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Dear White People - General Discussion

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in Dear White People

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jhlipton

jhlipton

I'm aware that white male privilege does exist (and do I shake my head when white men get offended at the term), and that I have it, which definitely filters how I see the show.

I'll have to go back and watch with that in mind.

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Empress1
Empress1

I just started s3 ep1 and I already love The Handmaid's Tale parody and the shade they're throwing at the actual Handmaid's Tale and Elizabeth Moss.

Smacky55
Smacky55

I’m mad at all y’all. I watched the first two episodes of season 1, then I came here to read what you guys had to say and see if I should continue watching. I read every single page in this topic. And

tennisgurl
tennisgurl

The Handmaids Tale parody is already my new favorite show parody on tv, I was just losing it! Honestly though, is it possible for the parody to be any more ridiculous than this actual season has been?

larapu2000

larapu2000

(edited)

I had heard about the controversy surrounding the show, and decided to watch one episode and ended up binging the whole season at once (Thanks, Netflix, you dark lords of evil).  I enjoyed the choices of conflicts-the black face party, the campus police harassing Reggie about seeing his student ID and then pulling a f**king gun on him, Troy also getting messed about by cops, and the looming still-to-come conflict over the desegregation of the AP house.  

I liked the ladies a lot more than the guys, mainly because black women struggle against race AND gender obstacles, and I thought both of those were handled beautifully in the show.  On a shallow note, I really did think the straightened hair flattered Coco more (but I know it's a pain to get it straight!!!!), just like I think the more traditional styling flattered Sam more.  Do traditionally AA sororities really push for unnatural hair styling for their members, or is that something that's also changing?  (Please say it is!)

I liked the evolution and the bumps in Gabe & Sam's relationship, and I REALLY loved the frank discussion around how/why people choose who to date.  That maybe they find white people perfectly attractive, but it's a conscious social choice to not get into a relationship with them.  I had no idea that black men were presented as "not good enough," according to Sam, for black women.  

Is it just me, or did anyone else think Troy was presented as the Obama type?  Good education, involved the cause, but not willing to go far enough and risk himself and his political capital to accomplish something more meaningful?  (And this might be my own political perceptions coloring my impression of Obama and Troy).  The only time I liked him was when he was in the bar with Lionel and when he assured Coco he didn't care if she wore a wig or a weave.

I can see why this show was a lot to process for a lot of people.  The reveals of pressures black people feel to fit into a white constructed society were heartbreaking, the appropriation of black culture just to simply mock it was heartbreaking, and the very real treatment of Reggie by the police was heartbreaking.  It's a lot to take in when you live in a world where those things only happen on the news.

Edited by larapu2000
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DearEvette

DearEvette

3 hours ago, larapu2000 said:

I had heard about the controversy surrounding the show, and decided to watch one episode and ended up binging the whole season at once (Thanks, Netflix, you dark lords of evil).

,Glad you decided to watch anyway.  From what I could see the "controversy" was a bunch of white folks on twitter claiming this was about white genocide. Which couldn't be farther from the truth.  Good lord.  It is a show about black kids (and some white) in college.  A super funny one at that.  If that made people stay away they are missing out on a great show. 

Also the production of the show -- the Giancarlo Eposito voice over, the uses of classical music, the clever little extra-textual inserts etc.   --  adds to the wittiness. 

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larapu2000

larapu2000

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

,Glad you decided to watch anyway.  From what I could see the "controversy" was a bunch of white folks on twitter claiming this was about white genocide. Which couldn't be farther from the truth.  Good lord.  It is a show about black kids (and some white) in college.  A super funny one at that.  If that made people stay away they are missing out on a great show. 

Also the production of the show -- the Giancarlo Eposito voice over, the uses of classical music, the clever little extra-textual inserts etc.   --  adds to the wittiness. 

I think what I had heard was that the show was really pushing boundaries and had an aggressively anti-white agenda.

Neither of which I would use to describe this show in a million years.  I didn't think it was edgy or really risky-I thought it was honest and fair, and it was most certainly not anti-white people.

