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In 2014, the movie "Dear White People" was released in theaters. Made with a very modest budget of $1 million, the film focuses primarily on the black experience of a diverse ensemble of characters at an Ivy League university. The film was a critical and commercial success. It was praised for tackling aspects race and social norms in a way that most films ignored, as well as it just being a well done film in general. It also received much ire of the American right wing and those uncomfortable with topics of race. Specifically due to the title of the film "Dear White People". Though despite the title, the film is much more than 108 minutes of just knocking white people over and over again. It is critical on race relations on many areas from the "I'm not a racist but why can't I make black jokes and say the n-word" prep bros to the holier-than-thou "everyone is racist or a sheep" radio show host. It tackles many topics in a mature and delicate, yet firm manner. Hence, why the film felt so fresh and engaging to so many. Due to the film's success, it being the passion project for the producer/writer/director Justin Simen who wanted more, and Netflix going through their "greenlight everything!" phase, Dear White People was now a Netflix original series.  Taking place literally the next day after the climax of the film, the show pulls an Evil Dead 2 as it continues things from the film, yet retcons some things from it, but assumes to still use what happens as a baseline...but at the same times not. Yeah, it's kind of weird, but it makes sort of sense when you are watching it. The show centers around around a few select characters. Sam White who hosts the school radio show "Dear White People". She sees herself as a modern activist fighting for black rights and has a more hostile viewpoint toward whites than others, despite her being half-white herself (she also has a white boyfriend). Coco who is from Chicago's south side (i.e.where most of the bad areas of the city are) who wants to leave an impact on the world to the scale of being "the second black woman president", but who more often or not comes off as a sycophant. Troy Fairbanks, the son of the Dean, and a "legacy child" who really wants to go his own way, but can't due to pressure from his dead and his black peers to continue on his legacy. Lionel Higgins who is works as a reporter/writer for the school newspaper who struggles in the show both on what quality journalism is, as well as coming to the realization that he is gay. Gabe Mitchell, the only white major character in the show, who is dating Sam White and has to navigate the minefield of racial politics in the school, as he tries to come off as "I'm one of you guys" to the black students. Reggie Green who, like Sam, is very pro-black and sees himself as an activist. He also likes Sam and she's dating a white guy so...tension-tension. And finally there is Joelle Brooks who is Sam's best friend and right hand woman who...well despite the show trying she doesn't get her footing as much as other characters do. I guess she has always been an overachiever but is now getting overshadowed by Sam in some ways? Anyway, while the show is enjoyable, it does change some aspects of the film. But having finished it, I was wondering what everyone else thought about it.
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Dec 8, 2018 21:52
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 05:36 |
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No responses? 
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Dec 10, 2018 01:31
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Dear White People is the best show that Netflix has made.
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Dec 10, 2018 04:52
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punk rebel ecks posted:No responses? It's because the season is more than a half a year old, so it's been discussed. S3 will be a better time for a thread.
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Dec 10, 2018 04:58
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Beyond its extensive and foregrounded examination of race on university campuses, Dear White People is also an incredibly accurate depiction of student politics.
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Dec 10, 2018 05:04
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Mameluke posted:Beyond its extensive and foregrounded examination of race on university campuses, Dear White People is also an incredibly accurate depiction of student politics. How so? Lycus posted:It's because the season is more than a half a year old, so it's been discussed. S3 will be a better time for a thread. I looked it up before making this thread and it seems that there was only a S1 thread. But I agree that this thread should have been earlier, but hopefully I'll get a few more responses. :P
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Dec 10, 2018 05:57
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punk rebel ecks posted:How so? Well, it's just from personal experience from my time in student politics at an 80% white Canadian university, but the tone of the show is spot on. The personalities, the drama, the semi-incestuous social groups, and the incredible import placed on everything within reach spoke to me.
