Entertainment

MTV Causes Stir with Film on White People

Published

9 years ago

July 18, 2015

In this image released by MTV, filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas, right, listens to a group of young people during the filming of his documentary “White People.” The full film debuts Wednesday, July 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, offered simultaneously online. (MTV via AP)

David Bauder, ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the challenges for makers of the MTV documentary “White People” was getting folks to talk about race when they didn’t feel the issue concerned them — like those quoted as saying they consider white the “default race” or “normal.”

So filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas recorded white Americans in situations where they were forced to confront racial identity issues. He found to a white man who attends a traditionally black college, teachers on a South Dakota reservation where resentment toward whites is palpable, a young Brooklyn man bewildered by the Asian immigrants on his block, a white man who teaches a college course on white privilege.

The documentary’s trailer alone created a stir. The full film debuts Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT, offered simultaneously online.

“The only thing I fear is not having these conversations,” Vargas said. “What I fear is the silence, the indifference, the ignorance. We can no longer have a conversation about race and diversity without having white people in it.”

Racial issues are timely, topping the news during the past several months with the “black lives matter” campaign in response to police shootings and the debate over the Confederate flag. MTV President Stephen Friedman said he’s wanted to look at how whites perceive themselves for several years, but it wasn’t until he met Vargas that he felt he’d found the right person to do it.

Vargas is best known for “Documented,” a film where the Philippines-born journalist talks about his status as an undocumented U.S. resident. (His status hasn’t changed since then).

Race was a difficult topic, not simply because it’s uncomfortable to talk about. Shuns, slights and stereotypes aren’t a regular part of life for most whites. More than four-fifths of MTV viewers polled said their families had taught them that everyone should be treated the same, regardless of differences.

A colorblind upbringing is admirable, an attitude that no doubt leads to young people being more accepting of gay marriage, for example, than older Americans, Friedman said. But many also look past the lessons of history to question the need for affirmative action. Vargas talks to a white student with a 3.8 grade point average in high school who now goes to a community college; she and her mother are convinced that racial minorities get the edge in college scholarships and admissions. “I feel like I’m being discriminated against,” she said.

Attitudes hidden beneath the surface are revealed when Vargas talks to the white student who goes to a black college and some of his friends. A white Italian-American from Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood is angered by many of the Asians who moved into his neighborhood not wanting to help with a block party until it was pointed out that how his ancestors were looked down upon generations earlier.

Vargas is a facilitator who poses questions throughout the film. His eyebrow is a character of its own, each exaggerated lift conveying skepticism or surprise.

“Part of our job with this special is to really create the space to have an honest dialogue,” he said, “and I think we achieved that.”

Some critics have pounced on MTV before seeing the documentary. Rush Limbaugh’s website proclaims, “MTV Documentary Shames White Youth.” The conservative Breitbart news service headlined a story, “Dear Morons: You are Paying for an Illegal Alien’s MTV White-Shaming Film.” The “paying for” reference alludes to cable subscribers being required to pay for MTV as part of their service even if they don’t necessarily want the network.

“So this is a documentary produced by an illegal immigrant that’s going to run starting July 22nd on MTV on the problems white people have caused in America,” Limbaugh said on his show last week. “Everybody’s shaking their head in there, ‘Oh, this is horrible, this is terrible.’ Yeah, it is, but nobody is going to do anything about it.”

Friedman said he believed the film doesn’t shame white people. Quite the opposite, he said.

“If you see the young people in that film, I think every one of them, because it was done in a respectful way, feels like they came away with a deeper understanding of their community and different people,” he said. “It enabled them to walk in their shoes.”

Given the attention on racial issues now, it’s not surprising that the idea of the film itself will grate on some nerves, he said.

“What I would hope is that people would watch the documentary, because there is nothing about it that is provocative when you sit through it,” he said.

___

Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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April 19, 2024

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O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.