Dear white people… we hope you don’t take offense, but the very conversations surrounding the announcement of the anticipated Netflix series proves that the show is very much needed—at least that’s what Tessa Thompson believes.
“I think in this current political climate, more than ever, we have to be open to engaging in dialogue and, with clarity in mind, acknowledging where we’re at as a country. Humor helps us do that,” said Thompson to TMZ earlier this week.
Undoubtedly, a succession of protests surrounding the marginalized communities of people of color, immigrants, Muslims and women, among many more, have revealed a discriminatory attitude that a lot of us believed to be non-existent in our country by this point. While it is important to stay focused and up-to-date on the issues at hand, considering the current conditions of our nation, our attitude throughout these situations are just as important. If we constantly feel that our communities are on the losing end of an argument, our attitude tends to reflect a defeatist mood.
Author, Mary Engelbreit, once said, “If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” And like Thompson offered, this is where “humor helps us do that.”
Dear White People is a break from the “facts and common sense” that haven’t quite seemed to knock as much “woke” into us regarding these issues as we thought. It’s a story that blends hard truth with humor, to lighten the mood and offer a different perspective to the reality of our nation and world around us. And as the phenomenon states: if you can’t see that, then maybe you’re part of the problem.
Take Thompson’s advice and check out the film she starred in, first, to understand the concept of the show and its satire—instead of allowing “three benign words send [you] into a fight for [your] very existence.”
