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Tristan Connors

Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin

Writing and Rhetoric 13300

11 October 2015

The Un-ironic Importance of Racism in Dear White People

A problem which has seemed to be prevalent throughout many centuries has been racism

and the way some people treat others with a different skin color. It could be traced to ancient

civilizations, such as the Romans and Chinese, and is now a subject which sometimes causes

great controversy even today after the Civil Rights movement. Some people, though, live still

believing that the problems that racism causes have been solved, that it is not present anymore in

society. One movie which focuses on raising some awareness on the prevalence of racism (even

today) is Dear White People, which concentrates specifically on how racism is present on the

college campus. In the setting of a seemingly prosperous (Ivy-like) university, it draws from

some past experiences in terms of racism and almost compares them to some of the places one

can find racism in today. The movie Dear White People utilizes different rhetorical devices and

character development over the course of the story to show the prevalence of racism in the 21st

Century and to bring to light modern forms racism now takes.

An approach the director takes to convey his purpose (to show how racism is still

prevalent today) is through cinematography, specifically camera angle and visuals. One can

describe camera angle as the placement of the camera in a scene, what it is observing, and what

perspective it is inviting the audience to see through. One way in which the camera angle is used

to convey the prevalence of racism in the 21st Century is in the case of Lionel Higgins.

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Throughout the movie the camera’s position shows different groups of people, ranging from the

beginning when it shows the different majors and houses to the end, showing division between

President Fletcher and Dean Fairbanks (who now serve as metaphors for their respective races).

The first time the viewer sees Lionel, he is one person standing in front of a gigantic building,

which he is purposely locked out of. Right away the camera angle demonstrates the idea of a

very small black man (Lionel) against a very large majority (which could be metaphorically

interpreted as the people who still suffer from the consequences of racism against the large

majority of Americans who today believe that racism is no longer a problem). Right away it

conveys the presence of a very large, almost overwhelming problem. The next instance camera is

used effectively to this manner is in the scene introducing Colandrea “Coco” Conners, when she

is talking to Helmut West about her aspirations of being on reality television. The camera is set

up at the end of the table, looking in on the conversation as if the audience is part of the

discussion, but still separated from it. What’s even more interesting is the television in the

background which is playing one of Coco’s videos involving her critical opinions of the housing

situations in Winchester University, which she feels are heavily (and unfairly) based on race.

This television is literally the voice speaking out about the injustice that comes with racism.

What is even more interesting about the camera placement in this instance is the way in which it

shows the voice which is willing to speak out against this injustice getting almost snuffed out by

(Helmut’s) support for the stereotypical views of a person’s race, with the conversation between

Coco and the producer literally in front of the television in relation to the camera.

The scenes with Lionel in them are some prominent, particular examples of where

camera angle is used to convey a sense of racism as well. The first major scene involves Lionel

arriving for his first encounter with the writers/editors of the large school paper. The camera is

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positioned inside the room where the two writers are sitting, looking out at Lionel as he looks

uncomfortably in as the more experienced writers give him a surprised look, as if they were a

little unsettled to see him there. This perspective the camera takes with Lionel is done various

times to show how there is still tension between races in modern times. The next major instance

of this as it relates to Lionel is more interesting, though. The scene involves a group of Kurt’s

friends sitting at a table talking about the party that they will throw in the near future. What

makes this scene even more fascinating is the way the camera makes the scene slightly more

suspenseful, and definitely more symbolic. It uses a technique called the “moving frame,” which

is used as a way of adding both suspense and symbolism to the scene. Media scholar Judith

Lancioni describes a moving frame as being able to “expand the frame of the original

photograph, thus giving it symbolic importance far beyond the specific scene photographed.”

This slow moving frame also serves to “give viewers time to contemplate the image and to

question its significance. The more time viewers spend moving through the illusionary depths of

the image, the more significance that image takes on” (Lancioni 110). The technique described

by Lancioni is subtly used in this scene to convey the significance which stereotyping and racial

discrimination still hold today. In the movie, the camera is positioned inside Kurt’s group as they

contemplate what they will do in the future. In the background, though, there is a person sitting

by the window, alone. As the camera slowly begins to focus on this person, it is revealed to be

Lionel, the outcast. It conveys the sense of helplessness and insecurity which he has, always on

the outside looking in, seemingly never able to change people’s views of him (excluding the final

scenes of the movie involving Lionel taking charge of his life and leading people to destroy a

blackface party, and then proceeding to tell off the Dean Fairbanks afterward). The audience is

invited to feel sympathy for this poor, left out man who cannot find a way to fit into society in

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any way. This is also very metaphorical in meaning (which can be confirmed by Lancioni’s

statement that slow camera movement helps to add symbolism to a photograph or scene). Lionel

represents that group of misfits and outcasts in society today, and with the racial theme behind

the movie, it makes sense that this group of social “misfits” would be the people living under

racial discrimination. That means that this scene would again portray the minority classes being

ostracized by the white, wealthy class which holds control over much of the United States today

(as symbolized by Kurt and his group of friends).

