‘Am I Racist?’ Reveals DEI’s Counterfeit Redemption

This article was published exclusively online in the Christian Research Journal, volume 48, number 01 (2025).

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[Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for Am I Racist?]

Am I Racist?
Directed by Justin Folk

Written by Justin Folk, Brian A. Hoffman, Matt Walsh, and Dallas Sonnier

Produced by Justin Folk, Brian A. Hoffman, Charlotte Roland, and Matt Walsh

Starring Matt Walsh

(Daily Wire Entertainment, 2024)

Documentary (PG–13)

Streaming on Daily Wire+

By the time theaters closed on Sunday, September 15, 2024, Matt Walsh’s mockumentary, Am I Racist? had become an unexpected box-office success, topping $4.5 million in ticket sales and earning a spot among the top five films released that weekend.¹ This despite having been aired in only 1517 theaters, about 1000 fewer than Killer’s Game produced by Lionsgate, a major Hollywood studio, which Am I Racist? also outsold.²

Regardless of the merits of the film, which I’ll come to below, this remarkable showing testifies to the deep frustration and antipathy an increasing number of Americans feel toward the ideology undergirding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, Critical Race Theory-informed curricula in public schools, and the Black Lives Matter movement. According to this ideology, some call it “anti-racism,”³ which is rooted in Marxist critical theory, the White person, the White male in particular (but also the White female), enjoys economic and social privileges that the person of color does not. This privilege, the argument goes, has been gained by oppression. Whether he has personally taken part in colonization, slavery, or racial discrimination, a White person enjoys the social benefits procured by the system built upon these injustices and, therefore, bears responsibility for them. Whether he is aware of it or not, by virtue of his place in a system that racism built, he has necessarily embraced racist attitudes and habits of thought and speech, which he must recognize and renounce. This involves “doing the work” to reeducate himself and to become aware, enlightened or, as they say now, woke. But, of course, he can never quite undo whiteness. He must, therefore, live a life of repentance, reparation, and self-denunciation.⁴

The Bible and Anti-Racism. But how does this race-conscious ideology fare when measured by the Scriptures? Throughout the Bible, God reveals Himself as the defender of the powerless and oppressed (e.g., Psalm 146:9). He calls His people to feed the hungry, help the widow and orphan, and treat the sojourner with kindness and hospitality (Deuteronomy 10:18–19; Isaiah 1:17; Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:9–10). God sets Himself against those who oppress the weak (e.g., Isaiah 1:10–28). At first glance, it might seem that, given the cruelty of antebellum slavery and the injustice of Jim Crow laws, which remained on the books until late into the 20th century, and the racism that prevailed in the attitudes of so many even after the Civil Rights Movement, that DEI programs and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public education and other anti-racism efforts are biblically necessary in order to do justice and love mercy.

There are many reasons that such is not the case. But I’ll limit myself to three. First, the most basic foundation for biblical justice is the principle of impartiality. “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:15).⁵ Injustice is here defined as showing legal favor to a person according to his or her wealth or lack of wealth. One might think, given God’s concern for the poor, that the poor person’s poverty would tilt the scales of justice in his favor. It doesn’t. Given God’s antipathy toward the oppressor, one might think that the social and economic privilege of the wealthy person might count against him. It doesn’t. The poor person and the rich person must be judged according to God’s revealed law, not regarding wealth, privilege, or any other scale.

While Leviticus 19:15 has to do with the courtroom, the biblical principle of impartiality extends far beyond it. James, in his epistle, writes,

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1–4)

In this scenario, one man is favored over another in the church because of his wealth. James’ point is not that the rich man should be treated poorly but that the poor man should be given the same consideration as the rich. The church ought to treat each person equally.

As with all of God’s laws, the law of impartiality flows from the nature and character of God. When Peter heard that God had sent an angel to the Gentile centurion Cornelius so that he might hear the gospel, Peter exclaims, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). That declaration is especially important as it comes in the context of ethnic division. Peter is astounded that God’s mercy in salvation extends beyond the descendants of Abraham to the Gentiles. Whereas anti-racist ideology makes skin color and perceived social privilege determining factors in how a person is treated in schools and workplaces, God requires that there be no partiality in any context.

