If you didn’t already know, the 2014 movie ‘Dear White People’ is being released as a series on Netflix this April. It is set to be a 10 part series and is directed by the same director as the film, Justin Simien. On the 8th February, the trailer hit Youtube and the internet backlash was… intense to say the least.
Many of those who were against the trailer were people with far right political views, and claimed it was ‘racist to white people’, [ insert heavy sigh ]. The trailer actually only had two sentences, it read:
“Dear white people, here’s a list of acceptable Halloween costumes: pirate, slutty nurse, any of our first 43 presidents. Top of the list of unacceptable costumes, me”.
As a white person, I take no offense from this. I’m aware that racism in America still exists. I’m aware it still exists everywhere. I know that white people doing ‘black face’ did indeed happen this Halloween and those that came before.
So, why are white people so butt-hurt I hear you ask? Maybe it’s because white people want to be oppressed so badly, or maybe it’s because there is a misconception on what the series is trying to do. So, Dear white people, here’s what this series is doing. It’s bringing attention to the racism in America that is most recently thriving, it’s not out to ‘attack you’, it’s not stereotyping all white people as racists ( it’s a satire ), it’s a direct message to those who are racist. In the trailer, it’s simply telling people that Black people are not a costume.
I’ve been trying to fathom for the last 48 hours how white people could take offense to this and then I realized, you can really only be offended by something if it applies to you. All you white people taking offense, have you ever stopped to consider that the reason you are so ‘offended’ by this trailer might be because you are being … racist extremely pedantic?
I wasn’t surprised when people attempted to boycott the series or when people began telling people to ‘dislike the trailer video’ in an attempt to get Netflix to see how against it they were.
On top of all of this, I am deeply saddened. I hope Netflix chooses to go ahead with the series, I feel like it could educate many people on racism and how cultural appropriating can hurt and offend people. After all, just like the movie, this is a comedy, but it’s a comedy with a message. Luckily, Justin Simien found this backlash very ‘profound and encouraging’. In his words, it’s ‘showing where we are, not where we think we are’.
