Perhaps it was being mistaken for the one other Black guy in my office by a colleague who had worked with him for years... Or perhaps it was being asked repeatedly by co-workers to teach them the Single Ladies Dance? Either way something provoked me to go on Twitter as @DearWhitePeople two years ago and start tweeting things like:
"Dear White People. The single ladies dance is dead. Please turn off your web cams and go on about your lives."
Meant to articulate the sometimes funny, mostly harmless, but occasionally painful experience of being a Black face in a vastly white place (i.e. most Hollywood work environments) @DearWhitePeople also served an ulterior motive of mine.
I'd been working for some time on a satire about race identity. The feature script for Dear White People follows the events leading up to a race riot a prestigious predominately white university through the perspectives of four very different Black students. While the script was culled from my
own college experiences and those of others I knew, I wanted to test out the voice of my lead character, Sam White, whose radio show "Dear White People" gives the film its title.
Sam, a kind of amalgamation of Dap from School Daze and iconic activist Angela Davis had a lot to say and I wanted to know what resonated with people.
As I charged through several drafts of the script, feedback from the twitter account would make its way into the project. Tweets that asked how I would feel if there was a "Dear Black People" prompted responses such as:
"Dear White People, there's no need for a Dear Black People. Reality
shows on VH1 and Bravo let us know exactly how you feel about us."
It's a line that survived all the way into the current draft of the feature script as well as the concept trailer we released on Wednesday to raise Pre Production funds. With 80K views, $10K raised, and a flurry of comments generated within just a 24 hour period it would seem that this line and few
others have struck a nerve!
There are some defensive knee jerk reactions to the phrase "Dear White People" and I get it. No one wants to be called racist, and some folks are still waking up from the fantasy that having a Black president means America has somehow become "Post-Racial." (By the way, if the "birther movement" and the tragedy involving Trayvon Martin hasn't sobered you up yet, just check out the Youtube comments section for the Dear White People trailer).
The truth is, my film really isn't about "white racism" or racism at all. As I see it racism is systemic and is inherently reflected in any honest story about life as a minority in this country. What my film is about however is identity. It's about the difference between how the mass culture responds to a person because of their race and who they understand themselves to truly be.
I'm a tall, occasionally funny, and perhaps baby-faced Black man. There is a distinct difference between my interactions with someone whose closest cultural cue to what I am is Will Smith (if I'm lucky) and those with someone who's last impression of a Black person involved watching an episode of Cops or even worse Maury Povich.
These impressions easily turn into the way I'm treated, the level of respect I'm given, expectations placed on me and in some cases opportunities denied. (I could expound, but that's probably better served in a different post. Or better yet just read the brilliant "Who's Afraid of Post-Black America"
by Touré).
Culture is ubiquitous. From the time a person is born, television, movies, cliques in school and Abercrombie and Fitch ads subtlety suggest to them on a subconscious level who they should and should not be due to their race, gender, looks and sexual orientation (just to name a few). Identity is a powerful concept. It can open up potential and it can severely limit it.
While there are countless cultural cues for white men in particular being constantly fed to the culture, being a minority with ambition often means being the only minority in the room. And sometimes in my case patiently explaining that while I am a filmmaker who happens to be Black I have absolutely no desire to be the "next Tyler Perry."
With the continued support for Dear White People, I sincerely hope to feed at least one more complex and nuanced story to the culture. And while I am truly humbled and overwhelmed by support for the project we've got a long way to go. Hit me up Hollywood! Check out the trailer below:
Follow Justin Simien on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DearWhitePeople
Have any of you noticed this quote? This man has outright insulted minorities and it seems to have gone over everyone's heads.
white people: One black friend doesn’t mean you’re not racist.” To me, the same thing applies to light-skinned privilege. One dark-skinned friend doesn’t mean you’re not internalizing white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchal color standards."
The issues around color are central to dealing with race; light-skinned African-Americans are often spared some of the worst excesses of racism. But they can be particularly hurtful perpetrators of racism, because while one can brace oneself for a racist onslaught when heading downtown or to the suburbs, it's harder when the racist comments are coming from a close relative. Of course, they don't get a full pass from racism, and being light-skinned carries its own share of hurt. But to make a movie about racism requires delving into intra-racial color issues.
I'm also really excited for this. It looks great.
By “power” I mean, while black people can believe they are better than white people (or any other group, but since black/white relations are the point of “Dear White People” that’s what I’m going with) after they step away from their computers their words don’t have any impact. North American culture doesn’t support this belief. The justice/legal/education systems, entertainment industry, and the media say the exact opposite. As for arguments that racism has something to do with the economy…I’m not really sure what that argument would be. Maybe they’re talking about socioeconomic status. In which case they’d be right.
