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Created by Justin Simien and based on the 2014 movie of the same name, Dear White People is a show about racism in America. It deals with the lives of various black students (and a white one) who attend Winchester University, a fictional version of pretty much every Ivy School, as they navigate the institutionalized racism present even in the supposed progressive utopia of liberal, elite academia. The story kicks off with racial tensions at an all-time high after Pastiche, Winchester’s satirical magazine (staffed almost exclusively by white students who believe no limit is sacred in the sake of comedy and social commentary) throws a blackface party, which is... exactly what it sounds like. The party ends in an altercation after Winchester’s black students find out and promptly lose their poo poo. Characters: Samantha "Sam" White - “A person about to slap the poo poo out of you”.  Arguably the “main” character of the show, Sam is a film major who hosts a late-night radio show at the student radio station aptly named “Dear White People”. The radio show calls out Winchester’s white students on all the ways they are racist even when they think they’re not, such as having a black vibrator named “Idris” or taking your black bae to Thanksgiving just to piss off your parents. She also points out more prominent issues such as the unfair treatment people of color get from the police, the administration and pretty much everyone. Thanks to her show and her work as the leader of the Black Students Union, Sam becomes an icon for the struggles of people of color in Winchester. Hailed as a hero by most, a pain in the rear end by many, and a downright menace by some, Sam is the catalyst for many of the conflicts that kick off after Pastiche’s party. Additionally, Sam is dating Gabe Mitchel, a white dude, which is perceived by her fellow black students and friends as a betrayal against the ideals she supposedly fights for. Gabriel “Gabe” Mitchel – A.K.A. "Disney Channel Obama", "Hipster 8-mile".  Gabe is the show's only fleshed out white character, and spends most of his time trying to stay woke. After he outs their relationship to the world via an Instagram post, Gabe starts joining Sam at her meetings with Winchester's black students as they come up with ways as they fight back against racism on campus. Mostly a good guy, Gabe struggles for acceptance with Sam's friends who view him as just another white dude trying to get with a black girl by pretending to be woke. Troy Fairbanks - "your straight black Superman-type roommate".  Superficially perfect in every way, Troy is Winchester's poster boy. The son of the dean, Troy has been groomed by his father all his life for success in political life. At Winchester, he's a middling student that is nonetheless involved in every aspect of campus life, mostly in the hopes of racking up votes for his bid for student body president. A former romantic partner of Sam, their relationship is not quite as friendly nowadays as Troy tries defuse most of her more radical forms of protest at the behest of his father. Internally, he struggles with trying to live up his father's standards, fitting in with the largely white political elite that he needs to charm, and trying to be an actual person with hopes and dreams of his own. Lionel Higgins -  A journalism major and writer for The Independent, one of Winchester's student papers, Lionel is a freshman who immediately makes waves by both leading the charge against Pastiche's blackface party, and by writing a scathing article about it the next day. Shy and mild-mannered, Lionel otherwise struggles to find a real place within the more militant wings of Winchester's black students. To further complicate things, he is also gay and in love with his roommate, Troy Fairbanks. Colandrea "Coco" Conners - "This bitch auto-tuned me?"  Growing up poor in Chicago's south side, Coco's life turned when a rich-white philanthropist selected her for his mentoring program, landing her at elite prep schools and finally Winchester. Determined to succeed in life, Coco is Troy's female counterpart, except fueled by ambition and rage at a world that has constantly tried to put her down. Very dark-skinned, she fights for acceptance within the circles of the white elites and plans to be America's "second black female president". Originally she and Sam were best friends, but Sam's militant attitude generates a rift between them. Coco feels Sam has "had it easy" in this world and thus gets the luxury of trying to buck the system because of her "light-skin privilege". Reggie Green - "Who the gently caress goes to the botanical gardens? It's like a zoo for plants".  Reggie is Winchester's second most militant black student, convinced that any sort of strides made in the revolution will have to be bitterly fought for. A genius-level CS major, Reggie has been discriminated against all his life by most of white society, be it old ladies clutching their purses at ATMs, or Winchester's white coach who seems to think Reggie's his star linebacker despite him not actually playing football. Infatuated with Sam, who he sees as the only other person in the school as woke as him, he takes the news of her dating Gabe pretty hard. Placeholder for other characters: Joelle "Jo" Brooks - "Sometimes being carefree and black is an act of revolution"  Sam's current best friend. Has a huge crush on Reggie. The best character. Al - "They made free food bad. gently caress these guys!"  Member of the Black American Forum or "Black AF". Responsible for hashtags. Also the best character. Rashid Bakr - "Does every American show revolve around fellatio-related cliffhangers?"  The actual best character. Silvio - "Personally, I'm a Mexican-Italian gay verse top otter pup."  Editor of The Independent, big fan of labels and Windex. I have to admit I have not seen the 2014 movie or anything else by Simien. The name and title card in Netflix caught my eye and I gave it a shot. I wasn't that impressed by the first episode since it was so exposition heavy (something the episode itself recognizes in the metacommentary offered by the show's narrator, voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) and also because they seemed to put Sam and Gabe's relationship at the forefront which made me think it was just going to be Gilmore Girls for woke people. I'm glad I stuck it out because there's a lot more going on in the show, and even the romantic storylines have something to say about racial issues. I'm a white dude that doesn't live in the US, so I'm not even going to pretend to have any sort of hot takes on the show. I personally felt that it did a great job of portraying actual people that have issues stemming from racism, and not just convenient cardboard cutouts whose only purpose is to shout out the show's opinions. Sorry for the short OP, but I was surprised the show didn't have one and was hoping other people wanted to talk about it. I'll fill it out when I get some time. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Jun 6, 2017 |
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Jun 5, 2017 20:07
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I have a friend who watches and enjoys just about all the shows on netflix, and even he said this and girl boss were terrible shows.
