Dear white people at “Dear White People”

It was heartening to see the racial diversity at the screening of the phenomenal new movie, “Dear White People,” at the Princeton Garden Theatre on Nov. 5. From my quick glance at the packed theater as students streamed out at the end of the movie, it seemed like people from a range of races had attended the showing. The crowd, moreover, was almost universally impressed with the quality of the movie, a sleek, savvy take on current issues of racism and racial oppression in the country. It was filled with nuanced characters and adroit takes on microaggressions, and had a noticeable and laudable lack of moralizing or preaching; it invited the viewers to draw their own conclusions from the artfully woven strands of plot loosely tied in a bow at the end.

However, I worry that some white people, members of an absurdly and unfairly privileged race, will view this movie as the final step in their conversion from racist to open-minded ally. I can only speak from my own personal experience with race-related issues, and that experience is admittedly incomplete, as I am only in the opening phases of a lifetime of confronting my thoughts on race. That said, “Dear White People” should not, under any circumstance, be the end of a short fight against racism out of which everyone emerges victorious. It might mark the beginning or continuation of some people’s race considerations, but it is absolutely not the final step. The fight against racism is a lifelong battle, and “Dear White People” might be a significant moment in that battle, but white people must never allow themselves to become complacent with their attitudes about oppression.

We are all racist to some extent. We are all conditioned by society to make prejudiced assumptions about people based on their gender, race, dress and other visual factors. An important clarification to make, though: racism in the “Dear White People” sense is not necessarily that everyone is of the opinion that people of color are fundamentally worse than whites, but that everyone makes assumptions based on the appearance of others and that everyone has misconceptions of people of color based on society-wide stereotypes. Saying you’re not affected by society’s racist influence is essentially equivalent to saying you are totally untainted by anything you’ve consumed visually or aurally. This can be as small as saying that a black person doesn’t act black — something a friend who attends Harvard has had to deal with on a far-too-regular basis — or calling an opinionated black woman sassy. However, as “Dear White People” points out eloquently, such miniature displays of racism are hurtful. The only way, then, to counter this innate racism is to confront it constantly. It’s a good idea to always check yourself as a member of a privileged class, and it’s worthwhile to realize what you think racial minorities experience and what those minorities actually experience might differ.

The movie does a good job in dealing with this, even though the everyday racism and microaggressions are shoved somewhat to the background. Although the white characters in the movie are admittedly caricatural to some extent, there are a lot of very minor, insensitive comments which contribute to the overall unfriendly environment the movie portrays quite well. These comments, unlike the blatantly racist, although unfortunately not unrealistic,party thrown near the movie’s climax, are things you or I might say without a second thought, and it’s worthwhile to consider how potentially hurtful our words can be. The movie’s exposé of these microaggressions is very valuable in confronting our own microaggressions. For example, I know I’ve said a black friend was acting white more than once, something I’m not proud of, but it’s important to understand where I’ve gone wrong so I can improve myself.

What’s important, though, is that by not providing a clear solution to fixing the racism inherent in our society, “Dear White People” heavily implies that we are to create our own unique solutions. To me, this is the crux of the movie: it’s a conversation-starter, not a conversation-ender. In general, people who are the target of largely unintentional microaggressions need to understand that many white people (including myself, until about three summers ago) simply haven’t talked extensively about these issues of race and therefore don’t understand how their language could be hurtful. Conversely, white people have to realize that to at least confront their own racism, they need to keep an open dialogue running with ourselves and with others. This leads to my biggest problem with the movie: despite its title, it doesn’t actually address this possible solution. It ends on an “everything is terrible” note instead of suggesting that white people can overcome these barriers by constantly checking themselves at every turn, suggesting that there’s nothing white people can do about their racial biases.

Still, I was thoroughly impressed with “Dear White People.” The important thing now, though, is that white people not let the opportunities the movie presented slip away. Confronting racism is a lifelong task, one of which we’ll never really be free, and it’s necessary to continue these discussions. Although each person can choose how to talk about societal norms and pressure, the important thing is that each and every one of us engages in the fight in the first place. “Dear White People” is a fantastic starting point to a thoughtful rejection of racism — let’s just not make it the end.

Will Rivitz is a freshman from Brookline, Mass. He can be reached at wrivitz@princeton.edu.