On a random Saturday in the middle of September, I opened YouTube to see several commentary videos on Matt Walsh’s new movie, “Am I Racist?” This was probably because of the several Jubilee “Left vs Right” YouTube videos I binged the night before, skewing my algorithm to feed me politically polar videos by certain individuals.
Some videos on the movie, like on Brett Cooper’s channel, “The Comments Section with Brett Cooper,” gave the film positive review, while others viewed it negatively, saying that Matt Walsh went too far. Not knowing what to think, I set out to watch the movie myself.
Like Sasha Baron Cohen’s “Borat,” Walsh’s movie follows a similar mock-umentary style of filmmaking, focused on the satirical character played by Walsh, a white man in America trying to learn how not to be racist. While Borat asks normal questions to crazy people, Walsh poses crazy questions to normal people in an attempt to limit his “whiteness” as much as possible. However, it seems that no matter what Walsh does, he ends up being viewed as racist.
One particularly funny moment in the film occurs when Walsh learns how to raise his daughter in a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) environment from an anti-racism educator named Sarra Tekola. He was told by the educator that his daughter should not resonate with only the white characters, and should be exposed to culturally diverse characters like Moana.
But, when Walsh asks if his daughter can dress up as Moana for Halloween — something that kids naturally do with characters they like — the educator advises against it because it would be considered a kind of cultural appropriation.
Dilemmas like this shine a light on the confusion and blurred lines that these DEI experts work with. But, that’s not even the biggest problem with the movement.
I have no issue with certain parts of DEI. I think diversity at its core is important and promotes innovative thinking; it makes sense to consider unique viewpoints from a variety of people instead of just one type of person. However, when these DEI “experts” start guilt-tripping people into thinking they are racist and then making them pay for courses to magically “curb” their racism, that’s when the problems arise and why so many Americans seem bent on curbing it. Later in the interview, Walsh visits two of these profit-seeking DEI “experts,” Saira Rao and Regina Jackson’s “Race to Dinner.”
At this dinner, white women pay to sit with these two “experts” and get told for an hour straight how racist they are and how they unknowingly contribute to racism in America. Yes, I know that these women willingly paid for the dinner, but when it’s marketed by targeting the guilt of its customers, it is simply immoral.
Though Walsh doesn’t end with a strong call to action, this movie does a great job of shining a light on some of the darker sides of DEI movements.