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jhlipton

jhlipton

I'm white (but not Barry Manilow white) and I don't think this show has an anti-white bias at all.  Even without Gabe, the presentation of different voices of black students, none of which are anywhere near as strident as some I've heard, is extremely well done.  Having Gabe say what I sometimes feel (the urge to say "not all white people" is SO strong sometimes!!!) is just icing on the cake.

On 6/26/2017 at 1:00 PM, DearEvette said:

Also the production of the show -- the Giancarlo Eposito voice over, the uses of classical music, the clever little extra-textual inserts etc.   --  adds to the wittiness. 

YASSSS!

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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

On 6/26/2017 at 3:58 PM, larapu2000 said:

I think what I had heard was that the show was really pushing boundaries and had an aggressively anti-white agenda.

I would guess that came mostly from people who a) overreacted to the name or heard about an overreaction to the name and b) never saw the show.

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AllyB

AllyB

On 5/7/2017 at 11:11 PM, praeceptrix said:

But my first reaction was more aligned with Calliope1975's --  once again, a woman was shown as owing sex to a man. He's the "friend zoned" guy who deserves sex because he wants it, even though she's been clear since freshman year that she was not interested (remember her having to push him out of her room in the Coco-centric episode?).

I'm only just watching this show now and am so glad that there are posters feeling like this. Tbh, I also felt it a bit in the first episode about Gabe too. His instagram post outing their relationship was a clear violation of Sam's privacy. I can understand him not wanting to be a secret shag anymore but the way to deal with that was to tell her that the secret thing wasn't working for him and let her make a choice about whether to publicly date him or not. Instead he wanted everyone to know about them, so he took her choice away. I hate how in this show that's being so open and clear about white privilege, male privilege is abundant and unquestioned.

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jacehan

jacehan

Well, there was the "Pause" scene when they were playing Smash, but he did catch himself pretty quickly.

On 5/5/2017 at 3:49 PM, DearEvette said:

I will say that I love that even though Troy is some hyper masculine manly man he shows not even a trace of homophobia.  I mean, he's not even casually homophobic.

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Dee

Dee

(edited)

Master of None standout Lena Waithe joins Dear White People

Quote

When Dear White People returns for its sophomore season, Samantha (Logan Browning), Troy (Brandon P. Bell) and the rest of the Armstrong-Parker gang will be watching something other than the hilarious Scandal parody Defamation.

EW can exclusively reveal that history-making Emmy winner Lena Waithe (Master of None, The Chi) will recur in season 2 as P Ninny, a braggadocious MC who stars on a ridiculous Love & Hip Hop-like reality series called Trap-House Tricks.

Edited by Dee
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numbnut

numbnut

(edited)

The characters feel hollow and one-dimensional, like the actors (with the exception of the guy who plays Reggie) are performing instead of inhabiting their roles. The dialogue also feels stilted and "written" when every utterance is a clever quip. I liked V1. Maybe I just need a few eps to get reacquainted with the style of the show.

Edited by numbnut
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DearEvette

DearEvette

Watching this first episode I felt like what maybe the black students felt with the relocation of the (white) Davis Hall students to Armstrong-Parker -- displaced, out of sorts and a little alienated.

Not because the show is not as good, in fact, it felt just as biting and incisive as it did with V1.  But because this is Sam's POV episode and she is in a really bad place.  On the one hand she is so much in her head, her need to fight back so hard, that she is ignoring the great advice she is getting about not engaging the wrong people in fights.  You are not going to change their minds.  They are entrenched.  All it does it frustrates you.  I was so mad at her that she could not see it.

But then again, I was struck by the overarcing message of the episode (a message that doubles down in  the next episode) in that Sam, a black woman, is being disproportionately blamed and held responsible for things she did not do just because she is the uncomfortable black.  Versus Troy, who really did damage property is being largely ignored or absolved  (and conveniently is nowhere to be found to face the music).  In addition all the people who conveniently rode behind her activism have all dissipated.  Except Joelle, who remains ride or die.  Love Joelle.

Looking forward to this season, so happy the show is back.

