I saw Dear White People and I agree with a lot of this. The film was too consumed with teaching white people about racism rather than telling a story about how black students navigate, resist, and react to racism at PWI’s.
I saw a black person describe “Dear White People” today in 7 words as: Brilliant, Genius, Hilarious, Relevant, Honest, Needed, Loved
When I saw this, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes because after seeing the film myself a week ago my 7 words would be: Bland, Uninteresting, Uninspired and my friend rococobutter's poignant take on the film, “Social Commentary Blue balls”
The film has also been getting raving reviews from white liberal reviewers who love to pretend like they “get” race (see the poster above for just a few examples). But after seeing the film these reviews do not come as a surprise, because I know that this was a film clearly made for white people and with the white gaze in mind. This was a point originally brought up in a DC BYP group discussion we had after the movie, and which has become more abundantly clear to me in this past week reflecting on the film... Read more...