Gay Filipino director discusses his documentary ‘White People’
The gay Filipino-American director of the documentary ‘White People’ addresses the resulting Twitter trend and why conversations about race are necessary.
Recently, the show, created and hosted by Jose Antonio Vargas, premièred on MTV and sparked controversy from all ethnicities.
‘White People’ focuses on Caucasian millennials and discussing race issues with a generation conditioned to be politically correct and raised with white privilege.
The documentary’s description states: “What does it mean to be white?
“MTV’s ‘White People’ is a groundbreaking documentary on race that aims to answer that question from the viewpoint of young white people living in America today. . .
“‘White People’ asks what’s fair when it comes to affirmative action, if colorblindness is a good thing, what privilege really means, and what it’s like to become the “white minority” in your neighborhood.”
The hashtag #WhitePeople trended in the US as #1 and as #4 around the world.
Mr Vargas- a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist- responded to the social media uproar with a post of his own, called: “Why I Made #WhitePeople and answers to 4 complaints I keep getting”.
He classified the majority of tweets with four broad categories- either “you’re being divisive”, “who cares what white people have to say?”, “the timing is suspicious” or “the film doesn’t go far enough”.
He believes that the inclusion of Caucasians is necessary in not only the racial discussion, but the future of the United States.
Mr Vargas said in his post: “It’s going to get weird, and it’s going to get uncomfortable.
“But it has to, if things are going to get better, if we are to understand each other better.”
The documentary aims at educating young, white Americans about white privilege and its effects in a diverse country.
His video, “Dear White America: A message from #EmergingUS”, predicted that, in 2050, only 47 percent of the population will be white.
28 percent will be Hispanic and 13 percent will be African-American.
In September, the digital magazine #EmergingUS, which is a partnership between Mr Vargas and the Los Angeles Times, will launch as a campaign for promoting “multi-cultural America”.
So far, the publication’s Twitter page is in full swing, while its YouTube channel just released its first video.
The #EmergingUS website is not completely functional yet, but offers a sign-up list for the upcoming digital magazine.
Watch the entire documentary here:
