Things We Won't Say About Race That Are True (2015) Reviews

• Didn't go far enough.

  Blueghost2017-06-26

  There's a lot of condescension in Hollywood films. There's a lot of "don't think about war" (when FPS games are best sellers and #1 entertainment, toppling movies in the 90s), a lot of "we're all equal" messages (when we aren't; some people are taller, fatter, shorter, faster, etc.), and a lot of enclaves of immigrant populations within the United States and London England (I'm not sure about the rest of the UK). And things are coming to a head with both the current president of the United States and the news stories about an increasing number of white Americans feeling disenfranchised by a changing ethnic landscape; i.e. fewer white people and more non-white ethnicities. The nation right now, in my personal estimation, is on edge because of a changing economy that is not as well spread across the nation as it could be. And, in fact, things came to a head earlier this year when the UK voted to exit the European Union. I bring all this up because this small BBC documentary with Trevor Phillips, a black UK citizen, points out that crime data shows that different ethnic groups do in fact cause different crimes in greater numbers, and that the rhetoric of clamping down on racism may not be the way to go in order to try and get people to get along and be accepting of one another. He further goes on to point out how criminal elements do use racist rhetoric to disguise and perpetuate their criminal behavior. And by US standards the situation in the UK, and specifically London, is a Sunday picnic. The real down shot about this documentary is that it's meant, like nearly all of the BBC productions for the British public and UK audiences, as a social outlet so that audience can think and feel that something has been done to see their point of view. In other words, it's simply lip service. And that is the pitfall of so much media that has social psychology as a driving component. Because even if you watch this show, or any film or TV episode regarding any topic, the best you can do is feel better or worse. Nothing has been done to solve the issue presented. The truth about race is that, as per this documentary, people prefer to divide themselves into different camps based on race. People prefer people who look like themselves, and are willing to point to the different looking people as a cause of problems. And, as this documentary is pointing out, that prejudice, as un-egalitarian as it is, may actually be correct. I remember years back in the early 90s William F. Buckley did a debate on immigration. Anybody who's lived in California over the last thirty years can tell you what a problem Hispanic gangs had become, and how illegal immigration from pre-free-market Peoples' Republic of China also brought red-letter tong gangs as well as a host of other problems. Russians brought the Russian mafia. Jamaicans and Cubans brought their gangs. And the list keeps growing. Trevor Phillips, if he had done the same program here in the United States, would have had probably more material to work with simply by virtue that the US is a larger nation, but no less severe in terms of the social friction being created. Further, what he fails to address, but alludes to, is that people who immigrate are no more accepting than the natives who are often accused of being racist. Immigrants have their prejudices, their superstitions, their taboos, and if Europe is any example, also seem to have a disregard for native customs. Immigrants can be industrious, but that doesn't make them noble in mind, deed and spirit. And that's another point that Phillips failed to bring to light in this very incomplete look at race. Further, he fails to examine the basis of the big popular race perceptions, and the core for the reputations that permeate the social fabric; are all Jewish people wealthy? Do all blacks commit crimes? Are all middle eastern people jihadists? He touches on those questions and others, but doesn't explore them, and that's the real let down. Again, this is a BBC production, and as such it's meant to present to people for whom race is an issue, an image that their concerns have been embraced, met and dealt with. But, UK people, like people the world over, including here in the US, are smarter than that. And so it is that this lip service comes across as just that, lip service, and nothing more. Again, Brexit, QED. A show like this is needed here in the US, but I personally think it's too late. I think there's a solidarity that is drawing lines in the sand because people are fed up with ethnic groups hiding behind racism rhetoric, and so it is that we're seeing an upswing in ordinary people being fed up with policies that are meant to promote social welfare backfiring in their face. Further, this program doesn't actually explore what racism is, nor why we have prejudices, nor why there are stereotypes and so forth. Again, lip service. And probably the worst kind, because there's no follow up to this one off documentary. Just a United Kingdom that has now left the European Union because of an influx in immigrants to a population that would like to retain its native white majority. Maybe the BBC will someday listen to its own rhetoric and actually service the UK public beyond giving a smile or appearance of concern to the topics they cover.