Review of Dear White People (2014) by Critical M — 13 Sep 2015

I thought Dear White People was one of the best films released in major theaters in 2014. Yes, the story is a bit thin and the characters aren't extremely captivating, but I think so highly of this film because of the concept and the filmmakers balls to see it through.

The title Dear White People alone scared away many potential audiences who jump to conclusions, but that is ironic seeing how the film is not really about white people, but rather the modern day young black person.

I found DWP to be refreshing. I cannot name another film made in the last 15 years or so that depicts this kind of young black America--college educated, articulate, socially aware, middle class and the central focus of the narrative, all without stripping away the fact that even this kind of black experience is not immune to the quirks of existing in a white society. Not since Spike Lee's School Daze and Bill Cosby's A Different World have we really seen that. No one is on drugs, no one sounds "ghetto" or is struggling to "get out of the streets," no one is a slave or maid or butler or civil rights leader, etc. They're the kind of young black people you see on a typical college campus today and the story attempts to finally give their perspective about life. And I thought it did so very well.

I loved that they had the guts to push this into mainstream America...It's just a shame mainstream America wasn't really ready for it, preferring to give Oscar recognition to stories about black "help", "butlers", "hustle(rs)" who "flow", "precious" girls dying in the ghetto, slaves, and crooked cops on training day,..because that's supposed to be the black experience, not a post-civil rights millennial generation on a college campus re-claiming their own identity.