By Davis Carlton
Matt Walsh’s new film produced by the Daily Wire: Am I Racist? A Comedy To Die D.E.I. For, was released a couple of weeks ago in theaters. The film comes on the heels of Walsh’s recent success with his documentary What Is a Woman? Unlike his previous feature, Walsh utilizes a “mockumentary” style for, Am I Racist? In this film Walsh isn’t trying to have serious discussions with proponents of “Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTM” but rather inject humor into interactions with several D.E.I. advocates aimed at mocking the absurdity of “anti-racism.”
From the outset I need to state that I haven’t seen the movie and I don’t really plan on seeing it because I do not personally care to promote the Daily Wire or its founder Ben Shapiro. I have seen snippets and previews available online and I’ve also read the review posted on American Renaissance by Anastasia Katz that I found to be a helpful and succinct summary of the movie. This is not intended as a review as much as it is a critique of the overall approach that Walsh takes in his treatment of D.E.I.
Walsh’s straight talking style was effective in What Is a Woman, because it allowed viewers to see how advocates of gender theory simply cannot account for basic concepts that are common sense to ordinary people. This approach was effective because it exposed the duplicity of leftist rhetoric with regards to gender, and to a certain extent Walsh accomplishes this with respect to advocates of “anti-racism.” Even “normies” can acknowledge that at a certain point “anti-racism” advocates are simply using jargon to (barely) conceal their hatred of white people. When whites are faulted for being over-polite or “over-smiling” as in the film, it is clear to any reasonable person that the problem isn’t with white people.
Purveyors of D.E.I. and “anti-racism” are truly absurd in their rhetoric of what amounts to nothing more than anti-white hatred. Walsh’s mockery of the stupidity of “anti-racism” is not without its place, as satire can help demonstrate this absurdity. As Ms. Katz points out in her review, there are times when it seems that Walsh is able to draw out this absurdity for comedic value, but other times that come across more as cringeworthy and awkward. I think that a better film dealing with the subject of race relations is Craig Bodeker’s classic A Conversation About Race.
The problem with the approach taken by Walsh in this “mockumentary” is one that is common among mainstream movement conservatives. The Right is often content to mock “limousine liberals” for their hypocrisy and lack of real commitments to the principles to which they pay lip service without practicing in their own personal lives. The Right mocks the absurdity of the Left while ignoring the power and influence that their absurd rhetoric has in institutions that matter: namely the government, academia, Hollywood and entertainment, major sportsball leagues, and the media. Walsh’s conclusion in the film is that we should seek to treat other people like human beings and live our lives free from the ridiculous standards imposed by D.E.I.
This might work for someone in Walsh’s circumstances, but it is becoming increasingly difficult if not impossible for other people to live this way. A straight white male seeking to find employment and raise a family doesn’t have the luxury of simply ignoring D.E.I. standards that are imposed by his university if he is trying to earn a degree, his employer if he works for a major corporation, or – even if the first two don’t apply – then he will still be hindered by D.E.I. policies imposed by the government. These are institutions that have the ability to make life miserable for those who reject the absurd propositions of D.E.I. For many young white men whose prospects have dwindled in a world infested with “anti-racism,” Walsh’s mockery doesn’t offer any meaningful solution for them.
Movement conservatives seem content to “own the libs” by pointing out their hypocrisy. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, governors of Texas and Florida respectively, have illustrated this approach by busing illegal immigrants to cities in northern blue states where leaders have criticized their lack of enthusiasm for foreign invasion. This forced these same Democratic mayors and governors to acknowledge how illegal immigrants have strained the infrastructure of their cities and states past the breaking point. Conservatives responded by declaring victory for having exposed the duplicity of liberal politicians on immigration.
This strategy works to expose the hypocrisy of those who refuse to live up to the moral standards that they require of others, but ultimately fails if the Right refuses to reject underlying Leftist moral principles. In the case of busing illegal immigrants, the Left has responded by passing off immigrants from wealthy liberal enclaves to surrounding communities as in the case of Martha’s Vineyard, and (often successfully) demanding more money in state and federal funding to deal with the problem in places like New York City and Chicago. Immigrants have also seeped out into surrounding suburbs.
While this has created a temporary headache for some Democratic officials, this didn’t ultimately defeat the Left, which is still seeing a surge of people who will be committed to voting for the Party that brought them here and is generously subsidizing their living expenses with taxpayers’ money. Movement conservatives within the mainstream Right saw how Abbott and DeSantis exposed the Left and laughed as liberal mayors complained about the influx that they couldn’t accommodate. But this was treated as though the problem was simply that liberals didn’t understand the logistical difficulties in taking in too many immigrants too fast. Movement conservatives have failed time and again to turn their exposure of Leftist absurdity and double standards into a rejection of actual Leftist morality and principles. Most within the conservative movement accept the concept of a propositional nation and even large scale mass immigration…as long as it is done legally, of course!
Donald Trump has even promised to let in scores of foreigners and to staple green cards on the back of all college diplomas. Mainstream conservatives don’t believe in traditional national identity and so reject any argument against immigration based upon the desire to preserve a common ethnic and racial identity. At most conservatives give lip service to speaking English and conforming to a vague, undefined American “culture.” Most conservative talking points are nothing more than expressing economic concerns about government spending driving inflation. This is why the mainstream Right cannot oppose immigration in any meaningful way, and actually plans on importing more immigrants at the behest of big business and major corporations. At least they won’t be criminals…right?
The same issue also applies to Matt Walsh’s mockery of D.E.I. Walsh paid tens of thousands of dollars to attend seminars and meet with D.E.I. influencers. Whatever jokes Walsh manufactures at their expense isn’t hurting them at all as they all just end up with a nice payday. They’re laughing all the way to the bank. Walsh’s “mockumentary” will do nothing to dislodge D.E.I. sycophants from their sinecures within the institutions of power. Can you imagine the Left being content to mock Ben Shapiro while paying the Daily Wire tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege? Of course not!
This is because the Left knows that what ultimately matters is the ability to impose your worldview on your opponents. Even the most rigorous intellectual critiques are pointless if you cannot out-flex your political enemies in terms of actual power, and Walsh isn’t even trying to mount a serious intellectual critique. Walsh is going for cheap laughs in order to sell tickets at the box office. The end result will be the same as Lady Ballers, which was also produced by the Daily Wire and mocked the absurdity of men competing in women’s sports, but hasn’t really stemmed the tide of transgender ideology in society. It’s almost as if the point isn’t actually defeating Leftist ideology as much as it is having a few laughs at their expense and making money off of conservatives in the process.
Mockery only works if it manages to change minds by de-legitimizing its subject. This hasn’t happened and it isn’t happening now. The humor of these Daily Wire “mockumentaries” comes across as the nervous laughter of someone who is only starting to realize that the person he’s chuckling at is actually being serious. To liberals, the deconstruction of foundational aspects of identity like race and sex is no laughing matter. They aren’t laughing because they are serious about winning the culture war. We shouldn’t be laughing either. Until the Right is prepared to dismantle the egalitarian presuppositions behind concepts like D.E.I. we will continue to lose. In the end, all that “mockumentaries” like Am I Racist serve to show is that the joke has been on us the whole time.