Despite its name, the Netflix comedy shows Dear White People is not centered around them. Instead, showrunners attempted to highlight existing inequality and disparities in the supposedly-liberal culture of American higher education from the Black students’ perspective. As a result, the show balances the two distinctive dimensions. On the one hand, Dear White People tries to be a moralizing story aimed against systematic racism. On the other hand, it remains a college sitcom with stereotype-based characters and settings.
The racial aspect is the most substantial element in the foundation of Dear White People. The plot is centered around a group of Black students of the fictional Winchester University, a prestigious Ivy League school. Throughout the story, they routinely face and overcome prejudice thriving in the predominantly-White Winchester. While some forms of Black activism are portrayed in a satirical manner, one cannot doubt that Black students represent a community fighting for positive changes in society. According to Gray, streaming media services have become a robust site of racial engagement and representation (163). In this regard, Netflix promoted the racial-based narrative in Dear White People by putting Black people and their struggles in the primary focus.
In addition, Dear White People heavily rely on the stereotypical aspect for shaping the social agenda into a memorable image. For instance, one of the main antagonists is a rich, arrogant, and privileged White son of Winchester’s president. Moreover, Winchester University itself serves as a stereotypical embodiment of the racially prejudiced U.S. college environment. On the contrary, Black characters primarily represent a stereotype of people who fight for social justice. According to Seiter, stereotyping is a significant instrument of ideology’s operation (185). As such, the showrunners of Dear White People utilized both positive and negative stereotypes to convey their anti-racist message.
Works Cited
Gray, Herman. “Race.” Keywords for Media Studies, edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, New York University Press, 2017, pp. 161–165.
Seiter, Ellen. “Stereotype.” Keywords for Media Studies, edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, New York University Press, 2017, pp. 184–185.