Whites Only: Adeâs Extremist Adventure review â a woeful failure to challenge racism | Documentary![]() Not every attempt at documenting real events ends up fulfilling its intended purpose. Capturing the Friedmans started as a sweet tale about clowns and ended up lamenting harrowing crimes. Metallicaâs Some Kind of Monster was planned to be a couple of infomercials, not a nuanced portrait of the poisonous effects of fame. Tom Cruise went on Oprah to chat on the sofa and discuss his love for Katie Holmes in a totally normal way. In the case of Whites Only: Adeâs Extremist Adventure, Ade Adepitanâs attempt to see if âracial separatism can ever be justifiedâ becomes a cautionary tale for black people who think they can one-of-the-good-ones themselves out of white supremacy. The programme follows the charming presenter and Paralympian on his trip to Orania, a âwhites-onlyâ town in South Africa, to learn about why they founded this community (racism), what their values are (racism) and why it celebrates the architects of apartheid (racism). He meets estate agents, students and town leaders to enquire politely about their âwhites-onlyâ space with the levity of someone discussing the weather. An antisocratic approach â allowing subjects to talk with minimal interruption â can make for compelling interviews; Louis Theroux has almost turned it into an art form. But in the case of Whites Only, Adepitanâs passivity journeys from ludicrous to offensive. He worries that, as a black man visiting an all-white town in South Africa, he might be the problem â that people might think he has âcome in all guns blazing with his prejudices and his opinions, but thatâs not really my style. Iâm a chilled-out guy.â On entering â and this bears repeating â an all-white town in South Africa, he prioritises their comfort; he wants âto give these people a chance â and I donât want to get kicked outâ. It is essential, of course, for any interview to have an element of good faith. Still, Adepitanâs hopeless optimism underserves him as he tries desperately to be âone of the good onesâ while his subjects explain that apartheid wasnât segregated enough, or that they donât know enough about Nelson Mandela to form an opinion on him. This reaches unintentional hilarity at the halfway mark, when he watches a school play about dark-skinned, low-intelligence âhomosexual monstersâ. âIâm not an English graduate, but even I get the symbolism of this,â says Adepitan. The symbolism?! This isnt subtext; it is plain olâ text. Adepitanâs determined and sunny naivety becomes far more intriguing than the faux-intellectual nonsense his interview subjects spout. Their achingly dumb theories include segregation being a rejection of âsocial engineeringâ and Orania being âa cultural thing more than a political thingâ. These deeply unserious soundbites barely merit screen time or brain cells, yet Adepitan becomes smaller and sweeter in an attempt to appease them. It is fascinating to behold. He suggests their âracist past was just overshadowed by apartheidâ, asks his subjects gently if there were ânegativesâ to the Afrikaans history in the region and, in a moment of astounding respectability politics, all but grasps a string of pearls as he defends British democracy and says: âI support BLM [Black Lives Matter], but I donât go out rioting!â Not only is this a particularly tone-deaf thing to say in South Africa, but it also suggests that he also needs to read up on Mandela. This programme feels like watching a toddler wander into a lionâs den to advocate for veganism. At one point, they stop by a church from which other journalists allege they were thrown out because they were black. âLuckily, weâre not going in,â he says. âItâs agreed we can interview the pastor after the service.â Despite this, he seems shocked to be given a hostile reception. Even the Oranians seem puzzled by Adepitanâs openness. At one point, he says to his fixer, Kerneels: âI donât feel comfortable here. And I want to.â Kerneels looks at him, dumbfounded, and says: âIâd be very surprised if you did feel comfortable here.â James Baldwin once said of living amid the profound racism of the US in the 60s: âTo be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all of the time.â Adepitan shows that choosing good vibes over consciousness is an unenviable alternative. Being a black âchilled-out guyâ is a feeble response to white supremacy; the Oranians are unmoved by his politeness. after newsletter promotion Adepitan concludes there were very fine people on both sides, but places like this will inevitably end with âme and you meeting on the battlefieldâ, seemingly unaware that the failure of his approach makes the case for militant action on racism. Unfortunately, to land accidentally on a salient point is not commendable. To be black in âwhites-onlyâ spaces is to be unwelcome â and that is not something with which anyone, or any programme, should strive to feel comfortable. Source link Posted: 2024-03-19 00:18:32 |
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