Dear White People: Students are bringing black back

Students at Rhodes University and the University of Cape Town recently reminded us of the instrumental role the youth can play in the transformation of a country. Twenty-one years into democracy and South Africa is still pulling the transformation cart at snail’s pace. 

The film Dear White People reminds us that South Africa is not the only country battling with racial issues and transformation. Written and directed by Justin Simien, the 2014 comedy-drama film, paints a very familiar picture of life on the university campus.

The tension in the film is built around the fictional Randomization Housing Act, aimed at fostering “racial harmony”, that requires campus residences at the prestigious but mythical Winchester University in the United States to diversify. After an all-black campus residence, Armstrong/Parker gets called to diversify by housing students from other races, two opposing lead characters emerge.

The female lead, Samantha White (Tessa Thompson who’s had roles in For Colored Girls and Selma) and the Black Student Union oppose the university’s proposed housing act and petition against it. White, a biracial leader of the Black Student Union, becomes the voice of the radical black conscious student on campus, while black fellow student Troy Fairbanks (Brandon Bell from Hollywood Heights and Mission Impossible III) represents the archetypal student that sits on the fence opting for a more ”diplomatic approach”. 

White and Fairbanks go head-to-head in an election race to become the head of their Armstrong/Parker House. White’s argument for opposing the housing act, is that there is nothing sinister about houses or reses that operate on the bases of affiliation because there are already residences whose student intake is based on sports or political affiliation.

For White, Armstrong/Parker House has a legacy of upholding black culture on campus, but that legacy and culture stands to be destroyed if the house act is implemented. So she makes it her mission to bring back black culture in Winchester University. Unlike White and Fairbanks who belong to cliques, sophomore student Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams of Everybody Hates Chris fame) struggles to find a group that shares his views.

He can’t quite relate to the “wanna-be Black Panthers” also known as the Black Student Union or to the Garmin Club House, whose residents are mostly rich white men. His character parodies students who are just too black for the whites and too white for the blacks. But one thing Higgins has in common with his fellow black students, is trying to exist as a “black face in a white place”.

His struggle is proved to be universal by the local #Rhodessowhite, which was started by Rhodes University students in March 2015 to start a conversation on Rhodes’s lack of racial transformation and racism at the institution as well white privilege. Some of the issues that came up in the hashtag include, the undermining of black lecturers by their white students and how white lecturers don’t make an effort to learn or pronounce the names of the their black students correctly. 

In the film one of the black students expresses her frustration with one of her lecturers who continues to call her by an incorrect name.The racial tension at Winchester University boils over when the Garmin Club House hosts an “African American” themed party that plays on stereotypes about African Americans, which enrages the black students who then decide to take action against racial discrimination.

Blackface is one of the topics that come up in the film and attempts to express the inappropriateness of white people painting their faces black/brown in order mimic black people.  
This topic is not new to South Africans.

In 2014 two female students from the University of Pretoria made headlines after a photo in which they were dressed up as black domestic workers with their faces painted brown and their pants stuffed with pillows, went viral. According to Eye Witness News reports, the picture was taken at a private party and as well as in their campus residence room and then posted on Facebook. The University of Pretoria took disciplinary action against the students in question by expelling them from their residence. This incident created dialogue in the media but unfortunately there were those, in 2014, who were still scratching their heads and debating on whether or not Black Face is offensive.

Dear White People also addresses issues such as cultural appropriation, interracial dating, welfare and affirmative action. It also takes a jab at US filmmaker, Tyler Perry’s negative way of portraying black people in his movies.
But don’t expect to fall off your chair laughing. Although Dear White People is a comedy that plays on stereotypes, it relies heavily on satire to drive home the message. The film might leave you feeling a bit unsettled by the strong views expressed by the characters, but only if the shoe fits.

At times you’ll feel like the scenarios have been pushed to the extreme by the screenwriter in order to make a point. Subtlety and nuance are often more powerful when highlighting socio-political issues.
Dear White People succeeds in giving a voice to students of colour who now find themselves in spaces that were formerly white.