Culture

‘Dear White People’ combats stereotypes by using satire

Works of comedy can do more than just make people laugh — they can shed light on controversial issues.

Friday the satirical film “Dear White People,” directed by filmmaker Justin Simien, premiered nationwide. The film, which took eight years to conceptualize and create, first received fame at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in January. The cast also runs a YouTube channel to combat stereotypes within the black community through funny and witty videos, which have also garnered national attention.

“Dear White People” explores the dilemmas and hardships of being a “black face in a white place,” as its tagline suggests. Set around a group of black students taking on issues of insensitivity and exclusion on a predominantly white campus, the film addresses racism within the institution of education and within the social spaces it fuels.

Sherri Williams, a teaching assistant in the woman and gender studies program and a Ph.D. candidate in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, appreciated the film’s attention to complexities and intersectionalities of identity. She said her favorite character in the movie was Lionel, a gay, black male played by Tyler James Williams. Exploring sexual orientation within black culture is a scenario Williams feels black actors are often exempt from.

“(Lionel’s) homosexuality is important to his character, but it isn’t important in the stereotypical way that we’ve seen in the past,” Williams said. “To me, what this film is saying is that to be black and queer does not mean to fit into a stereotype also.”



For Tyrell Duncan, these complexities are not easily digestible. Duncan, a liberal arts major at Onondaga Community College, said he was among viewers on Friday at Destiny Mall who felt the film did not meet their expectations.

“It brought us to the conversation (about racism), but it didn’t really end it,” said Duncan, who left the theater confused.

Though he said that there really is no end to such conversations, he concluded that the movie had a resolution that “everyone has to figure out for themselves.”

Danielle Reed, a junior African American studies major and event and programming co-chair of SU’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, said the movie was written to be a wake-up call. She added that the film is not necessarily geared toward white people, as its title may suggest, but is also important as a means of generating dialogue among and between black communities.

“The film really capitalized on exploring micro-aggressions,” Reed said.

In many ways, college functions as a microcosm of the outside world, Reed said. Although set in a predominantly white university campus, she believes it is reflective of a predominantly white America.

Reed added that after the movie, a friend told her that some of the language used in the film went over their head, as it requires a certain level of language and term familiarity. Though Reed could not fully conclude as to whether this worked to include or exclude people from the film, she said familiarity with slang isn’t necessarily dependent on one’s ability to understand its message.

“Americans are not taught how to talk about race. That’s not ever discussed. It’s not mentioned. It doesn’t happen in our society,” Reed said. “We aren’t taught what languages are appropriate about race. We’re not taught about what racism truly is.”

Williams said that “Dear White People” is a film that will continue to be explored through classrooms and conversations. She said she believes the box office income won’t be the measure of success for the movie.

Said Williams: “This film’s longevity and impact will go way beyond this fall 2014 film season.”





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