A New Hope: Hollywood Heavyweight J.J. Abrams Releases His 'Guide to Dismantling White Supremacy at Work'

AP featured image — FILE – In this March 2, 2017 file photo, director-producer J.J. Abrams poses for a portrait to promote “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the Lyceum Theatre in New York. Abrams says he will use unreleased footage of Fisher in the next “Star Wars” film to give the latest trilogy a “satisfying conclusion.” Lucasfilm and writer-director Abrams announced Friday, July 27, 2018, that footage Fisher shot for 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will be used in the ninth film in the space opera’s core trilogies about the Skywalker family. (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP, File)

We’re being told as of late that America is full of white supremacy.

But how do you fight it? According to some experts, it’s a systemic scourge not in plain view.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams is here to help destroy The Phantom Menace, so the creative mastermind’s released his Bad Robot’s Guide to Dismantling White Supremacy at Work.

The new guidebook courtesy of J.J.’s Bad Robot production house urges staff to learn about racism from articles, books, films, and certain black activists.

But it isn’t only for Bad Roboters; the online instructional is for everyone everywhere.

On Tuesday, BR explained via Twitter:

“At Bad Robot, we are committed to dismantling white supremacy at work & at large. We are following leading academics, activists & artists and have compiled an evolving set of resources that we are sharing with friends and colleagues. Onward!”

As reported by Fox News, the ebook splits tasks for folks depending on how much spare time they have in a day:

There are sections for people with 5-10 minutes, 30 minutes and 60 minutes. It also has sections full of resources for employees with children as well as managers to help them talk about the topic in a non-problematic way.

People with a small amount of time are encouraged to read articles while people with 30 minutes or so are encouraged to view a collection of videos. People with more than an hour to spare are met with a list of movies to watch like Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood and Ava DuVernay’s The 13th and When They See Us.

The reading list includes the following:

“The American Nightmare” | Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic

“America, This Is Your Chance” | Michelle Alexander, New York Times

“Being Antiracist” | National Museum of African American History & Culture

“The Case for Reparations” | Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

“Dear White People: Here are 5 Uncomfortable Truths Black Colleagues Need You to Know” | Forbes

“Here’s Why It Hurts When People Say, ‘All Lives Matter’” | Vanity Fair

“Letters for Black Lives” | An Open Letter Project on Anti-Blackness

“Welcome to the Anti-racism Movement – Here’s What You’ve Missed” | Medium

The material appears to lean Left; as pointed out by The Daily Wire, “Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, Starr Parker, are nowhere to be seen.”

Perhaps those will be added later. The guide opens with the following explainer:

At Bad Robot, we are committed as storytellers and executives to dismantling white supremacy at work and at large. With this ever-evolving and far from complete guide, we hope to share some resources to explore and navigate this time for ourselves and with each other as we strive to do the delicate, raw, humbling, and enraging work of anti-racism.

So what do you think? Can watching Boyz n the Hood diminish a Caucasian American’s sense of racial superiority? Can reading The Atlantic help turn a centuries-old tide of prejudice?

J.J. appears to think so.

If the problem’s so immense that we need a guidebook, then I hope he’s right.

-ALEX

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