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Jun 5, 2017 23:42
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Created by Justin Simien and based on the 2014 movie of the same name, Dear White People is a show that will make you rightfully feel bad about being white. Didn't even notice this. loving lol.
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Jun 5, 2017 23:45
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It's a good thing black people can't be racist, otherwise this might of been some sort of ordeal. I think I made a similar show when I was a kid called "Why I Hate My Parents."
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Jun 5, 2017 23:55
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This is a really good character driven show that I went into with rock-bottom expectations and ended up binge watching in two sittings. It's a really good, honest show that (in my opinion) absolutely nails the complexities of campus politics in a genuinely funny, consistently character driven way. I wasn't involved in racial politics when I was in college, but I was involved in the LGBT and women's rights organizations pretty heavily and since this show is focused so heavily on characters as opposed to broad, basic stereotypes a lot of the similarities ultimately made this an incredibly relatable and funny show. I really like how every episode focuses on different characters to really bring out the fact that they all have very different experiences, motivations and perspectives. But my favorite part of this show by far is how it's willing to show that these characters are all deeply, deeply flawed, immature insecure children, the way actual college students are. It correctly recognizes that these are still just 18-21 year olds that are trying to figure out their place in the world, not a bunch of unrealistic mini MLK's that are completely unrelatable, unfunny and boring. It treats black people like actual human beings for once, ones who are defined by their insecurities, immaturity as well as their passion for justice. In short this is a good, funny character driven show that I highly recommend. Bonus points for the Dean being the same actor as the one that played the Dean in How High. ditty bout my clitty posted:Created by Justin Simien and based on the 2014 movie of the same name, Dear White People is a show that will make you rightfully feel bad about being white. Seriously OP, what the gently caress? Hate to quote the retard making GBS threads on a show he hasn't seen but this is the worst way to open the thread. The show is very clearly intended to make you feel like you are relating to human beings, ones that happen to be black. Outside of Gabe, it never even focuses on white people. I can only imagine feeling guilty if you had a bizarre racist POV about black people that the show somehow shattered, but that seems unlikely if you were to bother watching the show.
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Jun 6, 2017 00:13
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It was just a dumb joke about how white people are racist even when they think they're not (which ironically enough it seems I was while making that joke). I'll edit out, sorry
dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jun 6, 2017 |
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Jun 6, 2017 00:44
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mayocide when?
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Jun 6, 2017 04:08
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This show is worth your time, unless you are afraid of black people.
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Jun 7, 2017 23:32
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Slowpoke Rodriguez posted:This show is worth your time, unless you are afraid of black people. Yup. Binged this one in two days, and it definitely gets more charming after the first episode. Also, having watched a few seasons of Scandal, their caricature of it (the students watch it together) is loving hilarious.
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Jun 19, 2017 18:18
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Yeah, show is good. It manages to strike a great balance between poking fun at the characters, suggesting that perhaps they're going a bit overboard the whole activism thing, only to deliver a swift gut punch that shows that no, their grievances are very much justified and relevant. And apart from all that, it's also legitimately pretty funny and well-paced. Also, I hadn't really heard of the concept of "white fragility" before, but goddamn the reaction to this show sure was an illustrative example. From the reactions on youtube et al you'd think even the trailer was just about the most racist thing since the KKK.
