
Needless to say, I no longer think about actors and actresses the way I did when I was younger.
Almost every day, I hear or read something that makes me wonder what Hollywood types are smoking or drinking.
Take Denzel Washington for example.
Washington, a gifted and acclaimed actor, ruffled some feathers when he said recently that the prison system was not to blame for crime and violence in communities of color.
“It starts in the home,” Washington told The Grio. “If the father is not in the home, the boy will find a father in the streets. I saw it in my generation and every generation before me, and every one since.
“If the streets raise you, then the judge becomes your mother and prison becomes your home,” he added.
It’s not that Black folks don’t believe that people of color have to recommit themselves to being their best selves and uplifting the community. We get that.
The Black Press is chock full of columns about how Black folks can and must do better.
But it is incredibly myopic for anyone to suggest that systemic racism and its intricate network of laws, rules, policies and customs don’t have anything to do with the breakdown of Black families and communities of color.
The Black family has been under constant attack from the powers that be for more than “four score and twenty years ago” to borrow from a famous quote. Those attacks didn’t end with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation or the signing of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
The oppression of Black people in this nation and around the world continues to evolve with the great-grandsons of former slaveowners creating repressive new laws and policies that would have made their ancestors proud.
Denzel needs to stop acting as if he has all the answers to the problems that continue to plague Black America.
He hasn’t invested the time, research and energy needed to even think about leading and representing Black people.
He’s an actor and as such should focus his energies on acting.
While everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, Denzel and others do an incredible injustice and disservice to the struggle when they misuse their celebrity platform to share views and opinions that are not fully developed or based on decades of research and struggle.
Mind you, this wasn’t the first time Washington offered comments about race that left a lot of people scratching their heads.
In an interview with BET several years ago, Washington was asked whether colorism has negatively impacted the careers of dark-skinned actors and actresses in Hollywood. His answer left many questioning everything they thought they knew about the popular actor who won two Oscars and inspired millions. Referring to his co-star Viola Davis’ performance in the acclaimed, August Wilson-penned film, Fences, Washington said, “One of the best roles for a woman of any color in the last, in a good while or at least any movie that I’ve been in, a dark-skinned woman has in this film.”
The actor added that it isn’t skin color, but acting ability, that hinders darker actors from achieving success. “The easiest thing to do is to blame someone else, the system,” Washington told BET. “Yeah, there’s a possibility, maybe, that you’re not good enough, but it’s easy to say it’s someone else’s fault. But there’s a possibility that you’re not ready and you can still blame it on someone else instead of getting ready.”
I find it difficult to understand how Mr. Washington could take on the film roles of the rebellious slave Trip in the film Glory, the Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko in Cry Freedom and Malcolm X in the Spike Lee film and not have gained more insight, knowledge and wisdom from the background histories associated with these projects.
One might think that researching these periods in history and preparing for these roles might give someone a greater understanding and appreciation for the plight and struggle of Black people around the world for justice, liberation and self-determination.
Clearly that wasn’t the case with Denzel, who appears to think that his opinion is the only one that matters and that if he doesn’t believe something, it couldn’t possibly be true.
It would be interesting to speak to some of his former teachers about what kind of student he was and how much he studied Black history as a youth.
One thing that has become painfully obvious from social media and reality TV is that you can’t assume anything about entertainers and celebrities.
Some of them are unmistakably shallow, self-absorbed, superficial, clueless and woefully misinformed about the world they live in and issues like social injustice, police misconduct, mass incarceration and global warming.
Others, who take the time to nourish their minds and step outside of their charmed lives to educate themselves about the plight of the masses and how their lives are negatively impacted by white supremacist beliefs, systemic racism and economic injustice, get it.
But the thing is, some of those who don’t get it, think they do, and sometimes find themselves speaking to the media or posting comments about issues they clearly know very little about.
Clearly, Denzel Washington doesn’t get it but doesn’t know that he is ill-prepared to speak intelligently about the plight of Black people.
That’s not a dig at Denzel. He’s a great actor who has turned in some acting performances that will always be remembered for the way they inspired film-goers.
But a statesman he is not. Nor is he a thought or thoughtful-leader or someone who has been called to spark a revolution in the minds of people of African descent.
That’s simply not his calling.
He needs to act like he knows that.
This article originally published in the December 18, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
