DEAR WHITE PEOPLE REVIEW

By Alisa Narbutas

It’s safe to say, that I expected something different, as I cozied up to my cinema chair. I was expecting something light, something funny, something I have seen many times before – but it wasn’t. The film is telling the story of an Ivy League University based in Winchester, dealing with cultural and racial identity conflicts. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of comedic moments in the film but I couldn’t shake off the feeling, the film was secretly giving a lesson to all of us. I found myself giggling at some scenes but secretly thinking “oh am I allowed to laugh here, or may I seem discriminating to the black guy sitting next to me?”. Why is that thought still in our heads? At the end of the day, skin is just a colour, age is just a number, it has nothing to do what’s really going on inside of us. I definitely didn’t mind him laughing at cliché jokes about white folks.

Besides the message of the film, the cast was indeed well picked and included a lot of various characters we can relate to in real life or even in our own group of friends. Director Justin Simien managed to create a film that stays in our heads, which is a rare gift these days.