A trailer for MTV’s latest documentary debuted this week, and like a great deal of the network’s previous programming, White People and its illegal immigrant director seem ready to bring the drama.
Following shows like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and 16 and Pregnant, the network’s latest dive into the exploration of cultural issues asks a group of white millennials to explain their “whiteness,” and includes tearful discussions of white privilege and the role it plays in their lives.
Pulitzer Prize-winning filmmaker and immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas, who is in the country illegally, directed White People, and traveled all over the United States to interact with his five young subjects, according to MTV.
In the clip below, the youngsters’ attitudes on race vary between not wanting to “offend” others and feeling uncomfortable or defensive about their heritage.
“How might your life be different if you weren’t white?” Vargas asks the group in the clip. “When you say white, what does that mean to you?”
One girl’s white guilt seems to come out, when she responds, “We’ve never had to internalize what white people have done in America, but here, you can’t escape that.”
Another girl in the clip, apparently wrought with shame, simply says, “You kind of get this feeling that things belong to you.”
White People is scheduled to premiere July 22 on MTV.
Watch the trailer:
Prior to the release of the trailer, the film’s director launched an attack against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on CNN Tuesday July 7, when he told Erin Burnett Trump’s comments on illegal immigration were irresponsible.