Am I Racist? (2024)
Yeah, I went there. I was one of about a dozen at my showing, which isn’t too bad for a Wednesday morning. Jeremy Jahns and the backlash resulting from his admirably balanced and gutsy review (with an open comment section, no less) was a partial inspiration to review Am I Racist?. Call Me Chato’s fine review was another. Fandango giving me five dollars off the ticket was yet another.
Oh yeah, and I wanted to stick it to the smug mainstream entertainment industry who have chosen to ignore this film. Rotten Tomatoes has been particularly bratty. They waited until Wednesday of this week to give the film a Critic’s Score, and my guess is they were shamed into it because of the public backlash and the massive number of audience reviews.
Why all the hatred? Well, sunlight is to a race hustler what sunlight is to Dracula: Very, very painful and very, very deadly. Sunlight is what Matt Walsh is all about in Am I Racist? He lets people talk and it takes no time at all for them to expose themselves for who they really are. Certain of them want money. Oodles of money.
And who are they? Mostly white women, at least on the antiracist side. Walsh initially shows up as himself, but after the antiracist support group he tries attending in the beginning of the film figures out he’s Matt Walsh, he puts on the manbun-tweed-topsider ensemble we all know from the trailer.
What’s interesting is that once the disguise is on, none of these people figure out that they’re talking to Matt Walsh. Love him or not, the dude has a very distinctive voice, but not a single person gets suspicious. As long as Matt talks the antiracist talk, no one is the wiser. Not even infamous White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo figured it out until later.
What’s also not wise is what many of the antiracists say. While it’s couched in well-meaning jargon, it is in itself racist and evil. White people are supposed to feel guilty for being white, white people are always racist no matter what they do even if they think they’re not racist, and without racism white people don’t exist.
Meanwhile, people of color are always oppressed and they need to fight back against a world that has it in for them. The United States has been racist from the beginning and always will be. According to one antiracist, Saira Rao, America is irredeemable and must be burned down.
Why do antiracists seek to divide people based on immutable characteristics? It’s because race hustlers and those who feed race hustling want America to be a racist nation. They want people to fight amongst themselves. Keeping people miserable and guilty creates a need, albeit a twisted one, and as long as average people think they can do nothing about their inherent racism or victimhood, the race hustlers are around to exercise a means of control tricked out as healing and sustenance.
None of it is based in reality, of course. Matt doesn’t always stay among the hustlers but goes out among regular people of various income levels. In Washington, D.C. he asks passersby to sign a petition to paint the Washington Monument black and rename it the George Floyd Monument. Some of them sign it, but others look at Matt as if he’s bonkers. A vet walks off in disgust.
His attitude is the prevailing one. One young man tells Matt, “You can flash your {DEI} card all you want, but you have to be human sometime.”
Those who race hustlers present as the biggest racists and the biggest victims are some of the least racist and the least victimized. I’m talking, of course, about white Southern men and Southern black people. Matt goes to a biker bar, whose patrons would have no doubt embraced him if they knew who he really was, and hears over and over again that people are people. White guy after white guy says they see black people as their brothers. Racism? Pfffft.
The black people Matt talks to say the same thing. They’re friends with everyone and they’ve been that way their entire lives. One especially beautiful moment involves a British Guyanese gentleman who tells Matt, “The only way to get past racism is love.”
As a film, Am I Racist? is framed as a comedy on the line of Borat, and while it is hugely funny the humor is more of the “Oh my gawsh, I can’t believe Matt did that,” variety. By and large the film is a masterclass in trolling that keeps politics to an absolute minimum.
It’s not a perfect film. The antiracist support group scene in the beginning is a tad long; so long, in fact, that after a while I wondered if that was where the movie would stay. There’s a spoof of the Jussie Smollett hoax that could have easily been left out, although it adds to the absurdity of the proceedings.
On the other hand, I have to give all the kudos to Mr. Walsh for keeping a straight face from beginning to end. If the comedy had been more overt, it would have tipped off the subjects as to the film’s real aim and the whole business would have imploded.
While I don’t want to spoil anything, I have to say that the film’s climax is epic. When Matt interviews Robin DiAngelo he brings in his friend, Ben, who happens to be one of the film’s producers, to talk to her. After some chitchat, Matt pulls out his wallet to pay Ben reparations, and while Matt plays the race hustler part to the hilt, DiAngelo’s face is a study. She purses her lips, squints, and shifts uncomfortably, knowing that her image is on the line. She won’t stand for being outdone by this nobody, even if he is paying her fealty.
Ben lays the race victim schtick on thick, batting his eyes at Ms. White Fragility and smiling winningly. Finally, DiAngelo practically lunges for her purse and pulls out her wallet, having no clue that she’s been played like a deck of cards.
Mr. Walsh, if you ever read this, Ben is an absolute treasure.
Ms. DiAngelo has since deleted her social media accounts, as have some of the other high-profile participants, naturally because their real motives are now exposed for all to see. They’re livid, of course. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess, although the immediate concern is damage control.
That, plus the film’s success, are what make Hollywood and mainstream critics so uncomfortable, even if they refuse to see Am I Racist?. Many of them agree with the philosophies spouted by race hustlers, but deep down they know it’s a scam. The problem is that the vast majority are too narcissistic to admit it, and Am I Racist? forces them to own their duplicity. Some spew snide remarks and snobbery, and others out themselves via their very loud silence.
Am I Racist? is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: A-
Principal Cast: Matt Walsh, Robin DiAngelo, Regina Jackson, Saira Rao, Serra Tekola
Directed by Justin Folk.
Written by Justin Folk, Brian A. Hoffman, Matt Walsh, Dallas Sonnier.
Thx for the review. Am curious to watch now!