Maine Wire Reviews Matt Walsh’s “Am I Racist” Flick

Daily Wire podcaster and best-selling children’s book author Matt Walsh has returned to theaters with a new film, Am I Racist?, which is now playing in major theaters across the United States, including Maine. This film serves as a follow-up to his previous work, What Is a Woman?, where Walsh critically examined transgender medical treatments and the ideologies that promote them. This time, Walsh directs his critique at the philosophy of anti-racism and the thriving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) industry.

Here’s the short review: The movie is damn hilarious. The liberal in your family might find it hard to laugh at, especially if they work in DEI. But the film is filled with uncomfortable, cringeworthy moments that can’t help but make you laugh. Sure, there are some cornball bits, but the reenactment of Jussie Smollett’s imaginary hate crime lands. And Walsh has perfected the art of the deadpan stare after asking what are, for most Americans, utterly ridiculous questions. It’s highly likely that DEI consulting fees are about to drop one-thousandfold once the movie fully seeps into American pop culture in the same way Walsh’s first film did.

The longer version: The film’s narrative is framed around Walsh’s own experience as a white, heterosexual male (pronouns: he/him) on his journey to becoming an “anti-racist” and a certified DEI consultant. The story opens with a sincere inquiry into anti-racist literature and consulting, showing Walsh’s exploration of libraries and interviews with DEI experts. His straightforward questions about systemic racism, white privilege, and cultural appropriation begin to unravel the complexities—and absurdities—of the DEI industrial complex.

As the film progresses, it exposes the lack of intellectual rigor within the concepts that anti-racism advocates espouse. It also highlights the lucrative nature of the industry. Walsh showcases how DEI consultants and “anti-racism experts” profit from their advocacy, sometimes to astonishing degrees. For instance, one segment features a woman who charges $30,000 for a session teaching white individuals how to be less racist, employing techniques such as meditation and discussions of “microaggressions.” As she earns this sizable fee, she paradoxically claims to feel threatened by the very people paying her. One can only wish for such luxurious peril.

While participating in one of these $30,000 sessions under a pseudonym, Walsh is eventually outed as a conservative media personality, resulting in his ejection. In a moment of irony, the instructor, hired by Walsh’s team, even calls the police — who presumably she wanted to defund when that cause became popular in 2020. Sadly for the race-hustling consultant, it’s still legal to be a conservative white male in America.

Walsh later adopts a “White Liberal Guy” disguise, sporting skinny jeans and a man-bun wig—a caricature that serves him well as he navigates this terrain. The film’s climax features a surprising interview with Robin DiAngelo, the influential author of White Fragility and a DEI consultant to major corporations. DiAngelo, whose name is basically synonymous with modern DEI, apparently has a thin vetting process for who she’ll meet with when the price is right. Remarkably, Walsh convinces DiAngelo to hand over cash as “reparations” to his black producer. DiAngelo hands the man $30, claiming she usually doesn’t make a habit of carrying much cash.

In essence, Am I Racist is a blend of comedy, performance art, and a cutting critique of contemporary American liberalism. Like What Is a Woman?, the film satirizes an intellectually vapid cultural moment that has colonized left-wing minds. Walsh subtly contrasts the moral ideology of anti-racism with the Christian ethos of love and forgiveness. In the DiAngelo school, racism is an unforgivable sin that can only be atoned for through suffering (i.e. paying DEI consultants) and constant self-debasement by white people. In this view, the only ultimate absolution from collective guilt for a white person lies in self-erasure. In Louisiana, however, a black auto mechanic who professes to read the Bible everyday gives Walsh his own, Christian version of anti-racism: “We all bleed the same, dude. We gotta love each other.”