NOTAll attempts to document real events fail to achieve their intended goal. Capturing the Friedmans started as a sweet story about clowns and ended up deploring atrocious crimes. Metallica Some kind of monster was intended to be a few infomercials, not a nuanced portrait of the toxic effects of fame. Tom Cruise went on Oprah to chat on the couch and discuss his love for Katie Holmes in a completely normal way.
In the case of Whites Only: Ade's Extremist Adventure, Ade Adepitan's attempt to see if “racial separatism can ever be justified” becomes a warning to black people who think they can be one of the best. -those themselves by white supremacy.
The show follows the charming presenter and Paralympic athlete on his trip to Orania, a “whites only” town in South Africa, to find out why they founded this community (racism), what their values are (racism) and why it celebrates the architects of apartheid (racism). He meets with real estate agents, students and city officials to politely inquire about their “whites only” space with the lightness of someone discussing the weather.
An anti-Socratic approach – allowing subjects to speak with minimal interruption – can result in compelling interviews; Louis Theroux has almost made it an art. But in the case of Whites Only, Adepitan's passivity goes from ridiculous to offensive. He fears that as a black man visiting an all-white town in South Africa, he might be the problem – that people might think he “came with all the weapons, with his prejudices and his opinions, but that’s it.” It's not really my style. I'm a relaxed guy. » Upon entering – and this bears repeating – an all-white town in South Africa, he gives priority to their comfort; he wants to “give these people a chance – and I don’t want to be kicked out.”
It is of course essential that any interview includes an element of good faith. Yet Adepitan's desperate optimism puts him at a disadvantage as he desperately tries to be “one of the good ones” while his subjects explain that apartheid wasn't segregated enough, or that they don't know Nelson Mandela enough to be able to do it. form an opinion about him. This reaches unintentional hilarity halfway through, when he watches a school play about dark-skinned, low-intelligence “homosexual monsters.” “I’m not an English major, but even I understand the symbolism,” Adepitan says. The symbolism?! This is not subtext; it's plain old text.
Adepitan's determined, sunny naivety becomes far more intriguing than the false intellectual nonsense his interview subjects spout. Their terribly stupid theories include segregation as a rejection of “social engineering” and Orania as “a cultural thing more than a political thing.” These deeply unserious soundbites barely merit screen time or brain cells, but Adepitan gets smaller and softer in an attempt to placate them. It's fascinating to see.
He suggests that their “racist past was overshadowed by apartheid”, gently asks his subjects if there were any “negatives” in the region's Afrikaans history and, in a stunning moment respectability policyalmost grabs a pearl necklace as he defends British democracy and declares: “I support BLM (Black Lives Matter), but I'm not going out rioting!” » Not only is it a particularly deaf thing to hear. say in South Africa, but it also suggests that he must also read about Mandela.
This show feels like watching a toddler wander into a lion's den to advocate for veganism. At one point, they stop in front of a church that other journalists say they were kicked out of because they were black. “Luckily we don’t go in,” he said. “It has been agreed that we will be able to interview the pastor after the service. » Despite this, he seems shocked to receive a hostile reception.
Even the Oranians seem intrigued by Adepitan's open-mindedness. At one point he said to his fixer, Kerneels, “I don't feel comfortable here.” And I want it. » Kerneels looks at him, stunned, and says, “I would be very surprised if you felt comfortable here.” »
James Baldwin once said of life amid America's deep racism in the 1960s: “To be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all the time.” » Adepitan shows that choosing good vibrations over consciousness is an unenviable alternative. Being a “relaxed black man” is a weak response to white supremacy; the Oranians are insensitive to his politeness.
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Adepitan concluded that there was very nice people on both sides, but places like this will inevitably end with “you and I meet on the battlefield”, seemingly ignoring that the failure of its approach makes the case for militant action against racism. Unfortunately, accidentally landing on a salient point is not commendable. Being black in “whites only” spaces is not welcome – and it is not something that anyone, or any program, should strive to be comfortable with.
