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Movie Review: Dear White People

With an indiegogo campaign that raised just over 40,000 dollars Dear White People was a go. I finally got around to seeing the movie once I got into a larger city. The small predominately white college town I usually live in was not going to have that playing in the one theater they had. I went in expecting a film that just made fun of white people. I was going to be completely okay with that. I make fun of white people all the time. I'm pretty good at it too. Instead what I got was a well flushed out story about 4 black college students attempting to deal with a 98% white campus in 4 very different ways. The story takes the time to lay background for all of these characters and their reasoning behind there actions. In addition to the students the film also takes the time to flush out the Dean's actions and politics. While it had a nice story that was mandatory for the development of it's characters it really shined with the development of the characters and their relationships.

The main character is Sam White. Sam is a biracial woman who hosts a radio show with a controversial segment called "Dear White People." Sam suffers from "Tragic Mulatto Syndrome." Sam spends all of her time trying to convince the black students that she's black. If you've ever seen The Boondocks and remember Dewey Jenkins, that's Sam. She's obsessed with black empowerment and disowning her white half. She degrades black students for not being black enough. It's well known she isn't fond of white people at all. However, she's secretly dating a white man. In an argument with Dean Fairbanks she slips up and says she sees herself as being part of a counter culture not necessarily black culture. Her boyfriend points out that she's doing this just because she likes to argue with him. In the end she's just Sam and drops the anarchist gimmick she had been working, for the most part.

The opposite of Sam would be Colandra "Coco" Conners. Coco despises her parents for giving her a "Ghetto ass hoodrat name." It's hard to get a grasp on Coco. When we see her first she states that she doesn't date black men. She has a series of videos degrading black culture. The idea of a "Hip Hop" party was hers. She's obsessed with gaining fame. However she's not necessarily a fan of white people either. At the end she states "They're obsessed with being us and for one night they finally were." She's constantly degrading black culture and exploiting it at the same time. She's visibly conflicted about her position after falling in love with Troy.

Troy Fairbanks is the son of Dean Fairbanks. He's been groomed since birth to be the cream of the crop and failure is not an answer. Troy is conflicted throughout the film. Dean Fairbanks is his father and a man that practices respectability politics. For those who don't know that means he's Bill Cosby or Don Lemon. He believes simply pulling up your pants will end racism. On one hand Troy wants to make his father happy but it's killing him on the inside. He dates a white woman named Stephanie but doesn't really like her and the fact that she just wants him as a trophy black guy. But Stephanie makes his dad happy. Meanwhile he's stuck between Sam and Coco. Troy is rarely seen hanging out with other black people. It seems like he prefers to hang out with white guys like Kurt so he can be the coolest person in the room. But again, this may be his dad's doing.

Lionel Higgins is a strange man. He doesn't actually know any of the other black people at the school. The first time he actually associates with any of them is because he has to write a story on black culture. He doesn't know anything about black culture and openly stated he's avoided black people since high school because he didn't think he was black enough. In reality he lives in a white dorm where they constantly make fun of him for being black, a nerd, gay and everything else. They don't even let him in his own dorm because there's a white's only party. Eventually Lionel moves into the black dorm. They attempt to welcome him. But he cuts them off at every turn. When another person mentions their interest in Sci-Fi as well he believes they're lying. He thinks they'll make fun of him for being gay but there's another gay person at the table and as Reggie states "I love Frank Ocean, I'm listening to him right now." Because the white students don't want to be around him and he constantly pushes away the black students he has no friends except the editors of one of the school's newspapers. He's shocked when he hears what they think of him but still prefers them to black students. The only black student that didn't actually try to welcome him was Troy and that's only because he was a surprise roommate for Troy. Eventually Troy offers him friendship and a haircut because Lionel was just to afraid to ask one of the other black students where he could get one.

Those are the main 4 characters. But a lot of the side characters are pretty interesting as well. Reggie is literally a reincarnation of Malcolm X. He is what Sam tries to be. He's also the first one to welcome Lionel and tries to get Troy to stop following in his father's footsteps. Dean Fairbanks is an eternal second place finisher. He feels that it's because he's too black. So he tries to remove every aspect of blackness from his life as well as his sons life, so his son can be first.

It's an interesting story but the characters and their developments are the best part of Dear White People. It's going to make you laugh a lot but there's also going to be a lot a moments that make you think. Chances are you're going to relate to some character on some level in this film whether it's Sam, Lionel, Reggie, the unnamed Asian Girl who prefers to hang out with the black students because they have better snacks or even one of the white people. It's a good film that you should see if it's still playing in a theater near you.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet

Darrell S.

Hey, I write stuff, a lot of different stuff, that's all.

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