| ...If you're uncomfortable watching this movie or reading this post, there is probably still a race issue in America. Hello everyone, welcome back to The Social Scientific Method. This is now my personal blog, or in other words, not associated with Clarkson anymore. Now that my Communication & Media internship is over, I have no excuse to write once a week. But since I still have this space, I might as well use it. And since I am still interested in previous discussions on this blog, I figured I could start off the semester with a good hard look at white privilege. The movie Dear White People addresses the minute tune that racism has taken in the Obama age. |
For those of you who don't know or can't define what white privilege is, Peggy McIntosh in her piece "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" defines white privilege as, "... an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks." In other words, white privilege allows for white folks to, on average, travel through society and life easier than their colored counterparts. I know there are intersections of gender, sexuality, economic status, and regional upbringing that change this.
I have the somewhat unearned benefit of being an educated white woman, giving me many doors that I wouldn't be able to open if I was of a different demographic. I'm not saying I had it easy. My family is not of means. I am also the product of a single mother household. I worked my ass off to get to where I am in school. However, it could have been much harder if I had been of a different upbringing. And the movie Dear White People addresses these very intersections. I would like to point out that the fictional school, Winchester University, where Dear White People took place is a privileged Ivy League college. Therefore, the four characters the movie focuses had to have been from a somewhat privileged or academically advanced background. They by no means represented the entirety of black culture or status. The characters Lionel Higgins (played by Tyler James Williams), Sam White (played by Tessa Thompson), Colandrea "Coco" Conners (played by Teyonah Parris), and Troy Fairbanks (played by Brandon P Bell) were strongly educated and of-means individuals.
Lionel, the underdog hero by the end of the film, is a gay sci-fi nerd trying to find his place at his school as a black man not "black enough" to be the token friend the kids around him want. Sam is the militant film student with a sick dad at home and a lot to say about what some (according to this NPR piece) call "microaggressions" against the black students at the school. She is also elected head of the Armstrong Parker House, the historically black dormitory on campus. Coco is what this NPR piece calls an "assimilationist" looking to blend into the white culture on campus rather than represent the "ghetto" (which is preferred for many of her white peers). And finally, Troy Fairbanks is the privileged legacy students whose father is the Dean. So obviously, his conflict in the movie is whether or not to please his dad who is constantly trying to please the President of the university. But, while these four have more advantages than most , the white population of Winchester still expresses subtle prejudices and stereotypes they have against the black population. And, as described in McIntosh's definition above, most white people are oblivious to their own privilege. In Dear White People, this includes the President of Winchester.
It just so happens that the antagonist of the story is the President's son. Kurt Fletcher (played by Kyle Gallner) starts the movie off with a fantastic contradiction of Sam's radio show. She dryly expressed over the airwaves grievances against the white population of the school like, "Dear white people, the minimum requirement of black friends needed to not seem racist has just been raised to two. Sorry, but your weed man Tyrone does not count". and "This just in, dating a black person to piss off your parents is a form of racism." Kurt's response is that of a reductionist's standpoint, proclaiming that there is no longer a race problem in America and Sam is simply beating a dead horse. He even goes as far to say that affirmative action is obsolete and Obama's placement at Harvard Law School took the place of a more qualified law student. Of course, this spurs a movie-long battle of wits and protests that crescendos to the point that the Dean gives Sam a formal warning to stop bringing attention to the supposedly absent race problem she continued to talk about.
I have the somewhat unearned benefit of being an educated white woman, giving me many doors that I wouldn't be able to open if I was of a different demographic. I'm not saying I had it easy. My family is not of means. I am also the product of a single mother household. I worked my ass off to get to where I am in school. However, it could have been much harder if I had been of a different upbringing. And the movie Dear White People addresses these very intersections. I would like to point out that the fictional school, Winchester University, where Dear White People took place is a privileged Ivy League college. Therefore, the four characters the movie focuses had to have been from a somewhat privileged or academically advanced background. They by no means represented the entirety of black culture or status. The characters Lionel Higgins (played by Tyler James Williams), Sam White (played by Tessa Thompson), Colandrea "Coco" Conners (played by Teyonah Parris), and Troy Fairbanks (played by Brandon P Bell) were strongly educated and of-means individuals.
Lionel, the underdog hero by the end of the film, is a gay sci-fi nerd trying to find his place at his school as a black man not "black enough" to be the token friend the kids around him want. Sam is the militant film student with a sick dad at home and a lot to say about what some (according to this NPR piece) call "microaggressions" against the black students at the school. She is also elected head of the Armstrong Parker House, the historically black dormitory on campus. Coco is what this NPR piece calls an "assimilationist" looking to blend into the white culture on campus rather than represent the "ghetto" (which is preferred for many of her white peers). And finally, Troy Fairbanks is the privileged legacy students whose father is the Dean. So obviously, his conflict in the movie is whether or not to please his dad who is constantly trying to please the President of the university. But, while these four have more advantages than most , the white population of Winchester still expresses subtle prejudices and stereotypes they have against the black population. And, as described in McIntosh's definition above, most white people are oblivious to their own privilege. In Dear White People, this includes the President of Winchester.
