“What you are about to witness is the embodiment of the collected feelings of folks of color in America. An undistorted view of our collective truth,” explains director, executive producer and co-writerSacha Jenkins. “This is how America has treated us. This is how we feel. Freedom of speech and all of that jazz, buddy! America is all about that.” Interviews with historians, cultural experts, activists, comedians and others will discuss race through the eyes of people of color. However, not everyone may not be ready to witness those feelings. Recent comments on the trailer on YouTube and Twitter are almost universally negative, with many saying documentaries like this one are trying to divide Americans. “There are people who are going to hate-watch it to see what us Negroes are talking about,” interviewee Amanda Seales (best known for her role on Insecure) told TVLine.“Then there will be people who will watch to feel validated and seen. It can be a very lonely space to know what you know and be continuously gaslit by this country into thinking this is not the case.” The first episode of everything’s gonna be all white arrives Friday, Feb. 11, and is sure to cause some controversy. Read on to learn what you need to know about Showtime’s everything’s gonna be all white docuseries, including what terrain it will cover, who appears in the series and how to check it out yourself.
What is everything’s gonna be all white about?
The show aims to present a history and observation of America from the point of view of people of color. The first episode, titled “White Lies Matter,” will approach the increasingly complex “questions on what it means to be an American” in recent years, including the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. Next, “White Colour Crime” looks at indigenous reservations, living in the projects and “the many iterations of settler colonialism and systemic racism present in urban communities of color—then and now.” “White Noize,” the last episode, will explore everything from “blackface to blackfishing” and ongoing “racist, classist, xenophobic and misogynistic depictions and analyzes how they see us vs. how we see us.” Short vignettes sprinkled throughout the episodes will introduce “Mad Chad” and “Radical Rhonda,” two characters “whose brutally honest takes illuminate the frustrations each side feels in being truly heard by the other.” A bonus episode, available only to Showtime On Demand subscribers, will feature a conversation between director Jenkins and several activists and artists about current events and hot topics like the racial disparities apparent in gun control debates and marijuana laws. Jenkins will also perform with his band, The 1865.
Who is everything’s gonna be all white director Sacha Jenkins?
His rock band aside, the man Seales calls “an irrefutable genius” is known for the documentary that earned him an Emmy nomination, 2019’s Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men. Jenkins also directed B**chin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James, which aired on Showtime in 2021, and he’s also involved in the upcoming Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong for Apple Original Films. Before documentaries, Jenkins was involved in TV behind the scenes, in roles such as creative consultant and writer for the first season of the animated show The Boondocks and executive producer for VH1’s The White Rapper Show. Jenkins is also a writer and was, at one time, a staffer and music editor for the magazine VIBE and co-founded both Beat Down, “the first-ever hip hop newspaper,” and ego trip, a music journal. He’s also written several books.
Who appears in everything’s gonna be all white?
A number of celebs, historical authorities and other well-known people of color appear in the docuseries to flesh out the experience of people of color in the United States. Besides Seales, Jemele Hill, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Styles P, Tamika Mallory, Dr. Nell Irvin Painter, Jemele Hill, Favianna Rodriguez, Dr. Nick Estes, and Margaret Cho are just some of the faces viewers will see.
Is there a trailer for everything’s gonna be all white?
In addition to the provocative trigger warning, the trailer (above) includes snippets from people of color talking about a variety of hot-button topics, such as so-called white fragility, the ethnicity of Jesus, and the symbols and monuments of institutionalized racism. “This is a wild place y’all, it’s a wild place,” concludes Seales. “I know Harriet [Tubman] and Frederick [Douglass] just be up there like, ‘what is they gonna do?’”
How can I watch everything’s gonna be all white?
Showtime On Demand subscribers can catch all three episodes and the bonus episode starting at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 11. Regular Showtime subscribers can view the first episode in the series, “White Lies Matter,” at 8 p.m. ET on the Showtime network. “White Colour Crime,” the second installment, will air on Friday, Feb. 18 at the same time, and “White Noize,” the third part, will air Friday, Feb. 25. The bonus episode is only available to On Demand subscribers and won’t air on television. Next, 30 Black Americans to Celebrate During Black History Month