Second, while Scripture distinguishes between different ethnic groups, there is no biblical category for race determined by skin color. The color of a person’s skin, while recognized, does not set a person into one group or another (Jeremiah 13:23). The Ethiopian, Cushite, and the Nubian may all have black skin, but they are not set into an overarching racial category on that basis. They are not “Black people” but Ethiopians, Cushites, and Nubians. That is true for people with white skin as well. There are Romans, Greeks, and Scythians with white skin, but they are called Romans, Greeks, and Scythians, not “White people.” This is important when considering responsibility for past oppression. The Scriptures are clear that God does not hold a person guilty because of some sin that his parents or forefathers committed. But there is biblical precedent for taking responsibility and seeking to redress the sins of one’s predecessors. Daniel, for example, as a descendant of Abraham, confesses and seeks mercy for the idolatries committed by the people of Israel and Judah for generations even though he himself was not an idolater (Daniel 9:3–19). He does not, by contrast, take responsibility for and confess the sins of all brown-skinned Semitic people.

My heritage is Irish/Norwegian. Many of my ancestors were living in Canada during the American Civil War. Those that did not were not slave owners. I have no connection at all to antebellum slavery, even though the color of my skin is the same as antebellum slaveowners. Biblically speaking, it might be appropriate for the grandson of a member of the Ku Klux Klan to acknowledge his family’s past role in racist oppression, even though he is not personally guilty of it. It would be, likewise, appropriate for the pastor of a church that taught racism in the past to acknowledge and renounce the error. But people who have no such connections are in no way biblically implicated because they share the same skin color with those who do.⁶

Finally, there is a remedy for every genuine sin revealed in the Scriptures. There is mercy and healing even for the sinful nature with which we have all been born. Confession, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ is the pathway to redemption and life for all people. Actual racism, treating another person unfairly because of his or her skin color, is an egregious sin. It is a violation of the biblical law of impartiality. But Scripture provides a remedy for it in Jesus Christ. The anti-racist ideology that undergirds DEI and CRT lays the burden of guilt for racism upon not just individuals who act unjustly but upon all people who have white skin. And there is no remedy. No matter how many books you read or classes you take, you are still a racist, and you always will be. You can “do better” and “do the work,” but you can never escape the shame.

Matt Walsh’s DEI Journey. After George Floyd’s death in May of 2020, anti-racist ideology quickly became ascendant in universities, within corporations, in public schools and government institutions, and in the traditional media. But as the success of Am I Racist? suggests, and as the 2024 electoral victory of President Donald Trump, who made opposition to DEI a major emphasis of his presidential campaign, demonstrates, public sentiment has shifted dramatically,⁷ prompting some major corporations to rid themselves of DEI programs and benchmarks to escape the backlash.⁸ While reflecting that shift, Am I Racist? does more than reflect public mood. The film exposes the injustice, cruelty, and, ironically, racism inherent in the anti-racist movement.

After a teaser featuring Matt Walsh as a DEI instructor, wearing a man-bun wig and teaching the hosts and viewers of Good Things Utah (an ABC morning talk show) how to “stretch out of your whiteness,” the film opens with Walsh sitting in a diner watching television, as various media and political personalities discuss a growing tide of racism and racial violence. “There is a significant portion [of Americans] that are racist,” opines Sunny Hostin of The View, followed by a montage of political and media figures expressing similar sentiments, concluding with Vice President Kamala Harris, who says, “We’ve gotta do the work.” This prompts Matt Walsh to ask himself, “Am I racist? What is racism?” That marks the beginning of what Walsh refers to as his “journey.”

The journey is hilarious and, in many places, “cringe,” as my children say. Indeed, I found it difficult not to cover my eyes or walk out of the room for sheer embarrassment at many points, as Walsh, with a straight, earnest, deadpan face, does the work.

