Watching ‘White People’ While Black
When the news broke a few weeks ago about MTV’s new documentary “White People” an interesting feeling came over me. I mean, look at the past couple of weeks before the Drake/Meek beef. The internet was all “10 Blands, 50 Blands, 100 Blands, Fuck it man, let’s just not even discuss it man.”
So with that being said I decided to see what all the “post-racial” white tears and over 20,000 YouTube dislikes were about.
NOT A DAMN THING!
Honestly, these tears weren’t even tears. Cheeks got flushed, tones got changed and the occasional “caucasian” was thrown around to (appear less privileged or) be politically correct. However, I wasn’t watching for the tears as much as I was watching to learn. How could I help myself? People of color are experts at understanding white culture, including white creative production, because we never had a choice.
How is this even a documentary?
The trailer was deeper than the actual show. Yup, all 45 softcore minutes of ignorance and kiddy glove fact checking. MTV found the most merited, non-threatening Asian/Pacific Islander male to go around asking white teens about white privilege. Of course it got greenlit.
Here is what they missed:
1- “Ghetto.” When a chance came up to really address the term, the explanation never came. Not even to ask address how white people alter the definition depending on who they are talking to or about.
2- “Reverse Discrimination.” Another term that got brought up like there is an anti-dominant race group kicking ass and taking names…and jobs…and lives. Quick, hide yo’privilege, y’all!
3-Education. They threw about 6 infographics out about scholarships and racial statistics…that no one really cares about.
They even had this whole sections about how all the white people in this particular Native American school system were all teachers.
I never had any real faith in MTV to really cook up some knowledge, but I thought when that Asian dude was “grill’n ‘em” some serious chats would boil over. All I could think of was how much this had in common with a teflon frying pan…because it was definitely non-stick.
So much for good intentions.
What’s next? “Don’t Hate, Appropriate!” ???
