White People 101

[Stellar]

White People 101
SPENCER KORNHABER JUL 23, 2015

MTV’s documentary points out some facts about race that might seem obvious until you realize that for many Americans they’re not.

The new documentary White People opens with the journalist Jose Antonio Vargas approaching white people on the street and telling them he’s “doing a film for MTV on what it means to be young and white.” Each person giggles a bit. To them, the premise, on its face, seems funny.

But it was groans, not giggles, that greeted the news in November that MTV had put out a casting call that asked questions like “Are you being made to feel guilty because you’re white?” and “Are you having a problem with race on social media?” It sounded like a Breitbart.com reporter fishing for a follow-up to the Shirley Sherrod story—an attempt to make it seem as though white people were victims of an increasingly diverse nation, even as headlines keep reminding Americans that race divisions still harm the same people that they have always harmed in this country

In the days before White People aired, though, professional critics started airing a different kind of disapproval of the project. The consensus seems largely to be that, in the words of Willa Paskin at Slate, the film’s “a little too remedial with and gentle on, well, white people.” The headline for Ken Tucker’s Yahoo review read, sarcastically, “Race Privilege Exists, MTV Discovers.”....

more at link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/07/white-people-mtv-jose-antonio-vargas-backlash-lessons-privilege/399302/?UTM_SOURCE=yahoo

MTV: White People...Full Episode...

http://www.mtv.com/shows/white-people/white-people-full-episode/1736982/playlist/#id=1736982

Has anyone seen this (I haven't yet). What do you think about it. Wasn't this the guy that was over the NN15?

[BuelahWitch]

1. Yes, I watched it today

One thing that struck me at the beginning was that when Vargas asked the group "What are you?" they only replied "white American." Growing up in the rust belt in the '70s, many of us still connected with our European roots, as many of our grandparents who had come from the "old country" were still alive. For instance, if someone asked me what I was, I would state that I was Italian on my father's side and English-Irish-German on my mother's. I guess the younger generation does not relate to that anymore (or perhaps MTV edited it out).
Another segment was about Chinese immigrants who had moved into what was traditionally the Brooklyn neighborhood (?) of Bensonhurst. At first the Italian family featured in the segment were making derogatory statements about their neighbors, but then the father said something about moving to the US from Italy when he was 5, and everyone was reminded that we (except for the Native Americans) were ALL immigrants at one time or another.
All in all I felt like it was a very well done documentary, maybe not as hard hitting as some would like, but educational nonetheless.
And yes, Vargas was also the moderator over the Sanders and O'Malley segments of NN15.

[Stellar]

2. Hey, thanks...

I have guest at my home for a bar-b-que, I want to watch but probably won't be until later on tonight. Again thanks for the feedback!