The Whiteness Project is back to revive the ill will engendered by racism in American culture.
Documentary filmmaker Whitney Dow released the second installment of the PBS interactive digital series designed to show white people speaking genuinely about racism. This part consists of interviews of 24 white millennials in Dallas over the summer of 2015. His first installment, filmed in October, 2014, features 21 white adults in Buffalo, New York. Dow’s goal is to interview 1,000 white Americans across the country.
While the ostensible purpose of the series is to spotlight white people’s views on racism described in their own words, the underlying goal is to portray white people as clueless and discriminatory.
The project comes from the PBS independent-film showcase POV, now in its 28th season on PBS.
Dow has whites open up about what it is like to be white, such as having to walk on eggshells in conversations about race. Some denied that racism against minorities exists at all. Members of older generations described how they made it on their own and did not feel as if their skin color helped them in any way. A few told stories of being cheated by minorities who were favored over them because of industry quotas.
“White people are misunderstood, “said Nathan, 17.
Connor, 24, said he believes he would be in jail if he were not white.
Robert from the first part of the project said affirmative action is wrong because, “I think people should earn their own way.” He mentioned an experience where he was up against three black women for a job. Some of his ancestors were sold into white slavery, he added.
Mic.com, which said that it is important to push white people to talk about racism and white privilege harshly criticized the opinions expressed in the interviews.
The statements “pinballed between nuanced introspection and a staggering lack of racial literacy and self-awareness,” said Mic.com’s Zak Cheney-Rice.
The interviews “reveal[ed] just how tense racial relations in the U.S. are right now and how many white people simply don’t know how to talk about it. Many of them are contributing to it,” said Tom McKay in another article. They “[relay] the perceived inability of white Americans to grapple with racial issues in a sincere and up-front manner.”
In fact, those interviewed were entirely up-front about their opinions on race. Some admitted they felt misunderstood and judged for actions their ancestors committed.
Some of the comments in the interviews came from quite an interesting perspective.
"My identity as a person stems a lot from the queer community," said Hadley, 15. "I'm nonbinary, neither a male or a female, and I'm pansexual and on the a-romantic spectrum.”
"I know that [being white] gives me privilege," Hadley went on. "I know in a lot of sticky situations I'd be offered second chances where others wouldn't."
Series creator Whitney Dow expressed his hope for the series.
"By sensitizing white people to their own racialized experience, it will make them better partners in moving towards a more just society," Dow said. "White people have to recognize that they are a part of this conversation whether they like it or not."
Professor Mark Anthony Neal of African-American studies and English at Duke University commented that young white people are either unable or unwilling to talk about race, which he said is proven by their claims that they don’t see color in their relationships with people.
Racial tensions have spiked in the past year in the wake of the event of Ferguson, Missouri, where a black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer in Aug., 2014, fueling the outrage of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