Another way in which Dear White People conveyed the theme of the prevalence of

racism in the 21st Century was through visuals; that is, the movie shows this theme through the

use of color schemes and photographs/frames. The two most prominent examples of this in the

movie are in the beginning and end. The movie starts off with initial credits on top of very

colorful backgrounds, which switched between colors like red, yellow, blue, and green. Once this

opening sequence is over, though, the colors seem to disappear. Now, it shows the main

characters of the movie watching the television, but the backgrounds are either dark or light

(standing for their respective races; dark backgrounds were behind characters like Sam, Troy,

and Coco, while light backgrounds were behind Kurt and President Fletcher). Before any of the

characters had even interacted there was a sense of separation between racial groups. Then the

movie showed frames of some people, specifically people from the business school, the media

school, the house with all the sports people, Kurt’s house full of rather trashy-looking white men,

and lastly the house where the school puts most of the black people, Armstrong-Parker. It could

be argued that this sequence of framing the different groups is just an attempt to show separation

in general, that the director wouldn’t show stereotypes of the business and media schools if the

major theme of the movie was racial tension. Although the frames do show a sense of the overall

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separation of groups that occurs in college, they really serve as a way to magnify the racial

tension over all the other controversies within this specific campus, as the humorous cliques in

the frames are juxtaposed with the almost normal people in the last two frames (Kurt’s house and

Armstrong-Parker). The first few highlight some stereotypes that would be comical for a movie

to show, but the last two are not as amusing as they are unsettling, showing two very different

groups in the white people flipping off the camera to the black people giving this almost

intimidating stare at the audience. And from that point the movie begins to go more in depth

about the contrast between the last two groups of people, almost as if those two juxtaposed

frames were the thesis of the movie, while whatever came before was an introduction about

college, and the cliques and groups that form within it. Similarly, just as the movie ends, more

frames are showed, but this time they were of real blackface parties at some prestigious schools.

It is almost as if the director had taken his thesis about the separation of races that exists today on

college campuses and applied it to the world with very real, almost unnerving images which

inspire a disgusting recognition from the audience. The images are “dependent on the larger

cultural meaning they provoke and the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they are

viewed,” as mentioned by Sturken and Cartwright (25). These images convey the unsettling truth

that racism is still a problem today, and that there are plenty of ways it exists without many

people being aware that it does (especially on a renowned college such as Dartmouth, one of the

few in the images).

The other popular manner in which the director shows the prevalence of racism was

through character development (or lack thereof), specifically in the character of Coco Conners.

Right away Coco comes off as this extremely confident girl who knows where she wants to be

and is very aware of her identity, that she doesn’t associate with the stereotypes associated with

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black people. But then, right from her first encounter with Helmut West, her identity (as the

viewer sees it) begins to deteriorate to the point that she doesn’t really know who she is, and her

insecurity comes out. The “development” of this character shows the struggle for some people to

find their identity, but metaphorically Coco represents black people who had struggled fighting

for a place in society, especially in America. Just like her, they have gotten to the point where

they could get into elite colleges and universities, but now once again they see that there are

various stereotypes and forms of racism which must be fought in order to actually achieve a

place in college society that doesn’t involve the black stereotype. But this black stereotype has

already proven to rather lucrative in terms of both financial and social success. Sometimes it

could be easier just to be “the black guy” in a group. Sometimes it could be easier to bolster this

stereotype if it causes financial gain (like President Fletcher’s decision at the end of the movie to

let Helmut West recreate the “riot” which had gone on in the school. This makes it harder for any

person to develop a truly unique identity outside a stereotype, and to do so would require a

personal and social struggle for acceptance.

Throughout the plot of Dear White People, the director used various aspects of

moviemaking, from character development to camera angle, to show how modern racism is

present, especially on college campuses. Even more so, he shows that not many people are aware

of such problems which could affect the lives of many people if left unchecked. Due to that, he

brings to light these injustices which he feels must be solved, but he doesn’t necessarily present a

way to solve them. Showing people the overarching problems could inspire action from the

people, which could lead to change in the way that racism and stereotyping is dealt with on the

college campus. Maybe there is no direct way to solve this problem right now, but raising

awareness of it is the first step, which was masterfully taken by the director.

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Works Cited

Lancioni, Judith. “The Rhetoric of Frame” Revisional Archival Photographs in The Civil War.

Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and American Culture. SAGE Publications

Inc, 2008. Print.

Simien, Justin, dir. Dear White People. Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, Code Red. 2014. Film.

Sturken, Marita, and Cartwright, Lisa. “Image, Power, and Politics.” Practices of Looking: An

Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 25. Print.