REVIEW: Am I Racist? (2024)
The Daily Wire has been experimenting with entertainment lately, producing movies, children’s shows, and adult animated series that are available on their subscription service. The most successful of these ventures seem to be the documentaries produced by Matt Walsh – at least, these are the ones that get noticed the most. The first was What Is a Woman?, an investigation of the transgender phenomenon that gained prominence over the last few years. Now, Walsh has a new documentary out in theaters: Am I Racist? This time, he goes undercover (via a fake hipster wig) to discover the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of the anti-racism movement. And the result is an entertaining, very funny, mostly insightful film that could have been even more illuminating if Walsh had demonstrated a little restraint.
In Am I Racist?, Matt Walsh goes undercover to learn from activists who hold seminars, workshops, and one-on-one interviews targeted mostly at white people that purport to help them “do the work” (an often-repeated phrase) to recognize their own racism and try to overcome it – while realizing that it will never go away. Walsh’s dive into this cottage industry showcases the deluge of literature that’s been written on the subject, the willingness of people outside the industry, like newscasters and bookshop owners, to shill for it or give it good press (or just virtue signal about how much they support it), and the regular people who buy into it. And I do mean “buy;” the most interesting revelation in Am I Racist? is that the anti-racism business is a scam, with disingenuous hucksters preying on white guilt or good intentions to make money for essentially nothing. Every encounter with these charlatans has a graphic telling the audience how much money was charged for the event, and it’s obscene; one made $15,000 just for an interview. And in return, they offer empty platitudes at best and accusations of racism simply for existing at worst.
The various encounters Walsh showcases in Am I Racist? are funny, which can sometimes be a hindrance to the film’s objectives. Walsh inserts himself into every one of these scenes, and he makes jokes about the scenario each time, which aren’t exactly subtle. It’s funny, and the doc is very entertaining, but I wish he’d held back a few times and let some of these situations play out on their own. The best parts are not Walsh’s jabs at these phonies but the moments where they reveal themselves to anyone with an ounce of common sense who’s paying attention. That’s the real strength of Am I Racist?: letting the con artists show a wide audience the garbage they foist on the dupes who buy tickets to these events. For example, there’s a scene with a dinner for white women hosted by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao, the authors of a book called White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better (beach read of the decade), and the ridiculousness of their speeches to the women at the table who are told to be silent is amazing – particularly when Rao says she “used to be white.” Moments like that are the best parts of Am I Racist? because they illustrate how nonsensical the whole scam is, and they come right from the people trying to push it.
However, Walsh goes for the laugh too often. In that same scene with Regina Jackson and Saira Rao, Walsh, posing as a caterer, starts making goofy pratfalls with the food and drinks, which is just distracting, and eventually takes over the dinner in a mock example of woke weirdos who obsess over race. Why interrupt a goldmine of information and exposure like this? If he had just let Jackson and Rao keep talking, they might’ve said even more to shine a light on how risible their act is. The worst example of this comes early on when Walsh attends a sort of seminar on racism. He dresses for this normally, but he gives the woman holding the seminar a false name; then, he intentionally makes a nuisance of himself, exaggerating his answers to questions and interrupting other people. It doesn’t take long for the group to figure out what he’s doing and kick him out. Sure, it’s funny, and these people are so ridiculous that it must be hard not to mock them. But I’d have liked to see that seminar play out as it would have if Walsh weren’t there so we could hear some of the surely loony things that woman told the group. It’s fine for Walsh to be part of the group, but he should’ve remained inconspicuous instead of going for the laugh.
There are times when the humor in Am I Racist? works, though. His first chime-in at the Regina Jackson and Saira Rao dinner is hilarious, especially because he phrases it in such a way that the hosts laugh in agreement with him. (Presumably, they’re so used to dealing with dopes who buy their song and dance that they can’t tell they’re being mocked unless it’s super obvious.) If he had left it at that, it would’ve been perfect. And speaking of perfect, Walsh has two encounters later in the movie that work in large part because of his humor, especially a particular trick he uses both times that I won’t reveal because it’s too good. One is an interview with Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for People to Talk About Racism, who is kind of the godfather (for lack of a more inclusive term) of the race hustle movement; the way he suckers this PhD is immensely satisfying. There are also some excellent moments throughout Am I Racist? where Walsh, posing as a woke DEI expert, talks to regular people and finds the most easy-going, racially harmonious folks in the film. What a shock; normal people are normal.
Am I Racist? is definitely worth your time; it’s an entertaining documentary that exposes a very ugly scam being perpetrated on Americans by modern-day con artists. But I wish it had eschewed some of the humor and let more of Matt Walsh’s encounters happen naturally instead of turning them into comedy bits.
***
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Am I Racist? (2024)
Educational Value - 7
Entertainment Value - 9
Directing/Editing - 8
Objectivity/Fairness - 7
Breadth of Research - 9
8
Good
Am I Racist? is a funny and informative documentary exposing the race hustle industry for the scam it is, but it leans too much on humor, particularly in scenes that needed more restraint.
Comments (2)
Yeah, there’s very much a sadomasochistic angle to it; watching these people subject themselves to insults like this is flabbergasting. I guess it makes them feel better, but the tragedy is that they think they did anything to warrant it. And the purveyors of it are such obvious hucksters, trashing the United States while refusing to leave (and profiting from its capitalist system) and obviously making their nonsense up as they go along. That’s why they want their audience to be silent; as soon as Walsh asks them even a rudimentary question, they stumble over themselves trying to come up with an answer.
Thanks for review. Takes some spunk just to see it, let alone review it. This kind of thing was common growing up in California schools. I had teachers like these people.
I thought Matt was a master of deadpan self-control, but it sounds like he pushed things. Like you said, even more footage and editing may have been a better decision. There are a lot of comparisons to Borat and Bruno, neither of which I ever saw. Walsh actually reminds me a little bit of James O’Keefe with the infiltration angle. One thing in Matt’s favor is that he shows all of us the power of listening and questioning and being non-threatening.
Reason I think this film is so significant is that, in a way, we have all been conned our entire lives with this stuff. Just to see weird things happen in our lifetime like the vanishing of Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima and Song of The South, along with changing street names and statues coming down should show you that a lot of history is being erased or blurred and smeared out.
I consider this a Gallows Humor film. A black comedy because the people get to laugh, yes, but demographically, really, the joke is on them. The grown rates are all in favor of invading groups all over the west, small downs are being literally destroyed overnight. No debate and no vote, just tens of thousands and your local sovereignty is gone. So much for By the people and for the people. It’s just a lie. The way things have been so twisted now, this film is definitely a piece of art because it’s realism in a surreal mass psychosis of an abused and traumatized population. It goes much further than Stockholm Syndrome to the point where, it’s like these racism grifters are kind of a form of Dominatrix, paid to insult and belittle the guilt-ridden who really, have been marginalized by bad academia and bad media. What you see here is the result of re-education camps.