I am really not able to say how disappointed I was when, just a few days ago, I discovered that there were no real people working at the ticket counter of Kips Bay AMC, and that I would have to purchase the ticket for the screening of “Am I Racist” the latest film by the Daily Wire, which is a reactionary media house run by Ben Shapiro watching a huge, loud and unmoving screen. I had been hoping all day that I would walk over to the cash register of the box office and for no reason in explanation ask ‘ “Am I Racist?, please?” To quote one American, it is a big question, one that, if most Americans would permit themselves an honest moment of introspection of their deepest of feelings, would wish it had been posed to them on a regular basis. It felt a little radical, to be honest, voicing it aloud.
In this particular case, Mr. Justin Folk is of the opinion that the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion industry is worthy of ridicule and as such is the subject matter of this comic douc where Mr. Walsh is the main character. Matt Walsh, a podcaster and a commentator, interviews and pursues professional anti racists but unlike any ordinary person, Walsh tries to absurdly spiral the D.E.I. seminars. In one of the film’s opening scenes, Walsh sits in a sunny diner. He appears to have an excessively rectangular jaw with a fluffy beard and quite a deep set sharp nose, complemented with shades. On initial examination, his eyebrows appear to be set in a habitual position of inquisitiveness, however, this is just how he holds them, which is rather amused: he thinks that a face with taught eyebrows is one that’s joking.
He remembers how in the nineties, there was no need as opposed to now to think about race, and reflects positively on this time period. He is nostalgic about this, which is unfortunate. Forget that there were race riots in bloody South Central LA and in Crown Heights Brooklyn in the so called happy nineties, or that the defining mass cultural struggle of the time and indeed the most important single event within that timeline, was a cross-racial trial about whether a famous black footballer ОJ Simpson killed his white blonde wife, which brought forth painful centuries of racist images to the forefront. You wouldn’t believe it, but Walsh didn’t even witness them, so all was harmony Hiding, blinding, drowning cries of racially motivated alarmism and division from Walsh. What he said anyway, he is served by a black waitress and gets uncomfortable when he is asked how he wants his coffee without milk. What do you mean, black? What’s it like for a black woman to hear a white man call her that? Couldn’t that trigger self righteousness in some of the so-called ‘progress dirtbags’? Get it? One of the cinematic gems is this one.
This marks the debut offering from the Daily Wire in cinemas. (There was a film done in 2022 which was entitled, “What Is a Woman?” I presume you all understand that one as well that also had Walsh and was, however, only made available to Daily Wire subscribers), that film was also available exclusively to Daily Wire subscribers, however. By and large, Walsh is not primarily known for his productions such as movies and TV. In one of his energy like podcasts, one that he also shares on his Facebook page, he surprisingly sounds sincere most of the times unlike in his other videos where he projects an exaggeratedly stern tone. “Adults don’t have the luxury to be ill,” one of these past statements said. Sick days from work, he stressed, are “something to be ashamed of.” He does make sure to say these words while predicting how he will be in 2024 which will be focused on why changing the name of the Washington D.C. football team from the Redskins to the Commanders has damaged the NFL. Recently, when Tyreek Hill, a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins, was pushed during a scuffle with Miami Dade police officers, Walsh quite predictably opportunistically appeared just to show you Hill is the cause of all conflicts. In this sort of videos, his facial expressions are relatively calm as he always stares at the camera and lifts or lowers his eyebrows in accordance with his mood.
Most of the time, he can be seen wearing a shirt with plaid patterned like that of a father’s. With noise turned off, one would mistake him as one of the liberal owners of a Prius car living in Portland or Seattle and there are many people whom he has consistently annoyed throughout his career.
Walsh is also the host of a show called “JUDGED by Matt Walsh” under the Daily Wire: picture this, a court show, “Judge Judy” without a smattering of nicety or any of the photogenic appeal, with Walsh as the presenter. Episode One starts off with a bit of comedy at the expense of Walsh’s’ ancestors, who were all judges and seem to believe in nothing else but sending people to their death. He says he would have wished to send people to jail for death by burrito, if that was the point of the show; sadly, there are restrictions. It is almost unbelievable that Walsh would produce such an inoffensive product and offer it behind Shapiro’s paywall, suggesting some conceptions that he seems to truly have: Walsh appears convinced that the culture war previously fought by the conservatives has now turned to be a lost cause since they have avoided provocation within the entertainment sphere. Walsh expressed his sentiments on social media, saying, “When you don’t want to be reproached, there is only one way: do nothing interesting. For this reason, the art of conservatives is not memorable.” “We shield ourselves from the cultural conflict, but we create no art, thus do not create culture of our own.” he remarked finally.
That’s a redhead in a muumuu who has green shapes on it, you know, the type of progressive that Walsh is eager to criticize; a wacky hippy. Walsh makes this woman assume a lot of things, for example, whether it’s acceptable that a white kid prefers Moana to the white Disney princesses. He then asks if that kid should be allowed to dress as Moana for Halloween, because doing so may lead to cultural appropriation. He goes to a seminar titled ‘White Grief,’ whose moderator apparently earns 30 thousand dollars per session. She directs this message to the white people in the audience: white tattoos are a form of racism. After the white without spaces tried to hysterically walk over the audience and fight every second, Walsh decides to stick on the meeting and hurl insults. However, after these participants wise up and realize who he is he is forcibly escorted out of the meeting he gets ready by dressing up as a conservative. And the wig is all that provides the impression of a full costume change.