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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

(edited)

OMG, I remember the first time I saw someone put sugar on grits. Butter, sugar or honey, and milk, on grits. It was a football player in a dorm dining hall and I thought I would vomit. This was decades ago and the memory of it still horrifies me.

University prison? Surely that's not a thing at any school.

So do Asians generally hang with the alt-right? I've thought they were generally conservative and more likely to vote R than D but are they as bad as that talk show bunch? I wasn't sure what to make of the Asian kid who seemed to be the host other than his possibly being a token minority for "see, we're not racists" purposes.

I had mixed mostly meh feelings about the first season but am feeling more positive about the second.

Edited by Joimiaroxeu
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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

So, instead of the fake Scandal this season they're doing a sampling of Black-oriented reality shows?

Che Guevarra at Fashion Week. That's a visual.

Reggie was giving me Heath Ledger as the Joker vibes in that ending. Why so serious, indeed.

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DearEvette

DearEvette

I think I liked Troy the most this episode than I have all last season.  Also loved the Troy/Reggie interaction.  I don't think we got any of that last season so it was nice to have a nice chunk of it in this episode.

But I am kinda over it that Reggie can be such as ass to Sam and yet can hang all chill with that Pastiche asshole (who I admit was confusingly hot as fuck in this episode).

That said, was not a fan of this installment.  While Reggi's PTSD is important and believable, it dragged the episode.  Don't think I laughed once this episode.  This is a comedy, not therapy. 

Still loving Joelle.

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tennisgurl

tennisgurl

I never thought about putting sugar on grits, but, is it sacrilege that it doesn't sound so bad? 

Oh Sam, never feed the trolls! Thats just what they want! Life is too short to fight with morons online. 

Glad to see this show back, even if it kind of snunk up on me. Seriously, promote your stuff Netflix! or this is gonna be the Sense8 debacle all over again! Liked seeing the episode, and it will be interesting to see where the show goes from here. Sam is in a bad place, still hung up on Gabe, and dealing with backlash due to everything that went down last season. I hope things get better for her. 

Can we get a Joelle episode this season? Please? Also, am I crazy, or did I kind of catch a vibe that she and Gabe might hook up? I thought they had some chemistry last season, but I dont think Joelle would date her friends ex. Also, I cant believe that Reggie agreed to actually be in Gabes documentary! Unless is whole segment is "yeah, you are 100% racist" for the whole time. I thought he hated Gabe? Maybe now that Gabe and Sam are done, he doesn't care anymore. 

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Xantia

Xantia

This episode got me in the feels - captured those strange moments of hilarity that can happen when family and friends gather in grief. Well done, Dear White People, well done.

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DearEvette

DearEvette

Poor Lionel, is he cursed to only ever come into contact with the most obnoxious, arch, self aware, bitchy gays?  Where are the guys like him?  I wasn't a huge fan of this glimpse of this segment of the gay subculture at Winchester.  They felt too 'on' all the time and their dialogue felt like it was taken from social media.  Maybe it was just because it was places that Silvio was taking him to and these were the people Silvio hung out with.  I want Lionel to find his tribe, not to  be dragged along to Silvio's.

And you can miss me with the over meta references to loving Taylor Swift by the guy played by Todrick Hall.  I rolled my eyes so hard at that.  Really show?

I am still enjoying Troy's DGAF attitude.  Also love the Black lesbian who worked on the paper.  She breaks out a bit in this episode it was nice to see more of her.

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tennisgurl

tennisgurl

Joelle is still the best, but it sucks to see her so hung up on Reggie. You can do better Joelle! 

I did like Reggie here than I did most of last season, and thats only partially because I feel bad for him. He just seems to have more going on, and I liked his various attempts to feel better, and how none of them work. Reggie and Troy hanging out was fun, and even Pastiche asshole was kind of a decent scene partner for them. 

My biggest laugh was everyone saying "Hi Reggie" in a super sad voice whenever they see him. 

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fraykis

fraykis

On 5/5/2018 at 8:40 PM, DearEvette said:

For real though.  We are not a sugar on grits family.  I think the first place I ever saw that was on tv.  Nobody I've met IRL does it.

