Anti-racism activist Robin DiAngelo is breaking her silence on the upcoming ‘Am I Racist?’ film, laying out how Daily Wire host Matt Walsh “deceived” her into appearing in what she describes as “a Borat-style mockumentary…designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.” 

In a note on her website titled “About That Film,” the “White Fragility” author says the “sequence of events” that ended with her taking $30 out of her purse to pay reparations to a black producer on set was “unsettling,” and that she figured out she “had been played” before the trailer for the film was released in July. 

“After reviewing the sequence of events and discussing it with colleagues, I realized that they had lied about their agenda and I had been played,” DiAngelo says. 

But it wasn’t until after seeing the trailer for the film, which opens in theaters across the country this Friday, that she realized the interview was not “meant to support the anti-racist cause.”

“It is not titled Shades of Justice nor is it meant to support the anti-racist cause,” DiAngelo writes. “It is a Borat-style mockumentary titled Am I Racist? and designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.”

Am I Racist? ONLY In Theaters Tomorrow—Get Your Tickets Now!

DiAngelo is featured in the film, one of Walsh’s many interview subjects. Walsh, sporting a man bun, convinces DiAngelo she had a “powerful opportunity” to display her commitment to anti-racism by giving his black producer, Ben, money from her purse. 

In her statement, DiAngelo claims she detected the wig and other things that “felt off,” but thought that Walsh “seemed earnest.”

“When I arrived for the interview, a few things felt off,” DiAngelo writes. “The grips would not make eye contact with me and the interviewer, who was introduced as ‘Matt,’ appeared to be wearing an ill-fitting wig. Matt presented himself as someone new to antiracist work and seemed earnest, and his questions did not come across as adversarial.”

She says the reparations segment, however, “got weird.” Here’s how she remembers it: 

“Matt asked what I thought about reparations for Black Americans. I said that I agreed with reparations but that it was not my area of expertise. He then pulled up a chair and invited a Black crew-member who went by “Ben” to sit with us, took out his wallet and handed Ben some cash. He said that if I believed in reparations, I should also give Ben cash. While some Black people have asked white people to engage in reparations by giving directly to individuals, reparations are generally understood as a systemic approach to past and current injustice. The way Matt set this up felt intended to put Ben and I on the spot. Because Matt was pushing this on us, I expressed my discomfort and checked in with Ben, to be sure he was okay with receiving cash in this way. Ben reassured me that he was, so I went to my wallet and handed him my cash and the interview ended.”

DiAngelo confesses that she took $15,000 to do the interview, but has since donated the money to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. It is unclear whether she included the $30 reparations payment in her donation.

DiAngelo says she will not be “deceived” again, and that she will not see the film.

“This experience has reinforced for me how critically important it is to do in-depth background research before making yourself vulnerable to people you don’t know, or believing and sharing what you see online,” she says. “I have not seen the film nor do I plan to watch it, so I don’t know what they have used of my interview or how they have edited it. 

She also says that the agenda for the film is clear, quoting Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing’s statement that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is the “next pillar of the woke mind virus that’s about to topple.”

DiAngelo ends her statement with a prediction: “They will not prevail in their efforts to stop the work for racial justice.”

Walsh responded to DiAngelo’s statement on X, saying she was “correct” in her assessment of his intentions.

My favorite part of this wonderful statement is that she says she noticed my “ill fitting wig” when she first sat down with me. And yet for some reason she still did the interview.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 12, 2024

Walsh said his “favorite part” of the statement was her critique of his hair, and suggestion that she knew something was up the whole time.

“My favorite part of this wonderful statement is that she says she noticed my ‘ill fitting wig’ when she first sat down with me,” Walsh said. “And yet for some reason she still did the interview.”

Am I Racist? opens on Friday in over 1,500 theaters. DiAngelo deactivated her social media accounts last month.

A group of Israelis are restoring one of Judaism’s holy sites, the tombs of King David’s ancestors.

Yishai Fleischer, the international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, said the restoration of the tombs of Jesse and Ruth “is fulfilling biblical prophecy.” Fleischer is referring to the Old Testament verse Isaiah 11:10, which states Jesse’s “resting place will be glorious.”

“The nations of the world will come to the root of Jesse [and] King David,” Fleischer said.