Perhaps the greatest highlight the ‘Am I Racist?’ gets the Indian accent is the interview that Walsh says he gets with Ms. White fragility. That is illustrative of how the great selling point of self declared anti racist Dangelo currently seems to somehow function, as she now has a Joon Lee, Jeffrey Vinci supported platform now. Dangelo we think she was quite foolish for accepting the $ 15000 fee to give the interview as she clearly thought it was praised her understands Walsh, who now has a bun on his head. After some silly role play such as attempting to explain how to apologize to a black female colleague for excessive smiling what seems to be unusual mediocre viewing is the rush on the part of Walsh’s presenter to see away some cash to MA in an effort to demonstrate one off rudimentary reparations. It is evident she is distressed but she opts in for the deed.
The film certainly does not shy away from revealing the plain truth that does however exist ‘Niche diversity work’ has spawned a lot of conmen who viciously go after guilt ridden, or HR controlled white people who want to pay for their perceived racial hate only to be told they are absolved of such. No verbatim. After hearing D.E.I calmly discuss activism, rip your ears off with the rage of a thousand pith clauses. Let us speak a little incomprehensibly, but more about the emotions than the reasoning. And if that’s what a social justice activist would call an anti racist, then I guess the silence must be a strong endorsement for racism. Strange message, though: it is out of place. Racism is already so common in America that even its apology is tiresome. Respect and inclusion are out of fashion, or rather in decline since 2020 D.E.I that shined after the brutal murder of George Floyd doesn’t have its relevance today. The supreme court also ruled last year that affirmative action will not be observed in educational institutions and so companies are probably waiting for the green light. No matter which ‘war’ Walsh thinks he is a part of, it can be safely classified as history.
In the later parts of the movie, Walsh performs his act in two working-class neighborhoods. One of them is predominantly a biker bar crowded with whites. A patch sewn onto someone’s jacket reads, “Don’t Tread on Me.” A small Confederate flag adorns one of the walls. Walsh still plays a character, but he is an ‘actor’ who has internalized the principles of D.E.I. He even purchased an Online counterfeit certificate. When he poses these questions to these rough and tough pool playing bikers, he wants to know about their efforts in “decentering” their “whiteness.” They are puzzled. Why would you do that? They mix well with Blacks. They try to ignore race.
Sightseeing for Walsh is also going to some Black people who possess a racial attitude not dissimilar to that of the bikers. “In God’s eyes, we’re all the same,” one woman says. Walsh inquires another guy about DeAngelo and her parts, and this person chuckles. “Not the kind of books I read,” he says. But he has a Bible lying in the back of his vehicle. So much is not given overriding importance.
These scenes are the film’s most opaque to Walsh but they remain the most important for Fairyhouse’s conception. Walsh believes that he is simply reiterating how far removed the anti-racism of the left is from the average individual. He fails to realize, however, the bitter irony: even when he is in character and ‘spoonerizing’ D.E.I., he speaks its language like a native. All the working class seem unable to grasp the word ‘structural’ as used by him the tirades that Walsh wishes to troll in his answers would be more than acceptable in these areas of the same Twitter. This tips the hand, and it unveils Walsh as being equally a hustler as the rather brazen and opportunistic DeAngelo and her less known but well recompensed followers. He is quite literally peddling to the same small insane segment of white professionals as them, the ones who have an unhealthy obsession with the vile and dimwitted parts of the internet. While the haute bourgeoisie work shop discord has the left flank, Walsh will be securing the right flank. But these two breeds quite often inhabit the same corporation or elitist university or practice the same Twitter feeds. They argue about politics, but send their children to the same schools.
Should Walsh have any desire to inquire about how the attitudes of the Black working class people are, and if he, of all people, could not find some reconciliating emotion towards it first, then he might, for instance, bother his newly acquired church attending Black acquaintances about what they think of his recent article in the Daily Wire forum, where he sows slanders against Marcellus Williams who was lately executed in the state of Missouri, with the assistance of Innocence Project charities, pronounced to have been wrongfully executed.
A recurring gag in “Am I Racist?” involves Walsh’s oh so funny encounter with the title of the 2002 book “Nigger,” written by legal scholar Randall Kennedy. The humor in this is that it is hard for a white person to say the title of the book, hence it is relative hard to buy the book as well. Get it? But Walsh never cracks the book. Were he to attempt to give it a try, what does he expect to see? Maybe a more nuanced and constructive perspective that directly contradicts D’Angelo’s formulations which are simplistic, black and white, and rather condescending towards people. But also, the ignorant, dismissive and knee jerk reaction of knee jerk reactionism to whatever their quick-twitch, culture oriented worldview is. How it could explain the treatment of someone like Williams. And how actual anti racism could eliminate the barbaric institution of the death penalty once and for all. And, in any case, if Walsh has the inclination to use that title of the book, whether in jest or in truth, he is free to do so. As my mother used to say: I would recommend you give it a try. You may thank me later.
For more movies like Am I Racist? visit 123Movies.