Dear White People

Dear White People evoked so many emotions from myself as a young, educated African-American male, and I am so happy that there are television series like this available for us to watch. Not only does is this show unapologetic about the simple fact that we are NOT in a post-racial society, but it also explores and unpacks the many different facets of the African-American community. As much progress as we as a people have made, it’s unfortunate that are still very behind in the acceptance department of anyone that’s deemed different.

Dear White People cleverly explores identity and specifically, the African-American identity. What it means to be gay and black, mixed-race, light-skinned black, dark-skinned black, black and trying to get everyone to forget you’re black or an "oreo", “articulate” black, white and "woke", black and "not woke". Not only that, but Dear White People also explores the perspective of all of these different types of people by having each episode told by the point of view of a different student. This is especially important because we the audience are not just getting a one-sided narrative like we usually do with other series and even history.

In class we ended on what is arguably one of the most powerful scenes in the entire web series. After Reggie and his white friend get into a heated argument about why it is offensive for white people to say the N-word, police come to shut down the party and despite the fact that both Reggie and his friend were both equally aggressive in the argument, Reggie is the one who has a gun pulled on him when asked to show proof that he is indeed a student. Afterwards, episode 5 ends with Reggie sitting against his door having an emotional breakdown. When I saw this scene, the first thing that came to mind is privilege. The mere fact that Reggie’s friend couldn’t see past his own privilege that no one was calling him racist, but that they were offended by a word he says speaks volumes and then to not have the police pay him any mind, and automatically assume that Reggie, is the reason for all of this commotion just adds to that.

Overall, I absolutely love this web series and I can’t wait to finish it.

#David