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Meagan Bens
Doctor McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric
12 October 2015
Perseverance of Racial Tension in Dear White People
With the election of Barack Obama as president, people received the notion that
Americas racial wounds have healed. Except, the idea that America is in a post-racial era is far
from the truth. People tend to silently self-segregate and associate with only those in their
political, economic, ethnic, or cultural circles. Race continues to be a cause behind violence,
including the cases between Michael Brown and Ferguson, the Baltimore protests, and the
shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. Stereotypes are
still present today and they control how society treats each individual, especially African
Americans. Dear White People, the satire of the Obama Age, is about the racial tension
between white and blacks at a predominantly white university, which is brought to attention after
a humor magazine hosts an offensive Halloween party. During the film, the audience follows the
journey of four black students at the university amidst all the controversy. The movie Dear White
People highlights the complexities of black identity on a college campus to disprove the theory
that America does not have issues concerning racial discrimination or prejudice.
The first character the audience is introduced to is Sam White, a girl who constantly
wrestles with her identity as a half black and half white student at Winchester University, proving
the persistence of racism. As a biracial student, Sams struggle to choose a side is evident from
the beginning of the film as she immediately starts talking on her radio show, Dear White

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People. Following the opening scene, Sam decides to run against Troy Fairbanks for house
president. Before voting takes place, she steps up to the stage to present her house election
speech. Right before she starts to talk, the camera focuses on her startled expression, shifts to
view her hand brush the back of her neck, and then moves to view her grab and fidget with her
hands. Since the creation of an image through a camera lens always involves some degree of
subjective choice through selection, framing, and personalization (Sturken and Cartwright 16),
Simien had a purpose behind the construction of the scene, in this case to strengthen his films
theme regarding racism. His goal was to highlight her physical discomfort, which sheds light into
her deeper, internal struggle. Being half white, Sam overcompensates through black activism.
Her black militant persona conveys the difficulty to be a mixed-race student in a world with clear
cut stereotypes. Later on in the film, Sam is with her friends eating lunch in the ArmstrongParker House. Kurt Fletcher and she get into an argument concerning black treatment, and as the
new head of the house, Sam demands him to leave. She feels the need to assert her authority and
stress her black activism in this scene and evidently throughout the whole film. Sam believes she
has to lean on one extreme, exposing the racial tension on campus, alluding to the racial
prejudice and discrimination nationwide. After Sam walks out on the rally, she goes to her
apartment to talk to her white boyfriend, Gabe. The camera shifts between the conversation
between her and Gabe, and Reggie with her other black friends pounding at the door. The wall
physically separates her black friends from her white boyfriend. The choice to show the clear
divide between black and white highlights Sams identity crisis. Society demands each individual
to choose a side, and each side receives its advantages and disadvantages. The divide between
races pictured in the scene prove that America still contains racial discrimination and issues.

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Similar to Sam, the audience immediately recognizes Lionel Higgins challenge to find
his true identity at the university. Unlike Sam, Lionel is not biracial and he is not heterosexual.
Lionel Higgins hopelessly tries to find a niche as a gay, black student, emphasizing the difficulty
to be minority in American society today. Not liking Garmin House, Lionel goes to talk to Dean
Fairbanks to switch residential halls. As Dean Fairbanks relates the university to jazz and says
Your problem is that you got no instrument, the camera moves to a poster which states,
Winchester University with Where You Belong! directly underneath it. The conversation
between Lionel and Dean Fairbanks directly contradicts the poster. By directing the camera to
the poster, to juxtapose Lionels conversation, the director conveys the purpose of his film, to
stress the trouble for minorities. The director strategically chose to include this camera
movement because prolonged pans and tilts encourage viewers to engage with visual images on
both a cognitive and emotional level (Lancioni 110). The audience is able to reflect and be
empathetic towards Lionel because whether it is high school or college, everyone experiences the
desire to feel included. The use of rhetoric stresses the concept that being black at the university
makes it that much more harder to establish his identity. The audience, as part of the majority,
cannot imagine the true pain for a black, homosexual male. The poster also jabs at universities,
since the poster preaches acceptance and community, but in reality the university is fragmented
into exclusive cliques. The choice to pan the camera during the conversation underlines one of
the directors messages, which is that minorities still fight for equality today. Further on in the
film, Lionel makes progress finding his niche, and decides to work on an article for the school
paper. As Lionel continues to work on his story, he walks into the editors office. Lionel smiles

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and says Negro at the door didnt scare you this time, and the girl responds with Lionel please,
you are only technically black. Simien included this comment because he knew the audience
would react to the provocative statement. He includes the conversation to trigger thought,
targeting his white audience since the preconception of a threatening black person will mostly
likely be held by them. The comment emphasizes the fact that Lionel is not black enough to be
included in the black union, but at the same time he is not white. The director intensifies the fact
that Lionel truly does not fit into a category, he stands in the middle with no one to relate to as an
outcast. Emphasizing his challenge to identify with a group, Simien continues to prove that
America still has racial issues due to all the discriminatory assumptions, evident in his college
setting.
Compared to the dynamic characters Sam and Lionel, Simien presents Coco Connor as a
static black character in his film, constantly struggling to deny her black heritage, conveying the
challenge to assimilate into a predominantly white community. To feel accepted at the Ivy
League institution and receive the same privileges, Coco desperately tries to act like an
upperclass white student. The audience is first introduced to Coco during her conversation with
Helmut West, a reality tv producer. Immediately, a banner appears with her name and
Colandrea is crossed out and replaced with Coco. Including the crossed out name is symbolic
of her identity struggle. Deciding to change her name, she is distancing herself from her ghetto
Chicago roots. One could argue that she merely changed Colandrea to a more convenient short
name, but if that was the true reason, the caption would have read Colandrea Coco Connors.
Instead, her real name is crossed out, implying a deeper meaning. The director, Justin Simien,
strategically planned the captions structure, because according to Herrick, Rhetors address