Which is why when some white people start complaining that Canada/the United States is “becoming racist against whites” they’re actually complaining about their waning privilege. At a systemic level it’s not possible for either country to be racist against whites.
I hope that made sense. I think we can agree that racists, no matter where they direct their hatred, are ridiculous.
Sometimes the truth is ugly, but no matter what it will set you free.
Unfortunately, people of color are not given the freedom to see themselves in such individualistic terms. Socially, they are taught that they are the other and that there are norms that must be undertaken in order to survive. Basically "culture". The entire premise of this movie (if you read the article) is not about waving blackness in white people's face, or truly turning poor individual you into a monolithic group. It's a discussion on identity and culture and how blacks are confronted with it when in an environment where they are severely othered. Unfortunately, since the default is white, in order to bring the conversation to surface, it must take place in a background where there is shared identity while being outcasted.
Clearly, this team is creating stories based on their own lives. While it is satire, there is truth of life experiences for the shared group in this script. If it's a problem because this topic KEEPS coming up, maybe it's because the same experiences keep happening. Ignoring things does nothing to change the situation, just like ignoring a chronic headache does not make it go away.
Most humor that changes us is edgy, prickly and can be a blunt force trauma to the pysche. It's meant to be. I don't mind having a comedian smack me around with my flaws as long as everyone realizes its a free for all. If you pick up a flaw and wield it towards someone's head get ready to get smacked back.
We're a flawed species, face it. It's reality. We get it right alot of the time but that's not what gets air time or sells commercial time but it's happening.
I couple of years ago I introduced my now Jewish wife to some aunts and uncles at a wedding and one aunt said, "...thats funny we used to call him a Jew because he's so miserly.." (I'm not Jewish) She didn't mean any harm and didn't realize her statement was offensive and racist. I can only imagine what she says to non family lol. Oh well can't pick family. My wife laughed at that comment more than any other.
Everyone takes themselves too seriously today. Nobody is perfect and people who try to be are wasting their energy. The disc isn't programmed to be perfect. It's the flaws that give it depth.
Humans generalize and stereotype by natural design. To stop mentally profiling everyone with a 10 second movie clip in your head you'd have to have a life that was much slower. Who's life is slow ? Cell phones, lap tops, voice activated cars etc...its all speeding up faster and faster. When you walk past a parking lot to shop you see a few people your mind makes a snap shot and fills in the blanks later with what little information is available. You don't stop your life and question people, you don't have time.
Generalized behavioral norms form patterns from the millions of glimpses everyone snaps every second of the day and THOSE are what we build in stereotypes. Stereotypes change as people and society change. Its a slow process because Humans are moving too fast or surrounded by homogenic ethnicity.
There is no need or use for righteous indignation in 2012. The majority of people are trying to overcome their dna and milliions of years of genetics to accept people different from themselves. Society is shifting into the right direction. So condescention is just annoying.
Have you been on Facebook lately? The Social Media Revolution has turned our whole country out with the Hip Hop culture. Mass culture has evolved to be more of a "shade of green" issue than shades of black/brown/white in this era of unemployment, decline of the middle class and the Foreclosure of the American Dream!
BROKEISM is the new RACISM!
DEAR MR SIMIEN: BROKEISM IS THE NEW RACISM - Now turn off your webcam til you figure out the real problem in America as taboo about race is dead!
I don't know what world you live in but mine is rich with the mixture of culture.I was raised by my illegal then legal Mexican step-father in a multi-cultural neighborhood including Blacks, Asians, Hispanics with a few of us White folks sprinkled in. I wake up to a smiling handsome Black face on the pillow next to mine every day and enjoy sharing and caring for our 3 beautiful mixed race children. I know how to Dougie y tambien la Cumbia. I love some great Gumbo as much as I love tamales and chicken fried rice. We are a nation of mixtures, some spicy, some gritty and some downright bland. Where the author found the white folks reflected in this story must be from another world because mine is full of love, life, color and music that transcends race and separation.
You are not living in their world but to a degree it does exist.
They exist and they won't like you either. But we will love and embrace you.
I ride the metro system here in Washington D.C. and I feel somewhat on guard when a group of loud, black high schoolers get on the train. It's so very sad, both ways.
Usually I just revel in it though. Life is too short to do what people expect of you.
language. Thank you for replying to my post before they censored it. I'm a middle aged 55 white man from Seattle and I swear, I never met or went to school with a black person until I was in my late teens. People forget how few were here in Seattle and the NW 50+ years ago.