Film Review: AM I RACIST?

Matt Walsh leading one of his anti-racism workshops.

Billed as a comedy, the premise of Am I Racist? is far from funny. These days, if you are white you are presumed to be a racist. After all, white people kept slaves and your ancestors were white so what more proof do you need? Apparently Matt Walsh, the film's star and one of its writers and producers, needed more. In this amusing "mockumentary" he sets out to learn if he really is a racist after all, and how can he stop being one.

A middling celebrity known mostly to conservatives who follow his show on Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire, Walsh decides to get out and meet diversity experts in search of answers. Opting for a disguise to avoid being recognized, he morphs into a woke-looking lefty in granny glasses, jeans and sneakers, a long-haired wig topped by a man-bun and a wispy manner that might lead one to wonder about his pronouns. He then proceeds to get himself certified as a DEI trainer and holds several daylong workshops for self-described racists looking to rid themselves of bias, at $2,000 a pop.

Naturally the so-called "racists" we meet are all white. The only blacks in the film are two women holding their own workshops for white people guilty of that dreaded syndrome, White Fragility, who are willing to fork over really big bucks to be cured of it. The whole exercise wears thin soon enough, and the few laughs at the expense of Walsh's guileless subjects are barely worth the price of admission. 

Obviously most people felt that way: Our group of four went to a 7pm showing at an IMAX theater on a Saturday night and were the only people there, until a white couple showed up late with their three young children. The kids spent most of the time going back and forth to the concession stand, seemingly unaware of the dire disease lurking within them.