Review By John Ingram, Special to the National Policy Institute
We can imagine that whenhe called for yet another “conversation on race” in his much-laudedspeech in Philadelphia, then-candidate Barack Obama had in mind theusual format for “conversations on race” in America:
First, non-whites vent. Then, whites apologize, self-excoriate, andgenerally grovel on the floor in a contest to see who can contortthemselves into the most exquisite knot of multicultural contrition.
As Craig Bodeker tells it, he was once balled up on the floor likethis. As a fifth-grader in Colorado, a demonstration by two teachers onthe “racism” of his white classroom burned into his mind the messagesall of society has come to accept: whites are bad. Everyone else isgood. End of story.
But Bodeker, a first-time filmmaker from Colorado with musician-coolshoulder-length hair, must have tired of the floor contortions. Andwhen yet another call for “conversation” went out, he answered.
But be warned. Bodeker’s “Conversation on Race,” an hour-longblack-and-white documentary shot in Denver, is surely not whatnow-President Obama – or most other Americans — wanted to hear. Bodekerspeaks to the audience as a white man who has grown suspicious of theterms “racist” and “racism,” and frustrated by the way in which thedouble standard on race is used to hammer whites.
His formula is simple. He simply puts the “believers” in racism, ashe calls them, on camera, and asks simple questions. What is racism?Can you give an example? Bodeker ran an ad on Craigslist under theheading “Ending Racism Now” for some interview subjects; others areinterviewed on the street. Aside from the basic qualification that theyagree “racism” is rampant, they are all races and ages.
The answers are as amazing as they are commonplace. Subjects arehard-pressed to provide concrete examples of racism. One black subjectreported that being complimented on his dancing by a white man was“racism.”
Bodeker’s treatment of his subjects is as gentle as could be: hisquestions are either open-ended, or present a contradiction. Thereactions to questions on why Asians outscore whites on standardizedtests — after the subjects have all confidently explained that whitesoutscore blacks because whites wrote the tests — are amusing.