I don’t personally know Matt Damon. Neither does Yesha Callahan.

And I also don’t know Ms. Callahan. Or Effie Brown. Or any of the potential directors vying for a shot at a career in Hollywood through the competition depicted on Project Greenlight. They could all be racists. Or they could all be the nicest people in the world.

What I do know is that Project Greenlight is a show intended to show how up-and-coming filmmakers must hustle to catch that big break in one of the most competitive industries in the world. Say what you will about the respective talents of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, but both are examples of hard-working success stories in Hollywood. They do know what they are talking about when it comes to identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a potential project. And they are the ones putting their names behind the eventual film that emerges from Project Greenlight. They didn’t have to create the show or put their time, money and credibility behind such an endeavor.

They chose to re-invest in the type of hopeful dreamers that they once were.

But none of this matters when you have a juicy YouTube clip of a wealthy white man disagreeing with a flabbergasted black woman. Suddenly we are all experts in the personal motivations of total strangers. Instantly we are able to parse what ostensibly looks to be a creative disagreement in a creative meeting (among Hollywood producers that disagree with each other for a living) for the racist rant it truly is.

Read the article “Did Matt Damon Greenlight Racism?” on acculturated.com.