Dear White People: Movie Analysis

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Dear White People, “a satire about being a black face in a white place”. Fiery characters, budding romance, race relations, and loads of conflict fill this 2014 film. This 2014 independent film is filled with fiery characters, budding romance, race relations, and loads of conflict. The movie focuses on four strong black college students who are struggling with their racial identity in vastly different ways. At the prestigious and fictional Winchester University we are introduced to a half black half white collage student name Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) who appears to have created this Afrocentric image of herself. By being the leader of the Black student Union and focusing on racial injustice that is at Winchester. In the first scenes …show more content…

Sam runs for president of her dormitory in an attempt “bring black back to Winchester”. She runs against her ex boyfriend Troy (Brandon Bell) who is another major character that does not truly know who he is in life. His father Mr. Fairbanks (Dennis Haysbert) is the dean of students at Winchester and he strives for Troy to not meet the expectations people may have for African-American males. Image is very important to him and his father. But as the movie progresses many difficult decisions face Troy and he has to figure out what is most important to him in life and stop caring how others perceive him. Besides Sam there is another major female character named Colandrea ‘Coco’ Conners (Teyonah Parris). Coco has created this persona herself that is drastically different from where she originated from. She does not want to fit the stereotypical image of a black female, however by doing this she has lost herself along the way. There is also one more character I have yet to mention, but for good reason. His name is Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams) and he has shown the most growth out of all of the major characters. Lionel is portrayed as a loner, since he does not have a real place at Winchester. Like the other characters I have mentioned prior, Lionel also faces problems with his racial