WEST BRATTLEBORO — All Souls Church in West Brattleboro will continue its film series, “Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege,” with a screening of the MTV documentary White People on Sunday, Jan. 28.
The second film in the series, this ground-breaking 2015 American documentary is directed and produced by Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas, who also stars. The film explores white privilege in the U.S.
All Souls Church will show the film Sunday at noon. Viewers are invited to bring a bag lunch if they wish. All shows in the series are free and open to the public. The church is located at 29 South St., West Brattleboro.
According to a news release, “As the film gets underway it points out some facts about race that might seem obvious - until the viewer realizes that for many Americans the insights are not obvious at all. White people are so accustomed to their privilege that often they never see it.”
What does it mean to be white? MTV's documentary on race aims to answer that question from the viewpoint of young white people living in America today. The film follows Vargas as he travels across the country to get this complicated conversation started.
White People asks what is 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.
As Spencer Kornhaber wrote in The Atlantic, “The best parts of the [film] try to debunk common, defiant responses white people have when told that they're privileged.”
The film series is sponsored by the All Souls Church Social and Environmental Action Committee. After the film, viewers will be invited to share their thoughts and reactions.
This year the church's committee will explore several questions, such as, “What is white power? What is white privilege? Do people - black and white - assume this power and privilege exist, just as the air we breathe exists? Does it surround us - and do we expect no less?”