Dear White People is a satirical dramatic film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, written and directed by Justin Simien, inspired by his experience at college as an African American student.
He wrote the first draft in 2005 and made a movie trailer to promote the script, which earned major attention for the project. This attention led to crowd-sourced funding for the film through Indiegogo, exceeding the filmmaker’s original goal of $25,000 and reaching $40,000 instead.
The film focuses on four black students and their experience at a predominately white, Ivy League college, and is inspired by Simien’s own academic experiences. The Youtube account Dear White People has also made a series of funny videos dumbing down racist issues in a “the more you know” fashion.
Discrimination against black students is a reality that Justin Simien faced and chose as the focus of his film, and it’s an issue that’s obviously ongoing. In fact, I Too, Am Harvard is a campaign launched by African American students at Harvard earlier this year that tackles the exact same issue.
Check out the videos and their campaign, and be sure to check out Dear White People in theaters October 17th.
Images c/o Dear White People.
