NB: this review includes spoilers.
If you enjoyed What Is a Woman?, you will be horrified at how far Matt Walsh has fallen with Am I Racist? The negative adjectives that apply to this film are many; however, the tragedy is that his feeble attempt at comedy derails what could have been a historic examination and humiliation of race hustlers.
With the tagline of “A comedy to DEI for,” Am I Racist? (101 minutes) opened on September 13 and sought to combine guerrilla journalism with a Borat-style mockumentary—and what a train wreck it is. The objective of the de facto sequel to What Is a Woman? (2022) is opaque, but the viewer gets the impression that Am I Racist? is a rushed, low-class attempt to make a buck off racial tension in the United States. Walsh of the Daily Wire, while persuading few people of anything, has lost the magic and become the scourge and hustler he is seeking to poke fun at.
Unfortunately, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is one of those topics, like vaccination mandates and transgenderism in sports, that divide people starkly along partisan lines. Such division is a red flag that confusion prevails and demagogues are demonizing the other side. The antidote is sunlight: clarity for the world to see.
What Is a Woman? provided that sunlight by asking simple questions of prominent individuals who advocate for sex reassignment and that so-called transwomen are women. Similarly, The Red Pill movie (2016) by Cassie Jaye interviewed prominent feminists and critics of the men’s rights movement. In both cases the purported experts fell on their swords—they were their own worst enemies and revealed themselves to be intellectually shallow.
In Am I Racist? Walsh injects himself unnecessarily and tries to be funny—he is not—by interrupting frequently and posing mostly facile questions. This is a squandered opportunity, because his team managed to get the who’s who of DEI, by paying them plenty of money, to agree to interviews. For example, Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility (2018), gave a two-hour interview for $15,000, and the chief part that made the cut was Walsh persuading her to give $30 to a black man for reparations. What that is supposed to prove is a mystery.
Further, Walsh’s team managed to get cameras into an evening with the two ladies who lead Race2Dinner: Regina Jackson and Saira Rao. These women literally charge thousands of dollars to come and have dinner with eight white women and teach them about “white supremacy, racism, and xenophobia.” This fascinating gravy train demonstrates the guilt many white women feel, warranted or not, and the discussion portended insights into the thinking of the two leaders and the eight participants. However, Walsh posed as a waiter and interrupted almost the entire evening. Those there for the event could hardly get a word in. While Rao told the attendees that Republicans are Nazis and that the United States is a vulgar nation that deserves to go down and be replaced, Walsh spilled the dishes and announced he was glad people could have such conversations.
The irony is that the viewer, even if he is predisposed to disdain for DEI initiatives, is likely to sympathize with those leading the events. Walsh treated them rudely, and yet we are supposed to get annoyed when the DEI instructors kick Walsh out of their events. Anyone leading a workshop would do the same. These juvenile back-and-forth dialogues overshadow the intellectual folly and cognitive dissonance of the DEI advocates, who do not hide their antiwhite vitriol.
The film has a few kernels of truth. For example, Wilfred Reilly, author of Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War (2019), explained that so-called hate crimes are a miniscule fraction of crimes in the United States and a distraction from genuine suffering. Reilly noted that demand for hate crimes outweighs supply, which is consistent with so many purported crimes turning out to be fabricated. Jussie Smollett’s staged hate crime is infamous but just one of many that demonstrate a payoff for being a victim.
However, the attempt to convey a serious message through the mockumentary is a failure. Walsh barely rises above the level of an immature troll, and one wonders whether the whole film is satire. The main truth to come out of the movie is perhaps inadvertent: that race still fuels the fire of conflict in the United States, and Americans struggle to resist taking the bait and forking over their money to spectate.
Although advocates claim diversity is a boon for companies, it is more of a boon for the DEI industry—which stems from the challenges of more diverse populations—and that does not appear to be changing anytime soon. Maybe Jaye needs a call and can address DEI in a more insightful manner. In the meantime, Benjamin Boyce has released an eye-opening 24-part documentary series, Let It All Hang Out: The Evergreen Story, which shares how Evergreen State College exhibited the end of the road for DEI.
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