Am I Racist? is a send up of the DEI industry

Matt Walsh’s Am I Racist? is a brilliant send up of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion movement and subverts one of the most powerful phenomena of our time, one that has infiltrated virtually every major corporation, non-profit and government sector. DEI, as it's known, takes what used to be known as equality - which everyone can agree to unless you’re a raving racist – to an uber or exaggerated level in the form of “equity” and in fact arguable creates divisions and racist attitudes all its own. Its chief exponents are authors like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. DEI concludes that “white guilt” is something that never can be relinquished but whites can “work” to try to lessen it. That’s why Walsh, a conservative commentator , made the film. The mocumentary takes on a Barat (Sacha Baron Cohen, 2006) style format with Walsh posing as a true DEI exponent, complete with man bun (ha ha) and a wallet size card validating him as a DEI “expert,” and then subverting meetings or interviews with DEI adherents.  Walsh confronts by anonymously taking part in hugely expensive workshops and subtly questioning or indirectly mocking the meetings. In one case the jig us up and he’s expelled from a therapy session and the police called though he had hardly been threatening. In another – the film’s highlight – he makes a fool of Robin DiAngelo by having her donate $30 to his Black producer as a reparation for white guilt and Black slavery. Ultimately, the movie’s message is that DEI has escalated race to an issue that doesn’t exist in the average American’s mind, decades after official desegregation and equal rights laws. Even hard-core bikers – presumably the epitome of racists – talk of how they don’t judge people by their color. And average Black people talk of embracing everyone, whites included. So who are the real racists? The film’s final quote: “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) underlines the film's theme.

This has been a great couple of weeks at the local Bijou aka cineplex. I haven’t seen this many good films listed in a long time if ever. Last week I caught Speak No Evil (James Walston) starring James McAvoy, a remake of the 2022 Danish film by Christian Tafdrup. Then there’s Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance with Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid, another psychological thriller about fame and which is headlining this year’s WIFF. Last week had The Critic starring veteran Brit actor Ian McKellen (photo) and directed by Anund Tucker set in the 1930s newspaper and theatre worlds with themes of gay discrimination and media corruption. It left before I could see it -darn! Dennis Quaid was also in the biopic Reagan (Sean McNamara) which also disappeared too soon. And continuing this week are more cinematically astute films like Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, James Baldoni’s It Ends with Us starring Blake Lively based on the wildly successful Colleen Hoover novel and Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez), the latest in the Alien franchise.