Am I Racist? demolishes the race grifters

‘Do the work.’ This is a refrain you will hear a lot from the people who populate Matt Walsh’s latest film, Am I Racist? – although it’s never entirely clear what they consciously mean by this when they say it. Those who appeared in Walsh’s previous film, What Is a Woman?, could not say what a woman is when asked. Like them, so many of those in the world explored in Am I Racist? can’t even define the basic terms that are at the heart of the ideology they espouse.

The focus of Am I Racist? is on what might be termed ‘race grifters’ – those who rake in thousands of dollars by getting white people into a room and then making them feel bad about themselves. The film has been widely ignored by the American mainstream media. Despite this, it has made it into the US box-office top five. It’s a great example of how trying to leave certain arguments out of the conversation leads to them becoming more powerful.

Although I liked the film very much, I will admit that I felt the first half hour of Am I Racist? was a little slow. Looking back on it, I believe this has something to do with the hype around the film. Some supporters are calling it the comedic equal of Borat, but it is also in the shadow of the brilliant What Is a Woman?.

Walsh’s previous film had people saying the most outrageous things, as he tied them up in knots with the simplest of questions. The interviewees tended to be people in real positions of power in American institutions. Compared with influential professors from top universities seriously wondering whether Santa Claus is real, or if people should be able to identify as wolves, the interview subjects in Am I Racist? seemed a little small-change at first.

Then, it happened. The ‘dinner scene’ arrives and the film then takes off like a rocket for an hour and never lets up. The scene in question shows two middle-aged activists who get paid thousands of dollars a pop to host dinners for white women (white women are the only ones allowed to attend these events), where they address ‘whiteness’. The hosts make the women feel bad about themselves for the colour of their skin. They say things like ‘This country is a piece of shit’, or that the ‘system’ needs to be ‘burned down’.

The climax of the film is undoubtedly the back-to-back punch of Walsh’s incognito interview with White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo, and Walsh running his own anti-racist clinic for paying customers. The interview with DiAngelo is where the film comes into its own. It exposes how powerful this nonsense has become, and why it needs to be taken as seriously as the nutty professors in What Is a Woman?. While DiAngelo isn’t directly in a position of power herself, she has been paid by several of the largest corporate entities in the world to peddle her nonsense, where it has become ingrained in the working lives of millions of Americans. This is ruthlessly exposed in Am I Racist?. In my view, the film would be worth a watch even if the DiAngelo interview was the only good thing in it. I would even go as far as to say that the interview is an important historical document.

The scene after the DiAngelo interview, in which Walsh holds his own anti-racist clinic, is also a brutal, brilliant watch. He keeps upping the stakes throughout, saying more and more ridiculous things, getting his paying customers to be increasingly absurd themselves. It is a brilliant skewering of where a certain ideological path has gone horribly wrong – and a great demonstration of the importance of common sense.

I’ll close here by mentioning that I do believe systemic racism is a real issue. I just don’t believe we solve it by having wealthy white women attend thousand-dollar-a-plate dinners in which they claim their ‘whiteness’ makes them ‘cringe’. I also don’t believe it is a healthy development that saying ‘Do the work’ like a mantra has become a substitute for looking at the real issues that underpin racism. Worse than that, I believe this stuff has made racism worse across the West. When there is no perceived difference between a well-meaning white woman who wants to overcome her ‘whiteness’ and self-declared white supremacists – we’re all racist, you see? – then the word ‘racism’ loses its punch, its meaning. That allows real racists to flourish.

The film isn’t out yet in the UK, but I would implore you to watch it when it arrives on our shores. You will hear a lot about this film, mostly from people who haven’t seen it. From one end, that it is as funny as Borat, from the other, that it is beneath contempt. See it yourself and make up your own mind.

Nick Tyrone is a journalist, author and think-tanker. His latest novel, The Patient, is out now.

Watch the trailer for Am I Racist? here: