Actor and comedian Mike Epps was recently at the center of growing criticism on social media after sharing his views on Black communities’ large celebrations of prison releases and reliance on food stamps. On Monday, the comedian took to social media to clarify the comments he sats were misunderstood.
“I just want to get on here and clarify and clear a few things up. Number one, about the brothers coming home from prison being celebrated,” he said, affirming his support for reform. “I think you guys might have misunderstood what I was saying. I might have said it the wrong way, but what I was trying to say is, we don’t want to send kids mixed messages about coming home from prison being celebrated. You know, feeling like you’ve got to go to prison, do 30, 40 years to be celebrated.”
Clarifying that he wasn’t suggesting that people shouldn’t be celebrated, Epps apologized to “anybody [who] took it the wrong way and got offended.” His apology comes a week after his appearance on Jim Jones’ “Artist 2 Artist” podcast, where he said: “Those are the wrong journeys to celebrate. Young man, there’s no reward for coming home after 30 years. You don’t get no f—king care package, n—a, you are a failure. Get your ass out here and help these kids, n—a, pay that back forward.”
In addition to clarifying his comments on Jones’ podcast, the comedian also took a moment to address the controversy surrounding his statements about food stamps. During an appearance on the Breakfast Club, Epps shared that he was ”glad” SNAP benefits has been cut off.
“I told people when these food stamps and stuff get cut off, ‘Don’t worry about that,’” he said at the time. “See, Black people, we’ve been getting our shit cut off. We’ve been getting our doors kicked in and stuff. This is not for us.”
He continued: “So don’t take this as personal about the food stamps and all that. I’m actually glad they’re cutting some of these n—s off food stamps because some of us need to not be on food stamps because it’s a trickle-down effect.”
In his latest video, he says, “the food stamp thing was misunderstood, too.”
“What I was saying is that we need to break the cycle of being on food stamps,” he continued. “There are three generations of people who have been on food stamps, of grandmother, mother, and daughter, that’s crazy. We gotta do better. We can’t think that we need assistance. I know there are some people out there that need assistance, that’s well, fine, and understood, but there are people out there taking advantage of the system, that’s not good.”
Epps concluded his video with a general apology to everyone to anyone he has offended.
