‘White Fragility’ author tricked into paying reparations to ‘Am I Racist?’ producer

Published Sep 09, 2024  •  2 minute read

Robin DiAngelo. Photo by SCREEN GRAB /MATT WALSH/YOUTUBE

The author of White Fragility was reportedly tricked into going into her own pocket to pay reparations to a Black producer in podcaster Matt Walsh’s upcoming documentary Am I Racist?

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An undercover Walsh, 38, coerced author Robin DiAngelo into paying cash to his producer, Ben, to compensate for so-called sins of the past by offering money himself, the New York Post reported exclusively on Monday.

Walsh, who was conducting an interview with DiAngelo for a documentary project while feigning anti-racist sentiments and posing as an activist, called on Ben after finishing most of his questions.

“This is Ben, a producer on the film. I thought it would be a powerful opportunity to speak directly to a person of colour and confront our racism and also, apologize for the white supremacist systems that oppress Ben,” Walsh began.

DiAngelo, 68, followed suit.

“On behalf of myself and my fellow white people, I apologize — it is not you, it is us. As long as I’m standing, I will do my best to challenge it.”

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Walsh announced that he’d pay Ben reparations if he’d accept it, prompting his producer to say, “I mean, I won’t turn it down.”

Walsh then handed Ben some cash from his wallet.

“That doesn’t make up for 400 years of oppression, but it’s all that I have to give,” Walsh said.

Ben, fully in on the trick, explained that he doesn’t “know if it’s ever enough,” but praised Walsh for “putting in the work” and acknowledged the “small progress I think we made today.”

DiAngelo appeared bewildered.

“That was really weird,” DiAngelo gasped.

“I think reparations is like a systemic dynamic and approach,” she added. “I mean I think there may be some people who would be offended by (that).”

Ben said that wouldn’t “turn down cash.” A solemn-looking Walsh then stressed the need to allow “ourselves to be uncomfortable.” He underscored, “This is something that I can do right now” and asked, “Why wouldn’t I do it?”

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“I can go get some cash for sure,” she said after. “I don’t mind if that would be something that would be comfortable for you.”

After getting Ben’s blessing, DiAngelo then walked over to her pocketbook, pulled out roughly $30, and told him, “That’s all the cash I have.”

“Thanks,” a smiling Ben replied.

When DiAngelo sat down with Walsh earlier in the documentary, she asked for quick information about who he was, noting that she “has to be careful.”

DiAngelo’s book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism hit bookshelves back in 2018 and helped make her famous as a so-called anti-bias training expert.

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The New York Times best-selling book features some controversial assessments of racism. She claimed that “White people raised in Western society are conditioned into a white supremacist worldview because it is the bedrock of our society and its institutions.”

At another point, she wrote in the book, “People of colour may also hold prejudices and discriminate against white people, but they lack the social and institutional power that transforms their prejudice and discrimination into racism; the impact of their prejudice on whites is temporary and contextual.”

Walsh’s documentary is set to hit the silver screen on Sept. 13.

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