There is a group of Israelis restoring the traditional tomb of King David’s ancestors, Jesse and Ruth, in Hebron — the largest city in the West Bank.@KassyAkiva went to go see it: pic.twitter.com/vFjpneK66l

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 12, 2024

Jesse and Ruth were King David’s father and great-grandmother, respectively.

Restored buildings at the tomb include a synagogue, a small learning and dining space, a room for a scribe to write the Book of Ruth, a garden, bathrooms, and more.

According to Fleisher, when renovations began a few years ago, the buildings were decrepit and lacked running water and electricity.

“We kind of built them back up, restored them so that they don’t collapse,” he said. “I think that God held them up until we came in and fixed it and made it so they would stand.”

“It was all filled with dirt and dead animals and who knows what else,” he added. “We brought electricity, we fixed those ceilings and we fixed the building so it doesn’t fall down anymore.”

The traditional grave markers for Ruth and Jesse, King David’s great-grandmother and father, respectively.

Builders on the site have crafted stone walls, laid tile flooring, and painted railings to enhance both functionality and appearance. To make the location more attractive to tourists and for group gatherings, they have also installed benches, running water, electricity, air conditioning, and movie screens.

Located on a hilltop in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, the Tomb of Ruth is under Israeli control in the city of Hebron, in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank).

Hebron is also the home to the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. According to the Bible, Abraham purchased a burial cave at the site, which became the traditional burial place for Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rachel, Jacob, and Leah. A large structure built over the burial caves in the first century BCE was later turned into a church by Crusaders, a mosque by the Turks, and is now divided into two areas for Jewish and Muslim worshipers.

According to the Bible, Hebron is the place King David was crowned and ruled for the first seven years of his reign before moving to Jerusalem.

The welcome area at the Tomb of Ruth and Jesse.

One of the earliest documented mentions of the site as Jesse’s tomb comes from a student of the prolific Torah scholar Nachmanides around 1290. The earliest mention of the site as Ruth’s tomb is in the 1835 Love of Jerusalem by Haim Horowitz.

“Even if it’s not the tomb of Ruth it’s the place where we commemorate and celebrate Ruth,” Fleisher said.

The site has visitors year-round, with many Jewish and non-Jewish pilgrims visiting during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost), when the Book of Ruth is traditionally read.

The Book of Ruth tells the story of a Moabite woman who married into a Jewish family living in Moab. After her husband and father-in-law died, she accompanied her destitute mother-in-law back to Israel, declaring that the Jewish people were her people as well. In Bethlehem, Ruth remarried a wealthy landowner and gave birth to Obed, the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David.

The site only displays tomb markers for Ruth and Jesse, while the burial caves are traditionally underground and are not known to have been disturbed in modern times.

Professor Benzion Tavger was the driving force behind reopening the site in the mid-1970s. In 1999, artifacts as old as 4,000 years were unearthed at the site by archaeologists, including several seals with the ancient Hebrew inscription “To the King, Hebron,” according to the Hebron Fund. In 2016, furniture and electricity were first added to the synagogue.

The restored synagogue at the traditional site of the Tomb of Ruth and Jesse

“We made a little spot that was holy, we made it feel holy, made it look holy, and that’s what the rebirth of the Jewish people in the land of Israel does,” Fleisher said. “It takes an ancient place that was 2,000 years ago important, and has been forgotten, and it’s resurrected.”

The site is located next to an Israel Defense Forces base that helps ensure the security of the small Jewish community surrounded by the large Palestinian city of Hebron. 

Fleisher is part of a group of Israelis working to strengthen the Jewish community in Hebron, which has maintained a nearly-continuous presence in the area for over three millennia. This presence was interrupted most recently in the 1929 Massacre when local Arabs killed about 67 Jews and the British in charge expelled the survivors. The community returned after the 1967 Six-Day War and currently stands at about 1,000 Jews.

“It’s our land in Hebron, we are a very ancient people here,” Fleisher said. “We’ve been living in this town for over 3,500 years and we have proof from the First Temple period, that’s 3,000 years ago and the Second Temple period 2,000 years ago.”

“Now the tomb of Ruth and Yishai is being beautified, and is being restored to its proper glory,” he added.