One of the most commented upon segments occurs when Walsh attends a grief support group, going by the name “Steven.” The purpose of the group is to help White people face and lament their inherent racism and the damage that it has caused. The session is facilitated by Breeshia Wade, a “Grief Expert” and “Anti-Racist Instructor” who was apparently paid $30,000.00 for her time. Walsh explains that he took the false name because he was worried that as a well-known conservative, he would not be welcome. His manner during this session sets the tone for the remainder of the film. He plays the awkward but earnest literalist who takes everything he’s taught to its absurd conclusion. When Wade tells the group she feels unsafe in White spaces, Walsh interrupts to console her, “You’re safe here. I think I speak for all of us when I say, you’re safe.” When Wade declares that every White person has seeds of white supremacy in his or her heart, Walsh interrupts again, “You said the seeds of white supremacy are in all of us. How do we get them out?” When she asks the group to meditate for thirty seconds on how they have experienced “white grief,” Walsh immediately answers, “It feels like a thousand knives plunging into my soul, like a sack being hit by bats and bricks and the whole sack being thrown into the ocean.” Wade cuts him off and tries to move on, but Walsh says, “I wasn’t finished. Then the sack is pulled out, and it’s set on fire. That’s what it feels like.” Ultimately, Walsh pretends to be overcome by emotion, and he heads to the designated “crying room.” But while he’s there, the rest of the group puts two and two together, figures out who he is, and they ask him to leave.

In another segment, Walsh, now in “disguise,” wearing his wig with the man-bun and a tweed jacket, with the help of his African American producer, “Ben,” hits the streets to launch a petition campaign to turn the George Washington Monument into the George Floyd Monument, increase its size, and paint it black. He succeeds in procuring a large number of signatures and earning Ben an apology and a hug on behalf of all White people from a very convicted middle-aged White man.

Later in the film, Walsh somehow manages to gain an interview with Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility (Beacon Press, 2018). DiAngelo issued a statement on the eve of the film’s release claiming that Walsh lied in order to secure the interview, a claim Walsh denies.⁹ The interview culminates with Walsh paying “reparations” of $20 to his producer Ben and pressuring DiAngelo to do the same. When she objects that reparations is a systemic act, not an individual one, Walsh says, “I’m not waiting for the system.” She finally gives in and gives over the cash she has in her purse. But don’t worry about DiAngelo going hungry. Walsh paid her $14,970.00 for the interview.

The Mic Drop Moment. The climax of Am I Racist? comes after Walsh decides to launch his own DEI workshop to pass on everything he has learned during his journey. He calls it the “Do the Work! Workshop.” The session, attended by paid attendees gathered from Craigslist (for a total of $3248.00) begins with Walsh asking everyone to point to the most racist person in the room, just by appearances. Two participants immediately walk out. Walsh scolds those who remain for not pointing at themselves. As he moves through his material, people become increasingly uncomfortable as the workshop begins to feel like a struggle session. This feeling is confirmed when Ben, the producer, pushes Walsh’s wheelchair-bound “racist Uncle Frank”¹⁰ into the classroom. Situating him in the center of the room, Walsh confronts Uncle Frank for a racist joke he told twenty years prior. “You had no right to make that joke. Your joke dehumanizes Latinx people. It’s not funny to mock marginalized people.” Then, in a twist, he invites the attendees to curse Uncle Frank. Shockingly, two White women take him up on the offer. “F__ you,” says one of them. “Yeah, F__ you,” says the other. Then she tells everyone how she has cut off her entire family because of their racism. After Ben wheels Uncle Frank out of the room, Walsh pulls out a box of whips and paddles for the “self-flagellation” instruction, complete with helpful illustrated instructions on the whiteboard. Two more participants leave. The rest dutifully take the instruments and seem ready to follow instructions.