It just so happens that the antagonist of the story is the President's son. Kurt Fletcher (played by Kyle Gallner) starts the movie off with a fantastic contradiction of Sam's radio show. She dryly expressed over the airwaves grievances against the white population of the school like, "Dear white people, the minimum requirement of black friends needed to not seem racist has just been raised to two. Sorry, but your weed man Tyrone does not count". and "This just in, dating a black person to piss off your parents is a form of racism." Kurt's response is that of a reductionist's standpoint, proclaiming that there is no longer a race problem in America and Sam is simply beating a dead horse. He even goes as far to say that affirmative action is obsolete and Obama's placement at Harvard Law School took the place of a more qualified law student. Of course, this spurs a movie-long battle of wits and protests that crescendos to the point that the Dean gives Sam a formal warning to stop bringing attention to the supposedly absent race problem she continued to talk about.
However, it goes a step too far when a party at Kurt's dormitory hosts a "black culture"-themed party. This Halloween party Kurt had planned was supposedly in good humor since the race problem was "over", but the movie made it clear that this was a bunch of white students getting drunk and black facing. The party was brought down by Lionel and the Black Student Union while Sam filmed the whole thing. The students had masks, brown-painted faces, fake guns, cheap clothing, and watermelon everywhere when Lionel first arrived at the party. This is why he ran to find Sam and the Black Student Union. An investigation against Kurt finds no substantial evidence against him, but the Dean suspects that Sam pushed the party to happen in order to bring attention to the school. Regardless, it gets national attention. |
What director Justin Seimen did so well was demonstrating how utterly awful these caricatures were. These parties with very racist depictions of other races are not uncommon. Seimen made this film in part because of the unimaginable number of parties like that dramatized in the movie that have happened in America in the recent past. He also wanted to illustrate the things different black people do in reaction to how they are treated by their white peers. Whether unapologetic like Sam and Lionel or cautious like Troy and Coco, Dear White People addresses black people with outlooks similar to the characters of this movie.
Because this was a Clarkson event put on by Clarkson's intercultural group and Clarkson Union Board, there was a thought-provoking discussion after the film finished. Clarkson students, Potsdam students invited to the event, and faculty brought up what they liked about the film and how we could relate this to real life. Many students felt that they had been in similar situations depicted in the movie. These are real choices our black students have to make when interacting with other students.
And thankfully, according to Warren Anderson who is the VP of the Clarkson Diversity Initiative, Clarkson hasn't faced an offense like these racist parties. When I asked what policies Clarkson had in place to combat racism, and I'm paraphrasing here, Warren pointed out that every student here has their own story. We are all allowed a freedom of speech and opinion. However, according to Anderson, we have to accept the consequences of our words and actions. Something that Sam had to learn that we will all have to learn is how to accept ourselves and our actions. She was a biracial woman seeing both the injustices done to her black mother and her white father. And when we are able to sit down and have a discussion about race being more than a classification, rather a social construct, then we can make progress.
The Social Scientific Method is the personal blog of Social Documentation student Emily Baker published when she finds something interesting, annoying, or just plain cool. Keep up to date on her posts and read on!
Peggy McIntosh's piece on white privilege:
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
NPR's piece on microaggression:
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/03/298736678/microaggressions-be-careful-what-you-say
NPR piece on Dear White People:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/10/18/356764194/watching-dear-white-people-at-harvard
Definition of black face:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackface
Article on racist college parties:
http://www.thegloss.com/2014/10/17/culture/dear-white-people-review-racist-college-parties-blackface-mexican-stereotypes/
IMDB page on Dear White People:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235108/
American Prospect article on Dear White People:
http://prospect.org/article/after-ferguson-dear-white-people-arrives-right-time
News on Warren Anderson:
http://www.clarkson.edu/news/2013/news-release_2013-03-15-2.html
Because this was a Clarkson event put on by Clarkson's intercultural group and Clarkson Union Board, there was a thought-provoking discussion after the film finished. Clarkson students, Potsdam students invited to the event, and faculty brought up what they liked about the film and how we could relate this to real life. Many students felt that they had been in similar situations depicted in the movie. These are real choices our black students have to make when interacting with other students.
And thankfully, according to Warren Anderson who is the VP of the Clarkson Diversity Initiative, Clarkson hasn't faced an offense like these racist parties. When I asked what policies Clarkson had in place to combat racism, and I'm paraphrasing here, Warren pointed out that every student here has their own story. We are all allowed a freedom of speech and opinion. However, according to Anderson, we have to accept the consequences of our words and actions. Something that Sam had to learn that we will all have to learn is how to accept ourselves and our actions. She was a biracial woman seeing both the injustices done to her black mother and her white father. And when we are able to sit down and have a discussion about race being more than a classification, rather a social construct, then we can make progress.
The Social Scientific Method is the personal blog of Social Documentation student Emily Baker published when she finds something interesting, annoying, or just plain cool. Keep up to date on her posts and read on!
Peggy McIntosh's piece on white privilege:
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
NPR's piece on microaggression:
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/03/298736678/microaggressions-be-careful-what-you-say
NPR piece on Dear White People:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/10/18/356764194/watching-dear-white-people-at-harvard
Definition of black face:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackface
Article on racist college parties:
http://www.thegloss.com/2014/10/17/culture/dear-white-people-review-racist-college-parties-blackface-mexican-stereotypes/
IMDB page on Dear White People:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235108/
American Prospect article on Dear White People:
http://prospect.org/article/after-ferguson-dear-white-people-arrives-right-time
News on Warren Anderson:
http://www.clarkson.edu/news/2013/news-release_2013-03-15-2.html