LOL!  I totally put sugar on my grits.  Lived in NJ my whole life and don't really remember ever having them.  When I moved to GA a few years ago and grits were plopped in front of me, I was like, "Uh, ok...what do I do with these..."  I stirred in some sugar (horrifying everyone around me) and found it delicious.  :)

DWP is right in my wheelhouse and I loved the first season, but for me, this show is definitely way too intense to binge.  Maybe my brain is slowing with age, but I think the show moves at a dizzying pace.  That's totally fine, but I need time to ruminate on each ep before advancing to the next one!

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DearEvette

DearEvette

Coco is still the wheeler dealer.  I always like that she is often the smartest girl in the room.

But honestly, this didn't give any new information about Coco.  Instead we got a lot of new info about Kelsey and I am here for it.  One thing that is nice about the 'enforced' room-mating of students in A-P because of the relocation of the white students, is how the show is enforcing proximity of the main 'stars' with some of the more supporting characters.  Finding out out that Kelsey is Trini and a Lesbian with a sharp POV is everything.  Not only that but she is such a strong, sensible support system for CoCo really filled her in a lot as a character.  She isn't just a clueless Bougie girl with her support dog.  Kelsey was the real revelation here.

I hated and loved the fakeout in the end.  I like how it allowed CoCo to imagine the possibilities up what she was potentially giving up.  It gave her time to agonize over her decision, but in the end she needed to decide what was best for her.  My husband actually thought it was a true flash-forward, but I knew it was a fake-out.  Given what we had learned about CoCo and her ambitions & aspirations, no way was she going to go home to her family and have  baby.  She's too much of a striver. 

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tennisgurl

tennisgurl

(edited)

I am loving Troy just out there living it up until things go sideways. Its pretty funny to see it after him being so uptight last year. At least in public. 

Poor Lionel. Is every gay person at Winchester a ridiculously bitchy, sound bite quoting drama queen except for him? No wonder he cant find his place on campus, everyone on campus is kind of an asshole, or are so On all the time, that its impossible to just be chill for five minutes. The guy he met at the party seemed nice, but you never know on this show. I hope maybe he turns out to be a good guy, and Lionel can finally meet some people he can really fit in with. I mean, I wasn't in college THAT long ago, and I remember having a pretty wide variety of gay subcultures around, and I went to state school in the Midwest, bordering on the south! 

Edited by tennisgurl
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Empress1

Empress1

On 5/11/2018 at 11:31 AM, DearEvette said:

Coco is still the wheeler dealer.  I always like that she is often the smartest girl in the room.

But honestly, this didn't give any new information about Coco.  Instead we got a lot of new info about Kelsey and I am here for it.  One thing that is nice about the 'enforced' room-mating of students in A-P because of the relocation of the white students, is how the show is enforcing proximity of the main 'stars' with some of the more supporting characters.  Finding out out that Kelsey is Trini and a Lesbian with a sharp POV is everything.  Not only that but she is such a strong, sensible support system for CoCo really filled her in a lot as a character.  She isn't just a clueless Bougie girl with her support dog.  Kelsey was the real revelation here.

I hated and loved the fakeout in the end.  I like how it allowed CoCo to imagine the possibilities up what she was potentially giving up.  It gave her time to agonize over her decision, but in the end she needed to decide what was best for her.  My husband actually thought it was a true flash-forward, but I knew it was a fake-out.  Given what we had learned about CoCo and her ambitions & aspirations, no way was she going to go home to her family and have  baby.  She's too much of a striver. 

I would have been so annoyed if that fake-out had been real because it would have gone against everything we'd learned about Coco.

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DearEvette

DearEvette

A Joelle episode!  Yay!  And girlfriend came through.  For a brief moment I was so happy for her (but still low key pulling for Reggie). 

And then came the moment I knew.  AS I was watching I started sayonh "OMG he's  Hotep, he's  a Hotep." groans.

My poor husband (who is  a total Gabe with a little more street cred, but not enough to know what a Hotep is) was completely puzzled.  Had to school him real quick.

Sighs.  But maybe this is a turning point for my boy Reg.

Hafta say, i am not loving the parody show within a show this year as much as I loved last year's Defamation.

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