Denzel on white racism, BLM, and the husbandless home

Michael Lumish

In this interview, Denzel Washington argues that the difficulties that black people often face in the USA has less to do with "the system," and its alleged embedded racism, than it has to do with the failure of the two-parent household within black urban communities.

This is an old argument initially made famous by Assistant Secretary of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in "The Negro Family: The Case For National Action" (1965). It is notable because Moynihan seemed to flip conventional wisdom on its head by suggesting that social/cultural conditions are not so much caused by economic conditions, but that economic conditions are primarily the result of the internal social and cultural conditions of the community.

Whatever the merits of such a view, it contradicts contemporary western-left assumptions that promote "intersectionality" and Critical Race Theory. These academic notions passed from professors to students and into the streets. They passed from mainstream media and social media, alike, into the corporate boardrooms.

The primary idea behind both Intersectional Theory and Critical Race Theory is that "white" people, i.e., people of European descent, have distinct epistemologies (ways of knowing) and ontologies (ways of being) that are racist, violent, oppressive of non-whites, authoritarian, imperialistic, militaristic, and colonial in nature. In other words, the problems that non-whites face, both in the West and throughout much of the world, is due to the malicious nature of Europeans and their kin around the globe.

What Denzel Washington, following Moynihan, suggests is that if we wish to see greater economic equality in the United States then we must look to ourselves and not only to the alleged injustice of others. People blame "White Privilege" and "systemic racism" for the failures of many within non-white communities to build decent lives for themselves and their families. Because of the unjust inequalities built directly into the American political and social systems it is allegedly understandable that well-meaning radicals, both white and black, would take to the streets in a wave of violence and rioting and looting and arson and murders that have continued non-stop for four months throughout the country.

Many on the Left believe that such behavior is perfectly understandable. What, after all, should European-Americans expect after treating black people like garbage for century upon century? And this is why, for example, the Democratic Party refused to even mention BLM/Antifa street violence during their most previous national convention. To highlight that violence is considered racist.

The problem with all of this, naturally, is that it insists upon "whiteness" as the primary cause of contemporary black grievances. In addition to the dubious (and racist) nature of such a claim, it also disinclines many poor people from exploring the opportunities before them.

What is the point, after all, of hard study in school or hard work at the shop if the "White Man" is going to throttle your ambitions on the streets of Minneapolis, anyway?