White People Won't Save You

Blood Diamond (Feat. Shamira Ibrahim)

"These ain't conflict diamonds/Is they Jacob?/don't lie to me maynneee". That's right, we're discussing the Blockbuster that shoehorned a white love story into a decades long civil war in Africa, 2002's Blood Diamond. 
Starring WPWSY 3 timer Djimon Honsu, 1 timer Leonardo DiCaprio, and directed by 3 timer Edward Zwick, it's basically our All-Star game. To help us break it all down we're joined by esteemed culture writer Shamira Ibrahim! 
Together we discuss the exploitative feel of the movie, the real history behind the diamond trade and war in Sierra Leone, and of course. whatever accent  Leo thought he was doing. 
Shamira is so talented and you are truly missing out if you don't check her work. From The Atlantic to OkayAfrica she's written some amazing essays and articles about the intersections of culture and Blackness. 
Check out her Twitter and IG for more and go here for a look at some of her past work. And to keep up with new stuff, subscribe to her Substack.
Also, she had so many wonderful movies to recommend and we'll list them here for you: 
Atlantics
Cuties
His House
Rafiki
Dhalinyaro
Black Girl
Touki Boukie 
 
As for us, you can find the show @white_pod and write in to us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com We'd love to hear from you! We'll be back next week with The Ghost and The Darkness! 

Gran Torino (Feat. Roy Wood Jr.)

On todays episode we speak with the one and only Roy Wood Jr. (The Daily Show, Confess, Fletch) and we are absolutely as hyped as you are! 
Together, we break down the 2008 Clint Eastwood vehicle (rim shot), Gran Torino. With almost a slur a minute, there was a lot to break down. Roy shares a story about hitting Clint's car with a football on the Warner Brothers lot, we ask if the point of the film is white forgiveness, and we imagine what a sequel would look like. 
We can't thank Roy enough for his time and all the laughs. Roy's new movie Confess, Fletch is in theaters right now as well as digital early access at home. Also staring Jon Hamm, Ayden Mayeri, Kyle Maclachlan, and Lorneza Izzo, it's a smart and fun update of the original Fletch movies and novels. Check it out! 
If for whatever reason you don't follow Roy, you can find him on Twitter and IG @Roywoodjr. And head over to Roywoodjr.com to find tour dates and more! 
You can also find him weeknights on The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and every Wednesday on his podcast Roy's Job Fair (@roysjobfair). 
And as always, you can find us on Twitter at @white_pod. We'll have a lot of additional info on this movie there, including more from Bee Vang and comments from the Hmong actors and crew about their treatment on set. You can also reach out to us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com with your thoughts about these movies, recommendations for films, and more! We'll be back next week with Blood Diamond! 

The Crickets Dance (Feat. Alexis Harper)

And now, we present to you one of the cringiest and most requested movies we've had in some time. A movie so bad, we honestly recommend you don't watch. We're talking about the one, the only, 2020 train wreck, The Cricket's Dance. 
We're joined by the wonderful Alexis Harper, whose tweet brought this cursed film to our attention, so it was only right we had her own to talk through it. 
Part slave movie, part romance, and 100% white forgiveness, we journey back to McGrath plantation and ask questions like, how could you manage to keep two separate pregnancies a secret? Why do these slaves look like they're in a J. Crew catalogue? And what exactly do you mean by "the crickets dance"?
That's not all, because we have some juicy behind the scenes things to discuss, namely the DM and subtweet the director sent Alexis! 
Speaking of, Alexis is wonderful and you should absolutely follow her here, as well as check out her abolitionist newsletter The Washington Revolution! 
As for us, you can follow along on Twitter for plenty of behind the scenes, thoughts and more at @white_pod on Twitter and feel free to email us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com with your own movie recommendations and thoughts! We'll be back next week to talk about Gran Torino with a very special guest! 

The Ride (Feat. Alexis Oatman)

BMX, family, nazis? That's right, we're talking about the 2020 (yes 2020) Chris Bridges executive produced The Ride. 
What else is there to say, Ludacris loves a neo-nazi to BMX glory in this "based on a true story" drama. Except it's all made up! We question why they would even take the story from the UK to the US, what Ludacris thought he was doing with this one, and talk about what second chances actually mean. 
Alexis is a fantastic writer who you should definitely be following at @iamlexstylz and hit the Linktree to find all the places you can see her work. 
As always, you can follow us at @white_pod for more behind the scenes on this and other movies as well as email us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com with your movie recs, caucacity, and more! 
We'll be back next week with...The Crickets Dance (shudders).

The Serpent and The Rainbow Part 2 (Feat. Jonny and Aileen of Uy Que Horror)

Part 2 of our spooky discussion with the good people of Uy Que Horror! We finish up our talk by going over the actual history of zombies and voodoo in Haiti, the wild and cursed happenings on the set, and Jonny and Aileen give us some amazing Latinx horror recommendations.
We cannot recommend Uy Que Horror enough! It’s an incredibly fun, funny, and often insightful look at Latinx horror from all around the world. You can find and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to ours and follow them at @Uy_Que_Horror. You can also find Jonny @jonnyeliot and Aileen @Aileenlilhandz.
And as always, you can find us on Twitter @white_pod where we link to all the things we discuss in each episode. Please reach out to us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com to give us your movie recommendations, any stray caucacity you see, and anything else you want to hit us up about, we love hearing from you! We’ll be back next week with the Ludacris (in more ways than one) BMX movie, The Ride.