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audiences with goals in mind, and the planning and adaptation processes that mark rhetoric are
governed by the desire to achieve these goals (10). Simien knows that the audience will
consider Colandrea a black name, so crossing it out gives the audience the connotation that she
is literally scratching her ghetto past out. Her effort to conform to the white majority conveys the
racial inequality still present today. Later on in the movie, Coco is eating lunch in the ArmstrongParker House, a house made up of minorities. Black students are complaining about their
professors constantly mistaking each other for other black students, and Coco chimes in and says
but I dont see what the point is with blaming white folks for everything. She does not want to
put white people at fault because she longs to be one of them. She finds it easier to disregard her
heritage and shape her identity to match the majority. While eating in the Armstrong-Parker
House, Coco is the only black student wearing white. All the other black students are wearing
darker, earth-toned clothes. The white top singles her out, further emphasizing her desire to fit in
with the white atmosphere. The dominant white culture prevents Coco from receiving the same
privileges and staying true to herself, proving that America still struggles to provide minorities
with equality. Overall, Cocos continuous challenge to reject her black background depicts the
societal issue in America concerning minorities equality.
In addition to the static character Coco, another black student, Troy Fairbanks,
consistently has the same outlook on his personal identity and ideals of success. Troy conforms
to his dads expectations to fit into the white atmosphere, confirming the prevalence of racial
prejudice on college campuses and throughout the country. Although Troy truly wants to be a
comedian, his dad insists he becomes a lawyer, a highly regarded occupation, to defy the black
stereotype. When Troy steps out of the bathroom to get ready for Game Night with Kurt

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Fletcher and his magazine staff, Simien manipulates the camera angle. While Sophia and Troy
are talking, the camera is pointing up towards Troy, while pointing down towards Sophie. The
camera angle is meaningful because speakers and writers make decisions about arrangement to
achieve clarity and persuasiveness in their messages (Herrick 14). Simien understands that
looking up or looking down has the well known connotation of superiority versus inferiority.
Troy is perceived as the higher individual, Sophia is depicted as a dependent, needy girlfriend.
The power and feelings do not reciprocate, implied from the unbalanced camera angle. The
dynamic between the two reveals that Troy is dating Sophia to please his father, not just for his
pleasure, considering how uncomfortable he looks during the scene. He is dating a white girl
because his dad wants him to assimilate into the white culture, reflecting the fact that whether it
be relationships, major, or interests, Troy has to prove that he can be just as qualified or even
more qualified than a white man. The attitude Dean Fairbanks and his son have towards their
image reveals the racial discrimination blacks continue to overcome today. With his dads
pressure on him, Troy escapes the his control when he goes to the bathroom to smoke weed and
write jokes. Every time Troy is in the bathroom, he is surrounded by white walls, tile, and
shower curtain. He is enclosed in a small white space, symbolizing his fathers expectations and
aspirations for him. The bathroom represents his small amount of freedom, as opposed to having
the free will to smoke outside in public. Troy conceals his true desires to be a comedian,
knowing it will disappoint his father. His fathers obsession with his image is only a result of
prejudice and societys hasty, general assumptions concerning race. At the end of the film, Troy
is at the bottom of the stairs with Coco, similar to the beginning when he was with Sophia. Coco
tries to show affection, but Troy brushes her off and says Look my dad saw your videos and he

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is just a little worried about . . . Then Coco immediately snaps back with About how it will
look, with your campaign and all? This ending scene stresses Troys static character and how his
dad still controls him. Troy is brainwashed and all his concerns revolve around his image, doing
everything he can to defy the stereotypical black student. Dean Fairbanks fears Cocos
provocative videos will be associated with his son, considering they comment on black
stereotypes, exactly what he tries to evade. Without any further information about his dating
restraints, Troy willingly accepts his fathers orders without question. The Fairbanks obsession
with the worlds perception of them emphasizes the existing racial presumptions. America still
has racial issues today and Simien specifically incorporates racial prejudice and discrimination
into his film.
As the satire of the Obama age, Dear White People emphasizes the complications of
black identity on a fictional college campus to prove that America still has racial issues. The film
is filled with intentionally provocative statements aimed at racism and sheds light on the black
experience for a variety of black students. Although the movie elicits many laughs, it is revealed
to be a more serious film. Simien uses his film to explore relevant issues and to cause his
audience to consider racial equality today. Considerably, the black-themed Halloween party is
not as far fetched as one may think. In 2001, a frat in Auburn University had a blackface party,
considerably one of the most offensive ones, including white hooded Klansmen and even white
students with a black painted face and noose around their necks. More recently, students at an
Ivy League school, Dartmouth, had a Bloods and Crips party in 2013. With well-educated
students perpetuating stereotypes, Americans cannot ignore the continual racial tension within

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the country. From subtle to overt racism, viewers realize that America still needs to make
progress on racial issues.

Works Cited

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Herrick, James. "An Overview of Rhetoric." The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Allyn
& Bacon, 2001. 1-30. Print.
Lancioni, Judith. "The Rhetoric of The Frame: Revisioning Archival Photographs in The Civil
War." 60th ed. Western Journal of Communication, 1996. 105-116. Print.
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.
Oxford UP, 2001. 16. Print.