New movie asks the question, ‘Am I Racist?’

Recently, I had the enjoyment of watching Matt Walsh’s documentary/comedy entitled, “Am I Racist?” For those of you who don’t know, Walsh is a conservative commentator, author and podcaster with The Daily Wire. He engages many of the cultural and political issues of the day.

The purpose of Walsh’s latest documentary is to expose those who say they care about race relations in America, but evidently just care about making money. In he film,Walsh talks to many self-described anti-racism and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) experts on his own “journey of self-discovery,” as he calls it. The whole thing is satirical and meant to point out the ridiculousness of these so-called experts. However, it’s important to note that although it’s a movie, the “experts” Walsh spoke with are very much real, and they spoke quite candidly. There were many quotable moments throughout the film, mixed in with a lot of vaguely intellectual-sounding mumbo jumbo. Here are a few moments that stood out the most to me. (Warning: spoilers ahead).

Walsh first talked to Kate Slater, a self-proclaimed “anti-racist scholarpractitioner and facilitator” and author of the “Anti-Racist Roadmap” PDF guide. When Walsh asked Slater when was the right time to talk about racism with your children, she said “before they could talk” would be a good time.

“America is racist to its bones,” Slater also said.

Walsh also attended a white privilege support group with Breeshia Wade, who describes herself as a “grief expert who specializes in grief-informed anti-racist training.” During the support group, Wade said that although many of the people in the group had likely been raised Christian and taught that love is patient and love is kind, “patience and kindness are not needed” when it comes to confronting racism.

Next on Walsh’s journey was a conversation with Sarra Tekola, co-founder and co-director for Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro, with a Ph.D. in sustainability. Walsh paid Tekola $1,500 to learn how to decolonize himself.

“We need to abolish whiteness,” said Tekola. “Whiteness is defined only by buying and selling things.”

Tekola also said that a person such as Walsh has two selves – the regular self and the shadow self, and that one of those selves is secretly racist but the person doesn’t consciously recognize it. She spoke of a need to merge these two selves.

“The seeds of white supremacy are buried within the subconscious,” she said.

Some of the most inflammatory comments came from an event called “Race2Dinner,” a two-hour formal dinner party led by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao intended to “inspire white women to confront themselves and to acknowledge their own racism and complicity in white supremacy” and to be “served some cold, hard truths.” In a nutshell, white women can pay $5,000 to attend a fancy dinner and be told how racist they are.

Since the event is only open to white women, Walsh had to go undercover in order to attend, and the microphone captured some bold statements from Rao. Among them were: “Republicans are Nazis”, “Whiteness robs you of your brain” and “This country is a piece of s***. It all needs to burn.”

For someone speaking in the name of anti-racism, her rhetoric is lightyears away from that of someone like the great Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., who envisioned a day when all races and could dwell together peacefully, in unity, and said, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Walsh’s capstone interview of the documentary was with Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility,” which became popular in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in the summer of 2020. News anchors and pundits were promoting this book heavily. DiAngelo agreed to do an interview with Walsh for $15,000 to discuss her book and racism in general. At one point, Walsh asked DiAngelo point-blank if it was possible for a white person to not be racist. DiAngelo hesitated, then said, “I think in a given moment you can be more or less racist. It’s a continuum, so it doesn’t go away.”

In other words: no, it’s not possible.

One thing that all of the “experts” share in this film is a deep disdain for America and what it stands for. The scary part is the ideologies they espouse have a way of trickling down to the culture at large. One of the ladies Walsh interviewed – I can’t remember which one – referenced doing trainings with Apple, Google, Facebook and other Fortune 500 companies. Those corporations have a big influence on our society.

One of the most troubling scenes to me was when Walsh stood on the National Mall and asked people walking by to sign his petition to have the Washington Monument painted black and renamed the George Floyd Monument. There were a good 20 people that signed the petition. Most of the people appeared to not know or care what they were signing. The rest apparently saw nothing wrong with it. Clearly, there’s widespread history illiteracy in our country.

Getting back to Walsh’s initial quandary of how to stop racism, he also interviewed several everyday Americans in the South, black and white, on the topic.

“You just gotta love everybody… Though we’re different in many ways, we’re alike in more ways,” said one preacher.

Several others referenced the Golden Rule and treating people as equals, showing respect and dignity to every person regardless of their race. Could it really be that simple? Yes, but that message doesn’t come with a $1,000-plus price tag, it doesn’t require people to go through extensive trainings and it doesn’t pit people against each other to make them easier to manipulate.

I’ll end with a quote shared in the movie. “Racism is not dead, but it is on life support – kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’.” – Thomas Sowell

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