As a disclaimer, I have not watched any of the episodes of Everything’s Gonna Be All White. Why? The trailer makes this documentary series seem like a propaganda piece designed to make me hate white people. I’m not a communist, a Klu Klux Klan member, or anything white-related. I’m just a Black dude trying to understand why the media is doing their hardest to create a culture divide between races. What is the latest race war baiting project? The Showtime series claims that it’ll present a deep exploration of America’s past and present through the experiences of people of color. The story mixes humor (though it’s not a satire) and information regarding racism, exploitation, and discrimination that contributed to the formation of America. As I previously stated, I have not watched the series and I do not plan on doing so. I will only explore the content given in the controversial trailer. Is it possible to get some of the context of the shows message wrong? Definitely, but I understand the tone and overall vibe that the documentary is giving off, so I’m pretty confident in my message throughout this article.
This article is not downplaying the struggles Black Americans have gone through. Thankfully, I lived a pretty average life that didn’t involve the hardships many Black men and women have dealt with, though I do understand what’s been going on in our society throughout the years. What I don’t understand is this, “all white people are evil” narrative that the media seems to be pushing. The first few seconds of the trailer starts off bad: “I think what annoys me most about white people is when they pretend like they’re the victim,” this is played in comedic matter by Amanda Seales, but the tone isn’t cheeky nor satire, and her statements gets better from there, “What’s also annoying is when they, you know, when they kill us.” An investigation was done on crimes of all nature, and the studies turned out to something like this: whites killing Blacks = 2%, Police killing whites = 3%, Whites killing whites = 16%, Blacks killing whites = 81%, Police killing Blacks = 1%, Blacks killing Blacks = 97%. Upon further investigation from the Federal Bureau in 2018, 81% of white victims were murdered by their fellow race, and 89% of Black victims met their end to Black offenders. The numbers were highly identical in the previous years.
This notion that whites are always murdering Blacks is dangerous. Notice how Seales doesn’t even say most or some, she simply classifies white people (meaning all) kill black people. Is there a history of hate crimes? Yes, there’s no denying that, but putting out such a message is a disgusting way to divide a culture and spew hate towards a specific race. Why is content like this allowed? The statement is factually wrong. This statement alone is painting a narrative that’s completely unwarranted and to be honest, racist. Dismissing white problems as if they’re nothing because of their “white privilege” is also a terrible narrative. We’re all humans and go through struggles in our lives. Yes, some more than others, but to tell whites to stop playing the victim when this entire video puts people of color in the victim spot is not only ironic, but distasteful. Imagine if white people told Blacks, “Well, you guys need to stop complaining about police brutality when slavery was so much worse.” Do I even need to explain what’s wrong with that statement? You’re downplaying the current problem by saying slavery is worse.
Oh, there’s several more gems in the trailer as well. At one point, historian Nell Irvin Painter says, “One of the definitions of American whiteness is ignorance,” The defined meaning of ignorance is a lack of knowledge or awareness in general. Considering that this trailer isn’t discussing this topic from both sides of the spectrum and clearly blaming white people for most of the issues that plague people of color, it feels like the pot calling the kettle black. Let’s not forget the best statement in the video, “Should white people today feel any responsibility for slavery?” asked the narrator. The participant responses with, “Hell Yeah”. Slavery took place over a 100 years ago. Exactly how is fair to blame a generation who wasn’t even born during one of American’s darkest periods? Plus, by this statement, Black people need to feel some responsibility too because there were African slaves as well. I think anyone with brain cells agrees that slavery is bad, and white people shouldn’t have to continuously apologize for something that had no part or witness to. We’re applying guilt to a generation for no reason. Racism does exist. I know I stated this earlier, but it shouldn’t go unnoticed, but slavery is long dead, and this trailer is painting people of color as endless victims who can’t seem to escape the terror of white culture. Shaming all whites into guilt over a situation they likely didn’t take any part of is going to create friction if the media continues to paint the “all white people are evil” narrative. The only way to move forward is to learn from the mistakes of the past, but not revel in it. The war on racism should always be tackled, but endlessly shaming one race will only create more resentment.
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