ruth JOHNSON

It almost comes across as a clever satire of the worst aspects of bourgeois identity politics with the two entitled, privileged protagonists pretending they are ignorant of the true nature of intersectionality, and because they perceive themselves as being lower down on their own hierarchy of prejudice, this somehow allows them to make wild generalisations and assumptions regarding their dinner guests. Hence, one individual stating she is colour blind in her treatment of others is seized upon and her words twisted to make it seem as if she personally enforces systemic prejudice. There is no allowance for subtlety, nuance or ambiguity: each white person (no attention is paid to the reality that racial categorisation is merely an arbitrary social construct with no basis in scientific fact) is a racist and individually responsible for racism past and present. Apparently, there have never been white allies or reformers, never been Uncle Toms and collaborators who were black or brown. Of course this rather erases the indentured Irish from the historical record (anti-Semitism is sort of acknowledged, but one assumes they are still racist due to their whiteness-not sure the KKK would recognise them as white but what would I, a racist, know?) and the very real ongoing prejudice faced by Hispanics, Italians and various other groups is dismissed. Naturally, the state apparatus, media machinery, and business sector all sustain, maintain, and perpetuate the established hegemony of the privileged, but to insist that individuals, simply because of their race (not even race really, merely skin tone) are personally accountable for this, and that are other individuals are exempt from any responsibility for this simply via being black, or almost entirely exempt if brown, is as toxic an idea as it demented and ridiculous. One wonders what either woman would say to the obvious transphobia and homophobia that has dominated sections of the black community, as reflected by its prevalence in much of Hip Hop, Dancehall, and in the sell out shows of the likes of Dave Chappelle. Prejudice should be called out whenever and wherever it appears. This is not to adopt an "All lives matter response." One can recognise privilege, deeper trenches of prejudice, the need for radical reform, and build consensus for change without berating well-meaning individuals, performing victimhood top trumps, or engaging in unbelievably reductionist racial politics. All this documentary succeeds in doing is providing the likes of Shapiro with ample ammunition to denigrate any and all progressives as whiny, entitled thought police, spouting tired, easily refutable dogma, and denouncing any deviation from the parameters of their discourse as racism. A massive own goal.