Dear White People- Review
Racism as a whole is a sensitive topic and something which has been prevailing for way too long. The award-winning movie, “Dear white people” directed by Justin Simien, brings about several controversial opinions in the movie. Dear White People is about bringing light to these issues that prevail around the world and to spread awareness about American culture back in the early 2010s, which sadly still occurs to this day. The director makes the viewers think a lot, as they come to a state of confusion: African American people were ashamed of their culture and were treated differently by the whites, yet the whites still dress up like them, which is a contradiction at its best.
Director Justin Simien went with a very sensitive topic for his debut directorial film about racial discrimination. The director showcased how white-colored students in the university had an absurd behavior towards the students of the African American community. It all comes down to the climax of the movie where the boys of Garmin Club were throwing a “Black” themed party on Halloween, when Lionel one of the student of the African American community went into the party and saw “white” people with black makeup on their faces, some with black leaders masks on and some others wearing bling kind of dressing. This instantly mocked Lionel and it ended in a brawl yet the white student Kurt was allowed to walk freely due to their white color privileges. The most astonishing factor of the film was that these scenes were based out of real-life incidents.
When you really look into some specific scenes in the movie, you can see how black people change the way they dress and the way they behave around white people. Such an instance was when Lionel looks around the campus, only to see an African American roll up his sleeves, and present himself in a way that is desirable to the white group of people. We, later on, see the same person with unrolled sleeves, and a completely different front when meeting with his African American friends. This clearly portrays the sad reality that is changing the way you are, hiding your culture, in order to fit into society.
Throughout the film, the director keeps on mocking the reality of racism through white and excessively privileged students. This is the sad reality wherein the president of the country itself is a part of the African American community, and yet the students of that particular community were tormented because of their color. Even though laws like the Jim Crow laws were dissolved, these people are still acting foolish to date, for example, the BLM movement that is still going on. Not that racism is going to completely end as there will always be someone who’ll act foolishly and make a mistake again.