New video series asks white millennials about race -- and it gets complicated

In the age of social media and Black Lives Matter, conversations about race seem more visible and accessible than ever before. But many Americans are still uncomfortable with joining the discussion themselves.

In fact, millennials, who are often characterized as the "most tolerant" generation, have a hard time acknowledging the significance of racial identity -- especially when they're white. But a new series of video interviews gets white millennials to confront their privilege in a simple way -- by asking them about it. 

Award-winning filmmaker Whitney Dow and American Documentary / POV released the second installation of the Whiteness Project on Wednesday -- an "interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white, or partially white, experience race."

The new series, Intersection of I, is a collection of 23 interviews conducted in Dallas, Texas, with white millennials from various socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities.

"I did the project because whiteness is the missing component of the racial discussion," Dow tells Mashable. "Everyone is talking about race in America without acknowledging that whiteness is the structure that all racial understanding is built on."

Dow, who is also an educator and research scholar at Columbia University's Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE), confesses that people have been critical of his decision to center the race conversation on white experience. But he defends his stance, explaining that white allies can be most effective when they take an introspective approach and challenge themselves.

"Many white millennial allies think their job is to right the wrongs of other people, rather than looking inward."

The first installation of the Whiteness Project, titled Inside the White/Caucasian Box, was released in October 2014. That collection of 21 interviews of white Americans in Buffalo, New York, was so well-received, Dow says, that he decided to "dig deeper into the complicated equation that makes up identity."

"Many white millennial allies think their job is to right the wrongs of other people, rather than looking inward and thinking of how structural racism impacts their own life and changing that," he says.

As a result, this second installment includes white people who have intersecting identities, including biracial, multiracial, non-binary and transgender identities. This intersectional approach prompted interviewees to discuss how the world perceives them, as well as who they feel they are.

"Whenever I had to fill out whichever race group I was belonging to, I would always fill in 'African American,' just because that's what the teachers told me to do," says one woman, who identifies as white, black and Hispanic. "I think it had more to do with how my teachers perceived me than how I perceived myself, because if it were up to me, I would have bubbled all three."

The Whiteness Project is compelling because the views expressed are so diverse, as well as unfiltered. And that was intentional -- even though Dow has his own set of beliefs, he says his goal is to be a "dispassionate advocate" for the people he interviews, rather than promoting any one set of ideas.

To ensure an objective approach, Dow includes statistics at the end of each interview to provide a fact-based, contextual frame. For example, one interviewee says, "In America now, being a white Christian is the hardest thing. And that's exactly what I am -- a white, Christian male." The fact card that follows his interview shows 58% of white Americans believe that discrimination against white people has become as big a problem as discrimination against people of color.

"I wanted to put a face and an experience to the numbers, because they are representative of a wider structural issue," Dow tells Mashable. "Their answers are not just random outliers, but beliefs that are shared by a lot of people."

Although many of the interviews provide a disheartening look at how race is discussed and perceived by young people in the U.S., getting white people to think critically about their own race and identity is an important step toward understanding how race impacts others.

Getting white people to think critically about their own race is an important step toward understanding how race impacts others.

After these interviews, Dow has seen many people walk away with a deeper understanding of race.

"Sometimes they just want to come and tell me their thoughts," Dow says. "But very often there is a process of self-reflection, and they want to engage their friends and family in that reflection as well."

If you are in New York City, you can experience an interactive art installation version of Intersection of I as a part of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival's Storyscapes from April 14-17.

Dow encourages all those who interact with the Whiteness Project, online and off, to share their thoughts and join the conversation with the hashtag #WhitenessProject. You can watch the rest of the films on the project's website here.

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