No, no, dear readers—I’m not asking you to tell me if you think I am racist (but if you have thoughts on the matter, please leave them in the comments section below); rather, I’m reviewing the new Daily Wire film Am I Racist? (2024) starring Matt Walsh as he goes undercover as a “certified D.E.I. expert” to “do the work” of becoming an anti-racist.

I saw the movie on the big screen with a like-minded conservative friend in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which wreaked havoc on my hometown of Aiken, South Carolina, but left my adopted hometown of Lamar, South Carolina relatively unscathed.  The flick is very funny and enjoyable, but it’s not a “must-see” at the theater (unless you really want to support conservative filmmakers at the box office); however, if you’re worried about the pernicious impact of diversity, inclusion, and equity on the fabric of our nation, it’s definitely worth seeing.

One thing I will note is that the film preaches to the converted, but I think it would also be quite effective in exposing the absurdity and internal contradictions of D.E.I./D.I.E. to the viewer who perhaps has sat through some corporate-mandated seminar on the topic and might think, “well, I don’t know if things are all that bad, but maybe I am complicit in a system of racist structures that perpetually keeps black people down.”  As my friend noted after the film, there is a certain seductive “logic” to the Left’s steady drumbeat of “anti-racist” propaganda, and if you had to sit through that day in and day out, it would become easy to turn off your critical faculties and just go with the flow.  Indeed, when the people pushing D.E.I are heavy-handed bullies that denounce even silence as the issue as “violence,” it’s pretty easy to go along to get along.

Am I Racist? exposes the corruption and banal wickedness of critical race theory in a way that is entertaining and humorous.  Mockery is more effective than a thousand Ben Shapiro lectures, and Matt Walsh delivers that in a way that is so subtle and sly, he essentially gets the various D.E.I. “experts” he encounters to expose themselves and the grift.

Walsh frames the story as his own personal journey to uncovering his inherit biases and racism, and vows to “do the work” to combat his own bigotry.  While it’s all quite tongue-in-cheek, he actually pays real money to real “experts” to lecture him.  Some of these talks and sessions and trainings cost thousands of dollars to attend.  Walsh attends one seminar early in the film and is quickly identified, so he dons a cheap wig, big glasses, and a jacket, and masquerades as a typical upper-middle class white liberal in a white collar profession.  He also visits a website and obtains a certification for $30.

Walsh pays big money to a number of “experts”—including $50,000 to the mother of two black girls who were allegedly “snubbed” by a costumed Sesame Street character—to “do the work,” all the while delivering serious questions in a polite manner.  His delivery is so deadpan at times, you have to be in on the joke to get what he’s at, which makes the cluelessness of the Lefties involved even more hilarious.

The highlight of the film is an interview with Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility, the book that serves as something of a holy text for fashionable white liberals who want to virtue signal their cool status.  During the interview, Matt brings out his black producer, Ben, and gives him cash in “reparations.”  DiAngelo seems concerned about this exchange and looks as though she is nearly about to figure out the ploy, but instead is maneuvered adroitly into giving Ben $30 in cash.  It is the scene that sells the film, and which probably does the most damage to the D.E.I. crowd’s credibility.

The movie is fun and humorous in its own right, but it’s also unsettling.  My friend expressed dismay at the lengths to which people will go to flagellate themselves over race (almost literally, as Matt hands out whips to attendees at his own D.E.I. workshop; two people walk out at that point, but at least one attendee happily grabs a whip, apparently ready to self-flagellate her own racism away).

I cannot recommend it enough.  It is unsettling how unhinged, misguided, and/or evil some of these people are, but we already know that.  This flick just exposes the grift with humor and playfulness without being mean-spirited.  Matt Walsh is doing the Lord’s Work.

This review contains Amazon Affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through those links, I receive a portion of the proceeds, at no additional cost to you.  –TPP