The Serpent and The Rainbow Part One (Feat. Jonny and Aileen of Uy Que Horror)

It's scary hours over here, as we talk about our first ever white savior horror film (if you don't count White Man's Burden...or Green Book...or...). Anyways, we're joined by our podcast cousins Jonny and Aileen over at Uy Que Horror to break down 2 time offender Wes Craven's 1988, The Serpent and The Rainbow. 
Surprisingly based on a non fiction book of the same title, the film stars Bill Pullman trying to steal the secrets of voodoo priests for big pharma back in America. Not only does that go wrong in so many ways, but so did the actual filming of this movie. 
On part one we break down the most glaring parts of the film, including the least sexy sex scene put to film. We also give all praise to Tubi, and voodoo and other indigenous practices are seen as menacing while witch craft is all good. 
We cannot recommend Uy Que Horror enough! It’s an incredibly fun, funny, and often insightful look at Latinx horror from all around the world. You can find and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to ours and follow them at @Uy_Que_Horror. You can also find Jonny @jonnyeliot and Aileen @Aileenlilhandz.
And as always, you can find us on Twitter @white_pod where we link to all the things we discuss in each episode. Please reach out to us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com to give us your movie recommendations, any stray caucacity you see, and anything else you want to hit us up about, we love hearing from you! We’ll be back next week with the Ludacris (in more ways than one) BMX movie, The Ride.
 

The Legend of Bagger Vance (Feat. Amanda Meadows)

This week, we hit the links with returning friend of the show, Amanda Meadows, to figure out what the hell Will Smith was thinking when he agreed to The Legend of Bagger Vance. 
The magical negro in the purest sense, this movie opened up so many questions: was Bagger Vance a real person, can Black people take part in magical realism, and in 1930's Georgia there's...no racism? Maybe there's a reason it's Jada's least favorite of Will's movies.
We also go on a tangent about the insane Rowdy Roddy Pipper film, Hell Comes to Frogtown. 
Follow Amanda and all her awesomeness at @amandonium on Twitter and @megamander IG.
Follow us @white_pod on Twitter and please, please, reach out to us at whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com with all of your movie requests, thoughts, and stray caucacity. 
We'll be back next week to talk The Serpent and The Rainbow. 

Canonically Black (Partreon preview)

This week, we've got a special Patreon preview! As we get things ready to launch, we thought it would be fun to give a little a preview of some of the things we got in store. 
From discussions on film, to interviews with creatives and journalist, to reviews of Black Tubi movies, we have big plans. So let us know what you'd like to see!
For today, we decided to dive into the very serious discussion of who is canonically Black. Piccolo, Gargoyles, Knuckles, the shark from Deep Blue Sea. We run through our list of well known as well as deeply held beliefs of undercover Black characters. 
Do you have some that we missed? Hit us up at @white_pod or whitepeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com and let us know! We'll be back with a doozy of a movie next week, The Crickets Dance. 

No Time To Die (Feat. Frankie Huang)

*Note: Excuse the opening audio quality. A few technical issues but we get it sorted a few minutes in. Sorry about that*
 
This week we accept one of our most ambitious missions yet as we talk Bond...James Bond. That's right, we set our sights on the foremost super spy alongside the marvelous Frankie Huang! 
We start by discussing the latest movie and final in the Daniel Craig saga, No Time to Die.  Did they do Lashana Lynch dirty? What was the deal with Rami Malek's accent? And how does this film set up the future of the franchise.
We then dive into Bond as real world colonial analogue, what we'd like to see moving forward and check out the current betting odds. Is Idris still in the running?
Frankie is a super talented writer and illustrator whose work you can find at www.frankie-huang.com ! Support her art and read some of the amazing and thoughtful articles she's put out into the world. 
And as always you can find us at @white_pod on Twitter, and write into us at whitepeoplewontsaveyou@gmail.com 
We'd love to hear any movie recs, thoughts, or wild caucity you've seen in the world. Until next time, peace! 

Gotta Kick It Up! (Feat. Brenda Gonzalez of Tamarindo Podcast)

Si Se Puede! We're back with another nostalgic fave as we head to regionals to judge the 2002 Disney Channel Original Movie, Gotta Kick It Up! Cameron is out this week, but Jordan is joined by the tremendous Brenda Gonzalez of the Tamarindo podcast.
Together, they talk about Ms. Bartlett's unseasoned dance moves, the coded Disney imagery (specifically Chuy), and true story that inspired the movie. 
Also, in this weeks caucacity, white people trying to claim Aguas Fresca? 
Much love and thanks to Brenda for joining us this week! You have to check out Tamarindo, a Latinx empowerment podcast discussing culture, politics and self care. Subscribe wherever you podcast and follow the show @tamarindoCast
As always, you can find us @white_pod on Twitter and write into us at whitpeoplewontsaveyoupod@gmail.com Do us a favor and rate and review us wherever you get the podcast. Definitely helps us to spread the show! Until next time, Si Se Puede!