Let me start by saying that I'd never heard of Chelsea Handler, so I was quite surprised to find out she's a successful comedian. To be honest, the only blond comic I know is Amy Schumer. So, I thought this documentary was being done by a regular white woman that was largely unknown but maybe an activist.
I bristled a bit when the documentary started only because I wasn't sure what angle Chelsea was coming from. Was this going to be a big joke to her, was this going to be her effort to prove that whites don't enjoy a privilege, or was she going to treat this seriously and properly. As the documentary progressed I was pleased to see that although she's a comedian she wasn't treating the matter as a joke. She interviewed activist heavyweights like Tim Wise, Carol Anderson, and Melinda Abdullah as well as other lesser known people.
Does this movie solve the problem? No. But one of the first things that has to be done is admission that there is a problem. If someone like Chelsea can be conscious enough to recognize that her life has been considerably easier and different than a similar woman who happens to be Black is a big plus. So, even though documentaries like this don't solve the problem, they do more towards a solution than hiding one's head in the sand.
I bristled a bit when the documentary started only because I wasn't sure what angle Chelsea was coming from. Was this going to be a big joke to her, was this going to be her effort to prove that whites don't enjoy a privilege, or was she going to treat this seriously and properly. As the documentary progressed I was pleased to see that although she's a comedian she wasn't treating the matter as a joke. She interviewed activist heavyweights like Tim Wise, Carol Anderson, and Melinda Abdullah as well as other lesser known people.
Does this movie solve the problem? No. But one of the first things that has to be done is admission that there is a problem. If someone like Chelsea can be conscious enough to recognize that her life has been considerably easier and different than a similar woman who happens to be Black is a big plus. So, even though documentaries like this don't solve the problem, they do more towards a solution than hiding one's head in the sand.