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Dec 10, 2018 06:02
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punk rebel ecks posted:
There probably wasn't a S2 thread, since it's not a huge show on TVIV, so the discussion was probably in the streaming and chat threads. But you might get a little bit. Lycus fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Dec 10, 2018 |
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Dec 10, 2018 07:38
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 05:36 |
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I'm going to be honest, I had a bit of a problem with the series. This is going to be a long post, but I need to get it off my chest. I enjoyed the movie a lot, as I felt that it gave some good and accurate insight of being black, as well as a person of color, on a college campus. It did an accurate depiction and a critique of of the "black experience". You had Troy who was seemingly a well to do black male who, in his mind, more or less was able to excel socially in both black and white society, while also having the pressure of being a legacy child. Coco was a student who came from the South Side of Chicago (i.e. the "ghetto" side) and thus often gets stereotyped by others (including other blacks) for being ratchet (especially with an official name of "Chantalle"). Despite having nothing ghetto about her, she is takes on a sort of Cardi-B persona in order to gain popularity and hoping to bust into the reality TV scene. There was Lionel who not only struggled with his sexuality, but also his race as despite being black he wasn't sure if he could fit in with "those" black people. Then there was of course Sam. The girl who hosts the titled "Dear White People". She sees herself as an activist and many issues regarding race as black and white in a literal sense. Each of these character arcs came to a satisfying close. Troy learns that not only he has a legacy to fulfill, but he also has a very hard fight ahead. As despite there being no "lynch mobs", there are still several factors still holding him back due to his race, which his father goes over such as the huge gap in pay between him and his white "superior". Coco came face to face with what she became as an attempt to try to be the socialite she dreamed of, she became a literal embodiment of a ministerial doll. Lionel comes into terms not only that he is gay, but that he himself IS black and thus fits in just fine with other black people even THOSE types. Sam comes into terms that her hyper racial politics weren't as black and white as she thought they were as she falls in love with a white guy and embraces that she is biracial. That said, she also realizes that she was more than correct that racism is still alive and well, as seen by those who attended the blackface party from the invites she sent out. I will admit that I am not black. I'm actually Puerto Rican and Palestinian, as well as having pretty light skin, though also have very thick and coarse hair and other "ethnic" features. But again, not black so the experiences in the film aren't 1:1 to my own. However, I do have many friends who are black and see the conversations they have with one another. I see the caricatures and sensitive topics from the film played out and it covered them in an interesting and respectable manner. The show Dear White People is a different story. I feel that the show outright ruins so many characters as well as many of the messages from the film. Now I realize that the show has a strange relationship with the movie as it retcons a fair bit of things, but makes it so that the movie still is and isn't prelude to the show's events. Kind of like an Evil Dead 2 in a way. The movie "counts" but also doesn't at the same time. I'm going to be very blunt about the biggest problem with the show. In the movie Sam White came from the right place and many strong points, but her philosophy was wrong. In the Netflix series Sam White's philosophy isn't only portrayed as being correct, but if anything it may even be too soft. While the movie culminated in the eventual black face party, the show has several events similar or more extreme like it, a few which I feel are a bit unnecessary, which I will get back to later. But in short the show presents virtually all white people in an extremely negative light. Now, before I continue, I don't give a poo poo how badly white people are portrayed. There are near countless examples of minorities being portrayed in a bad light in television and movies, so I don't see much wrong with this. The issue isn't that this ruins the white characters, but more so most of the black ones. The most notable are Troy, Coco, and really anyone not part of BSU. Like the film, Troy struggles between balancing his life of being a legacy child as well as his social life between his black and white friends. However, due to his white friends being so terrible, it's odd that Troy thinks of them as his friends at all. His actions make little sense, why would he care about the pastiche crew? And he really does view him as his friends as his father has to remind his son that "they are laughing at him, not with him." Coco on the other hand is even worse. Now admittedly in the film she is seen trying to fit in with white students and coming across several stereotypes. However, in the show she comes off as either sycophant or a straight sociopath. Not only does she not seem to have any connection with any of her plenty of white friends (outside of possibly one), but she constantly undermines fight for racial progress, no matter how severe it is, for just going against the slightest inconveniences in her goal of becoming the highest of achievers. She practically comes off as a villain. I feel the best example I can think of is when all of the black students are in a group discussion about Reggie almost getting shot by the campus police. Coco says something akin to "We have to come together and stop arguing about who is more woke between everyone. People are dying." Felt like it was intended to make way more of an impact than it should have. CORE and virtually everyone who wasn't BSU was wrong time and time again about the various racial situations on campus. What "argument" was there? There was none to be had, BSU was right every single time. There is no need for any other perspective. Finally, there is Sam White, who just drive me up the wall. First, off she just comes across as a terrible person. She doesn't stick up for her boyfriend at all, both when Reggie was being incredibly hostile toward him, as well as when her boyfriend just simply called the police during the party. She also more or less cheated on him with Reggie. The only thing her boyfriend did wrong was break up with her while her protest was hijacked. Yet despite this she never really gets called out on it, even during the intense episode 8, she holds up all of her points. And being honest, I feel that episode 8 summarizes so much of what is wrong with her character. She has intense hostility toward others and has broad generalizations and criticisms to all whites, even those with good intentions. Yet her own are never questioned and fully criticized. Her boyfriend was completely right in calling her a hypocrite, as she accused him of not really helping the movement as he was not sacrifice enough or put into danger, yet she hides behind the comfort of a recording studio essentially reading pro-black Youtube rants, but she really is putting it all on the line because of Twitter trolls  . Now I admit the story of the troll involving her dad's condition was sad, but if you change literally any other aspect of that story then her boyfriend's point still completely stands. The show once again used the most extreme example of something, trolling, in order to bring up the point that she was justified, which in this case is that her radio show actually being a legit "struggle". There was also the fact that she brought up epigenetics as concrete example of a daily struggle she has to face, and even insists her boyfriend to trust her that it's real. Despite the fact that the epigenetics has been debunked.Now to be fair, she does get challenged substantially in the last ten minutes of the last episode. As a black Ann Coulter figure essentially shows Sam that in many ways, Sam isn't any different than her. And the episode in question does do well to show this as the white students who are listening to the show on campus basically see her as "the other side" of the pro-White "Dear Right People" radio show. But still, I feel that the show doesn't give her as much of shake down as she deserves. She clearly has issues of being bi-racial, and clearly doesn't agree with everything she claims to believe, but only part of this is really challenged. And I could list other topics in the series that I felt were handled pretty poorly, such as the topics of segregation/safe spaces, "edgy" comedy, and what not. But despite taking a more nuanced approach, the show paints these topics in narrow broad strokes. And because of that I felt I couldn't connect with it as much as the film.
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Dec 11, 2018 04:06
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