The self-flagellation instruction is the point toward which the entire film has been directed. The cruel moral manipulation and public shaming at the heart of anti-racist ideology is, at this moment, revealed. Anti-racism, with its laws, doctrines, practices, and zealous but far from ascetic clerics, bears all the marks of religion, but, as noted above, it is a religion of law and guilt, devoid of atonement, mercy, or forgiveness. To find absolution, workshop attendees were ready and willing not only to curse wheelchair-bound Uncle Frank for a twenty-year-old joke but also to whip themselves (or at least learn how) for the “sin” of whiteness. The various DEI/anti-racist authors, instructors, and purported victims appearing in the film have cost Daily Wire a total of $103,840.00.¹¹ If the purpose of Am I Racist? is to publicly expose the evil and grift of anti-racism, Walsh succeeds with brilliance, audacity, and razor-sharp wit.

The Ethics of Deception. The film has, unsurprisingly, been well received on the political right, but it is not without its critics among Christian conservatives. Denny Burk, Professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College and president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and Andrew Walker, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Managing Editor of World Opinions, while grateful that Walsh has revealed the truth about anti-racism, have questioned the ethics of the film.

Writing in World Opinions, Burk insists that “Exposing and lampooning DEI lunacy is a good cause. I want to see the demise of this woke ideology as much as Walsh does. But still, is it OK to use lies in service of the truth?”¹² Burk believes that there is never an occasion when deception is permissible.

Andrew Walker, by contrast, points out on the podcast The Bully Pulpit that there are biblically legitimate reasons to use deception.¹³ Just as not all killing constitutes murder, not all deception constitutes lying. The Hebrew midwives deceived Pharaoh to rescue Hebrew babies. Rahab, the prostitute, deceived the king of Jericho to save two Hebrew spies. These women are uniformly commended and blessed in Scripture for their faithfulness without any rebuke. Debates over the ethics of deception can be long and complex, but Walker seems to fall within the school of Christian ethicists who argue that deception is legitimate when the person/people being deceived have no moral right to know the truth and would do great harm should they find it out (the Gestapo agent searching for hidden Jews, for example).¹⁴ A lie, as theologian John Frame puts it, is “a word or act that intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to hurt him.”¹⁵ Some would add that the motive behind a lie is self-glorification, whereas the intent behind a legitimate deception is to serve others and see that some great good is accomplished.¹⁶

Matt Walsh answered these criticisms of his method in a 17-minute YouTube video in which he denied that he had lied to any of the participants.¹⁷ When he gave the false name, “Steven,” to Breeshia Wade he did so, he claims, with the expectation that he would be recognized. With regard to the disguise he later donned — the man-bun, wig, and tweed jacket — Walsh says that it was so badly put together that he didn’t think anyone would take him seriously. He admits that he did not give all of the information he could have given to people like Robin DiAngelo, but not providing all of the information is not the same as telling a lie. Walsh says everyone was handsomely paid for their time, and everyone consented to their appearance in the film. While rejecting the accusation that he lied to anyone, Walsh goes on to grant, for the sake of the argument, that even if he did, for the purpose of this film, deceive the participants, the deception would be akin to the undercover work of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) that in 2015 released a series of hidden camera interviews with Planned Parenthood officials which revealed that they were marketing the organs of aborted babies.¹⁸ Would Walker argue that the CMP engaged in sinful deception? Great evil was revealed in that investigation, and it would be hard to think of people with less right to know the truth or who do greater harm to others than Planned Parenthood officials selling body parts.

Final Thoughts. If you agree with Denny Burk (whom I respect) that deception is never acceptable, Walsh’s defense won’t fly. But if you tend to agree with Andrew Walker, how you assess the ethics of Am I Racist? may depend on whether you see anti-racism and those who promote it as an evil akin to Planned Parenthood. Personally, I do. I believe that this ideology and its practitioners destroy families, incite racial hatred, lead people away from Christ and His church, and promulgate unjust policies and programs that end careers, poison minds, and darken souls. By exposing the greed, manipulation, and cruelty at the heart of anti-racism, Matt Walsh has done a good and worthy thing for the public welfare. Those who were deceived are bad actors involved in doing great harm to men, women, and children. The deceptions, to the extent there were any, in Am I Racist? were not malicious lies but revelations of truth, pulling back the veil on a gross deception being sold to the American public.

