Torn on "Dear White People"
I started Dear White People with a skepticism towards their intent. I thought the name of the show was an indication that it would be another example of media exploiting identity politics. I began watching with that expectation and held that perspective for quite a while afterwards.
The characters and story itself immediately engaged me. I was compelled by virtually every person and their experiences. The students of Armstrong-Parker are unique, passionate, ambitious and intelligent. As a natural result of this perspective it was easy for me to want to entertain their ideas and arguments.
This experience was at odds with another: The students extended very little thought and charity towards any opposing ideas or experiences of people outside of their ideology and social group. I felt uneasy that these characters who I liked and respected were making so many failures in upholding their intellectual integrity.
After a long period of confused enjoyment I realized that my issue was a false assumption. My initial expectation felt like it was being reinforce continuously so I never thought to reconsider the shows intent. After some reflection I think the actual intent is demonstrating the deeper problems of identity politics through the “good” characters exhibiting real human flaws. The racial issues are, of course, important and I’m glad to have engaged them but the true value is in the subtleties of how people interact with each other on these issues.
At some point I hesitantly searched "Is Dear White People Satire?".
In an interview with the creator I found that the version of the show prior to the Netflix series was a presented as satire and poked fun at the white supporters of the cause. During the same interview the creator is questioned on this and explains that the Netflix adaptation has satirical elements but is more nuanced.
Satire by itself has nuances so I can understand why he's straying away for the term. It's difficult to entertain ideas that makes you feel offended, the problem I see the show trying to highlight and remedy, so a word like 'satire' is too likely to make one group or the other feel like the butt of a joke and thus unreceptive to letting their guard down enough to be open to ideas.
I really enjoyed both seasons of the show. I wish there were more shows like this, where it shows an issue or subject from the perspective of multiple characters.
The only real problem I had with the show was that I couldn't get enough Lionel. He was just too cute.