On July 22nd, MTV will air their new documentary entitled “White People.” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who was awarded the prestigious honor for his coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, will be hosting the documentary. A trailer for the show was published on YouTube on July 8th, where it immediately received an overwhelming amount of negative reception and created a battleground in the YouTube comment section.
MTV states that the purpose of this documentary is to ask young people, “What does it mean to be white?” Topics such as whites discussing other races, political correctness, white guilt, white privilege, and white shaming all appear to be important subjects that the documentary attempts to tackle, consistently stressing how “uncomfortable” it is for those involved. The documentary also attempts to allow white people to discuss these issues in a judgment free environment.
Now, why is “White People” such a polarizing documentary?
Many people argue that this is blatant, “anti-white” racism. These people contest that the purpose of this documentary is to degrade and shame white people about “white privilege” and the negative historical impact of white people. Another complaint of the show is that it generalizes all white people, and does not discuss people on an individual level but on a common, racial level. These arguers also point out that the trailer just shows young, white millennials crying and being publicly shamed about the color of their skin. It is not just white people voicing their displeasure with MTV’s newest documentary, however, as people of many races have also spoken against the show.
On the opposing side, people argue that this documentary finally creates an environment where white people discuss their own race and the races of others. They also argue against the idea of this documentary being “racist”, with some going even further and saying that racism is not possible against white people because they are not dominated as a minority like other races. This side that supports the documentary claim that white people are not comfortable talking about race and need to understand that topics like white privilege exist in modern society.
Now for the real question, is either of these sides right?
As a young, white, male millennial in today’s society, I do not personally feel offended by this documentary. I think it is interesting to ask young white people what their experiences are as whites in America. This is not a common question for young white adults, but asking those that are of a different race what their experiences are living as that race is a very common question. People of other races do not seem to have the same level of discomfort as white people when talking about race with strangers, and openly discuss their experiences without fear of reprisal. This may be attributed to white people being much more fearful of being offensive, or that we are guilty for being white and therefore do not wish to discuss race, both of which the trailer suggests.
Although I do not have an answer as to which side of this debate is right, I will say that this trailer was poorly executed, which could mean that the show will be poorly executed as well. The trailer seemed to be purposely creating controversy where there did not have to be any, as demonstrated by the crying and consistent usage of how “uncomfortable” it’s going to be. It is not uncommon for the media to stir up controversy for ratings, and I believe this could be another example of that. If that is in fact the case, then it would be a wasted attempt at maybe having a interesting discussion on the topics presented. With race being such a prevalent and contentious issue, it is definitely important to discuss but by perhaps intentionally making this documentary controversial, MTV has only added more fuel to the flame.
Below is a trailer for the MTV documentary.
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