Comedian Chelsea Handler reflects on white privilege during her 2019 Netflix documentary.
She was a young, pretty blonde girl who had a ‘big mouth’, “and for some reason that was rewarded in Hollywood,” but now in her 40s comedian Chelsea Handler is questioning what was achieved purely through racial bias.
In the documentary, Chelsea said: “I just never really questioned anything, because I thought I deserved everything.”
Chelsea looks back on her career, saying she hustled and thankfully made it but she overlooked how far the colour of her skin has got her in comparison with her black counterparts in the comedy and tv industry.
When interviewing Kevin Hart, famous black comedian, he states that the hiring process for white people is so much smoother whereas he had to find all the right connections first and then get people to vouch for him in order to get a gig, Chelsea felt oblivious to this.
Whilst at a student open mic night, after introducing herself, Chelsea receives comments from the majorly black audience that asking questions and learning about black people isn’t enough to solve a racial and socio-economic problem, white people need to learn about themselves first.
An unnamed girl in the audience said: “This rabbit hole goes deep, deeper than a documentary.”
After the event Chelsea said: “I got the impression that black people are sick and tired of being asked questions about white people’s problems.”
As a journalist this then made me feel like my research was offending those who I am trying to understand and I believe Chelsea felt this way too, it's a white person’s problem so why do we automatically ask black people what they want us to do?
Later in the documentary, Chelsea visits the Montgomery Memorial for Peace and Justice, it was chilling to recognise that between the years of 1880 to 1950 more than 4,000 black people were lynched, this was during the ‘Black Reconstruction’ period which is arguably still going on today.
Some names were left as ‘unknown’ just as their stories were, many black stories are sanitized in our version of history.
White people love to talk about their heritage, taking a 23 and me test to find out there’s some Swedish in their blood, but with that in mind, why do we ignore or ‘sanitize’ the horrific history our race started?
Chelsea visits her ex- boyfriend from her teenage years, he was a black drug dealer and although they were both ‘using’, Chelsea always got out of the hairiest situations scot-free, the same cannot be said for him.
Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Melina Abdullah, speaks to Chelsea, saying she does not want to have to dry white tears, how is a black woman meant to comfort you on racism...
I do not want my white guilt to be perceived as me wanting sympathy and a pat on the back as though I have done charity work attempting to research black history and listen to black voices.
Within the documentary I found the cinematography was good at reinforcing the conversation, such as a torn American flag blowing in the wind representing an un-united country.
Similarly, in the establishing scene, old stand up clips show Chelsea complaining about being broke whilst the film cuts back to her current Bel Air home where there is a Hispanic woman cleaning dishes and a Hispanic maintenance man out in the garden.
Although I wish the documentary was more investigative, I am still grateful Chelsea, a successful, white woman, addressed her white privilege.
She even criticised the reasoning from other white people, this was definitely a highlight as a viewer.
It is not enough to campaign for black lives in front of your black friends; question your white friends and your privileged white community.
We use our privilege every single day so take note, recognise, and challenge.
Get mad, because as white people, we have the privilege to do so.
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