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Jun 20, 2017 14:26
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As a black-oriented soap opera set against the backdrop of an ivy league school with that underlying theme of fitting into your designated role, it's great. The characters are interesting, they're relatable, and the dialogue and banter between them is top notch. As a biting satire of race relations, which is what it's advertised as, it totally falls flat. There's very little actual satire and very little interaction between the races at all. You've obviously got exaggerated people and situations, but the characters play everything completely straight, as if these things are commonplace and need to be acknowledged by the audience. Namely the blackface party and the campus cop pulling his gun immediately. I remember it feeling more natural in Higher Learning a couple decades back. That's not to say it's never happened of course, but these incidents only seemed to interrupt the interpersonal drama among the students, the same way a major hurricane or pregnancy might on Days of Our Lives. I guess it felt like there was a lot more to the idea of infighting and doubt among African Americans than how they actually interact with white people, and vice versa. As stated, there are only two prominent white characters. Obviously the leader of the Pastiche frat is an overblown cartoon villain who shows up at just the right time to annoy Sam, and is the biggest example of satire in the show based on how goofy he is. And her boyfriend is a cliche of the well-meaning hipster tagging on Instagram and such. But neither of them really lends well to the idea of race relations and what they are or what they could/should be. They're more dramatic foil to progress the story. All of the characters have an interesting inner struggle, and their flaws are on display as a result, but the moral at the end of the season seems to be that white people are still the devil and black people still have to be united against them. Just didn't feel very astute to me, especially when 98% of the season was more about how these characters have personal problems and responsibilities that go beyond what people assume of them, including white people. The idea of forced segregation and plot point of integrating the black housing felt pretty hamfisted in this respect, just to give a conflict to conclude the season. All in all, it's a great show, definitely worth a watch despite the controversial title, but I don't think it had very much to say in the way of how the races actually interact. The perspective was very narrow for the sake of the plot, which makes it a fine drama but not a great satire. Also, I found it funny they introduced an Asian girl in episode 5, one of her only lines is about how she has even less representation in media as an Asian, and then she got only a single line in the back half of the season.
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Jun 21, 2017 03:44
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OmegaBR posted:All of the characters have an interesting inner struggle, and their flaws are on display as a result, but the moral at the end of the season seems to be that white people are still the devil and black people still have to be united against them. Just didn't feel very astute to me, especially when 98% of the season was more about how these characters have personal problems and responsibilities that go beyond what people assume of them, including white people. The idea of forced segregation and plot point of integrating the black housing felt pretty hamfisted in this respect, just to give a conflict to conclude the season. I didn't really get that. Kurt and the flying jock were obviously hateable caricatures, and Reggie's "friend" quickly turned into one over the course of their confrontation, sure. Then Gabe and Silvio both got screentime in the finale to contrast them to the faux-testors, as kind of a "model majority." I thought the later callback of Lionel introducing Silvio to Defamation night was meant to hint toward a different kind of integration where non-black students became part of AP House life just because they dated and loved the students living there. Also, not that any other goons watched this (I only just did in the last 2 days) but the show's been renewed for a second season. I look forward to seeing the next chapters of the cast's lives (but especially Coco's).
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Jul 7, 2017 18:14
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maninacape posted:Yup. Binged this one in two days, and it definitely gets more charming after the first episode. Also, having watched a few seasons of Scandal, their caricature of it (the students watch it together) is loving hilarious.
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Jul 7, 2017 22:08
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Legin Noslen posted:It's a good thing black people can't be racist, otherwise this might of been some sort of ordeal. Sorry to be the first to tell you, but black people also have parents and are still able to recognize the difference between that and their relationship to society at large.
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Jul 9, 2017 05:03
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why is calling your black dildo idris racist? why is that something anyone cares about lol
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Jul 9, 2017 11:49
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underage at the vape shop posted:why is calling your black dildo idris racist? why is that something anyone cares about lol That act is not in it self racist, but for further understanding: black male bodies have been hyper-sexualized since antebellum days, leading to torture, castration and murder. Django Unchained has a torture/castration scene, where it's noted white people have that fixation.
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Jul 9, 2017 12:08
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OmegaBR posted:I guess it felt like there was a lot more to the idea of infighting and doubt among African Americans than how they actually interact with white people, and vice versa. As stated, there are only two prominent white characters. Obviously the leader of the Pastiche frat is an overblown cartoon villain who shows up at just the right time to annoy Sam, and is the biggest example of satire in the show based on how goofy he is. And her boyfriend is a cliche of the well-meaning hipster tagging on Instagram and such. But neither of them really lends well to the idea of race relations and what they are or what they could/should be. They're more dramatic foil to progress the story. I really don't want this to sound like I'm dumping on you because I'm not, but I've never seen this described as satire anywhere. It's got good jokes and some relationship drama but it's still 100% sincere about very serious problems. Pierson fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 15:03
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How to have sex with a real live black girl: step one: be a normal person step two: be mututally attracted to eachother step three: dont obsess about her loving dumb race, or your own loving dumb race, who gives a god drat poo poo you idiots "Race relations" aren't any harder than you make them you gigantic babies. (I do not like this show)
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Jul 10, 2017 17:26
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Secular Humanist posted:"Race relations" aren't any harder than you make them you gigantic babies. I disagree, Race relations (conflicting ideologies) are actually quite complicated.
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Jul 10, 2017 21:27
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