Writing this out, I realized: that's because the film expects us to be Phil, not Dave.

Yes, this is the mindset of movies that need there to be a middle-class schoolteacher in an inner-city school, or a white social worker on the res, etc--the notion that the public needs those a focus like that because the public doesn't identify with the inner-city dwellers, or with Indians on the reservations, etc. Insofar as it's true, it should be combatted--but it's not even true.