The Reverend Matthew M. Kennedy (MDiv, VTS) is the rector of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York. He also serves as the Canon for Preaching in the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word.

NOTES

1. Chris Lee, “How the Daily Wire Engineered Its First Box-Office Hit,” Vulture, October 9, 2024, https://www.vulture.com/article/how-the-daily-wire-engineered-box-office-hit-am-i-racist.html.
2. Tim Rice, “‘Am I Racist?’ Opens as Third-Highest Grossing Film in The Country,” Daily Wire, September 14, 2024, https://www.dailywire.com/news/am-i-racist-opens-as-third-highest-grossing-film-in-the-country; “Am I Racist?,” Box Office Mojo, accessed February 14, 2025, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3329982465/.
3. The term anti-racism was popularized by Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Anti-Racist (One World, 2019).
4. Matt Kennedy, “All Have Not Sinned in Every Way: Racism and Original Sin,” Christian Research Journal 43, no. 2 (2020): 40–45, https://www.equip.org/articles/all-have-not-sinned-in-every-way-racism-and-original-sin/.
5. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.
6. This point is made convincingly by Kevin DeYoung, “Reparations: A Critical Theological Review,” The Gospel Coalition, April 22, 2021, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/reparations-a-critical-theological-review/.
7. Curtis Bunn, “Hamstrung by ‘Golden Handcuffs’: Diversity Roles Disappear 3 Years 7after George Floyd’s Murder Inspired Them,” NBC News, February 27, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/diversity-roles-disappear-three-years-george-floyd-protests-inspired-rcna72026.
8. Alexandra Olson and Cathy Bussewitz, “Walmart’s DEI Rollback Signals a Profound Shift in the Wake of Trump’s Election Victory,” Associated Press, November 26, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/walmart-dei-inclusion-diversity-f2fc1ab086186ec6600c38950d8d2c74.
9. DiAngelo’s statement is no longer available on her website, some quotes and a summary of its contents as well as Matt Wash’s response can be found here: Brent Scher, “Robin DiAngelo Breaks ‘Am I Racist?’ Silence, Says She Got Played by ‘Borat-Style Mockumentary,’” Daily Wire, September 12, 2024, https://www.dailywire.com/news/robin-diangelo-breaks-am-i-racist-silence-says-she-got-played-by-borat-style-mockumentary.
10. It is unknown whether “Uncle Frank” is an actor, a staff member, or really Matt Walsh’s uncle. My guess is that he is a staff member.
11. This figure includes the $20.00 Walsh paid to Ben and $5000.00 for a Race2Dinner gathering (which I’m not sure Daily Wire paid for), but it excludes the Craigslist participants.
12. Denny Burk, “How Far Is Too Far? Honoring the Truth While Fighting the Good Fight,” World Opinions, September 17, 2024, https://wng.org/opinions/how-far-is-too-far-1726567683.
13. Andrew Walker, Dean Inserra, Erik Reed, Eric Teetsel, hosts, “Andrew vs. Matt Walsh, Biblical Deception, and Yet Another Attempt on Trump,” The Bully Pulpit (podcast), September 20, 2024, https://open.spotify.com/episode/6kioBD8kynVhaCLX17IY6l.
14. David W. Jones, “Rescuing Rahab: The Evangelical Discussion on Conflicting Moral Absolutes,” Southeastern Theological Review 7, no. 1 (Summer 2016): 23–42, https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/STRIssue71-Jones.pdf.
15. John Frame, Doctrine of the Christian Life (P&R Publishing, 2008), quoted in Jones, “Rescuing Rahab,” 40.
16. Jones, “Rescuing Rahab,” 34–37, 40.
17. Matt Walsh, “Let’s Break Down the Methods and Morality Behind Making ‘Am I Racist?’” YouTube, September 18, 2024, 17:18, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at9Gh2NU7zw.
18. Michael Katz, “Pair Whose Videos Exposed Planned Parenthood Get Plea Deal,” Newsmax, January 27, 2025, https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/david-daleiden-sandra-merritt-abortion/2025/01/27/id/1196757/.