“Dear White People” is already real as hell and woke af, but here are 9 moments when we just had to clutch our hearts because things got a little to close to reality.
Heteronormative labels
At first not even Lionel Higgins was sure if he was gay or not after he started masturbating to his roommate having sex, but then he was invited to a party where it seems like everything made sense.
Higgins meets a guy who tells him: “I don’t subscribe to heteronormative labels” which instantly becomes a pick up line.
The N-Word
Reggie Green (Marque Richardson) is at a party hosted at his white friend’s house when a song starts playing that includes the N-word.
The white friend sings the word — because it’s part of the song — and Reggie tells him not to do that because it’s not cool … even if it is part of the song, just hum over it or something.
Don’t Touch My Hair
Lionel is hanging out at his new kinda friend’s house when his white female roommate reaches her hand over to touch Lionel’s fro all the while saying “you don’t mind, do you?”
Yes, white girl. He minds.
All Black People Look the Same
Reggie was walking down the hallway when the school’s coach told him he’d see him at practice later … only thing is that Reggie isn’t on a sports team.
Even after a bit of back and forth, coach still couldn’t seem to understand that Reggie was not who he thought he was.
Black Movies
They’re all pretty low quality and once in a while you get a gem like “Get Out.”
“Dear White People” perfectly illustrated the lack of representation in movies when the squad went to see one and said that most black movies can pretty much be split into two categories: “cheap urban drama or tragedy porn.”
Being Woke vs Assimilating
After Reggie had a gun pulled on him, the Black Student Union gathered to brainstorm action plans and that’s when Coco stood up and spoke her truth.
She said it didn’t matter if you were woke if you ended up dead and that sometimes it’s better to basically shut up and assimilate because then at least you can survive. *snaps*
Microaggressions
The entire series is filled with instances of microaggressions, but the greatest was when Coco was reminiscing about her friendship with Sam.
The two shared a room in which Coco’s white friends would come over sometimes and during a particular hangout session, the ignorance was at a high and we knew it would be so when the friend started off with “can I ask a dumb white girl question?”
Black People at a University
The excitement and inner joy you feel when you see a fellow black classmate walking down the halls is beyond real — like sometimes you feel like running up to them and embracing them in a bear hug, but that would be too awkward.
Sam, of course, didn’t care. When she first saw Coco she exclaimed: “Black person!”
Light Skin Privilege
Yes, there’s privilege within the black community as well and “Dear White People” just addressed it.
After one of Sam’s radio broadcasts where she plays Coco’s rant on air, the latter called her out for her light skin privilege telling her “Imagine the reaction if your divisive revolutionary drivel were coming from the mouth of a real sister. You get away with murder because you look more like them than I do.”
