VIDEO: Chelsea Handler Tackles White Privilege in New Netflix Documentary

Chelsea Handler looks for more than just laughs in the new trailer for her upcoming Netflix documentary “Hello, Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea”—she’s also looking to add to an ongoing discussion about race-based privilege.

The clip begins with the acclaimed comedian and repeat Stern Show guest standing on stage greeting her audience. It’s a familiar setting for her, but she doesn’t open with a wisecrack. “My name is Chelsea Handler, and I am as white as they come,” Chelsea says to perplexed looks and the sound of crickets.

The documentary follows Chelsea as she explores and confronts her own privilege in a variety of different ways, conversing with writers, activists, politicians, and several comedians of color, including Tiffany Haddish, W. Kamau Bell, and repeat Stern Show guest Kevin Hart. She also talks to a variety of different audiences, including college students, skeptical white bystanders, and a former boyfriend, and reflects on several of her past experiences in which she now realizes privilege played a part.

“I’m clearly the beneficiary of white privilege,” Chelsea explains at one point in the trailer (above). “I want to learn how to be a better white person to people of color. We need to talk to people who are white and stop asking black people to solve our problems.”

Chelsea discussed her documentary at length during her most recent visit to the Stern Show and opened up about a variety of complicated subjects, including the anecdote she shares in the trailer about how she and her past boyfriend were caught smoking weed multiple times, but he was the only one to get in trouble. She also spoke to Howard about the death of her oldest brother when she was only nine, a subject she wrote about at length in her book “Life Will Be the Death of Me: . . . and You Too!” See a clip from Chelsea and Howard’s April 2019 interview (below).