REVIEW: Am I Racist? (2024)

Movie Reviews

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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