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Michael Loiseau
Professor Erin McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric
12 October 2015
An Outlook on Preconceived Notions of Black Identity
The multi award winning and debut film, Dear White People, by Justin Simien is a fresh
take on the subject of black identity in 21st century America. Dear White People focuses on the
lives of four distinct black students that attend the fictional Ivy League institution, Winchester
University. Each of the four students has his or her own issues with their identity that is explored
more in-depth as their characters develop throughout the movie. Justin Simien uses his satirical
comedy, Dear White People, to shape the knowledge of his viewers on the subject of black
identity in post-racial America by using the key filming elements of mise-en-scene and
dialogue to support the character developments of the characters Lionel, Sam, Coco, and Troy.
From beginning to end of his film, Simien uses the filming element of mise-en-scene to
represent underlying messages of black identity in America. An important piece of mise-en-scene
to pay attention to in Dear White People, is hair. In the movie, hair symbolizes the meaning of
black identity differently in each of the characters. Although hair may seem like a trivial detail in
the characters, it is important that we dont overlook these details as we analyze film because as
Sheldon Sacks argued, In a satire every formal decision is ideally designed to sharpen the
ridicule on the object of the satire (as cited in Griffin, 1994, p.36). This means that everything
that Simien incorporated on the surface of the film, plays a larger role than we may have first
realized in the framework of the film as a whole. This is especially true in when discussing the
roles of the main characters which include Lionel, a black male student with a messy and

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unkempt afro, Sam, a female student portrayed as a radical leader who has somewhat of a
complex hairstyle, Coco, a black female student who always covers up her natural hair with wigs
or weave, and Troy, a black male student with a business professional haircut that remains
unchanged throughout the course of the film. Through these characters, Simien attempts to
disassociate the stereotypes of being black with the meaning of black identity.
From early on in the film, we could see that Lionel was no social butterfly. He was
introduced to us as a kid that is trying to find his place in college as a student with no intended
major or real group of friends. Lionel, stood out in terms of hairstyle and was even confronted
about the matter in script when a joke was made about him fostering an ecosystem in his afro.
He is somewhat lost in terms of his identity throughout the majority of the film which is seen
through his movement from one house to the next, his lack of friends, and his hair. His hair
symbolizes his missing identity because he is one of the only characters in the movie with an
unkempt hairstyle. The only other character with an unkempt hairstyle is an extra that is shown
near the beginning of the movie, and even he is portrayed as being a recluse because in the scene
where we see him, he is sitting in the foreground of the shot, by himself, on his computer.
Therefore, Lionel symbolizes the seclusion of blacks who are not socially accepted because of
their differences.
We can also see that Lionel hasnt always gotten along with other black kids through his
actions and words. While talking to Dean Fairbanks he says, Dean, the worst thing about high
school, and believe me its a long list, were the black kids. From this we can understand that he
is not too accustomed with black culture and that he doesnt take a liking to interactions with his
black peers. Immediately after his conversation with the dean, we see Lionel sitting on the stairs
outside the deans office where he daydreams of what it would be like to fit in with either the

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black or the white kids on campus. In this scene, when Lionel sees himself as being accepted into
a group, he has his hair cut, which shows viewers that he has found social acceptance and his
identity. This idea of hair being a key indicator of found identity is reinforced at the end of the
movie when Lionel gets a clean haircut and is seen as being an accepted member of the
Armstrong-Parker house which displays to viewers how black identity can be molded depending
on how someone perceives a situation.
In movie posters advertising the film, Sam can be seen with her hair up in a unique
fashion that resembles a very popular hairstyle of females in the mid 1900s. This type of hair
along with the vintage camera that she is seen holding in posters and throughout the movie, show
that she is very old fashioned in terms of attitude and appearance. These characteristics are
shown as her characters mindset seems to be stuck in the past when slavery, discrimination, and
racial prejudice were widely accepted throughout our nation. However, this is not the real Sam
White, which can be seen during Gabes interaction with Sam after she runs away from the rally
with the rally permits. The two, Gabe and Sam, proceed to get into a heated discussion about
who she really is because up to that point she seemed to just be putting on a performance to
entertain those that were rallying behind her message.
Sams struggle with black identity is not shown to viewers until the film nears
completion, although it is hinted at throughout the film. Although she is regarded as this radical
Malcolm X type of leader who isnt afraid to let her voice be heard, she seemed to be all talk and
no show during some potential climaxes of the film such as the rally that was supposed to be
held in support of removing the random housing assignment. By using strong language, and
oftentimes making references to slavery, through quotes such as, Whats wrong, is he afraid
letting the negros gather in groups might start a little rebellion on his plantation, viewers would

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not be wrong to suggest that Sam was indeed a passionate activist against racism. However, Sam
is revealed to be a mulatto during a conversation with Gabe, when he tells Sam that she does not
need to pick sides and he explicitly yells the word mulatto out loud several times. The camera
then flips to Reggie, an avid supporter of the radical movement, who is standing outside the door,
and he asks, Did someone say mulatto? This is used to draw significance to the fact that Sam is
biracial or of mixed descent because mulatto is a term used to define a person who is born from
one white parent and one black parent. At this moment it is explained to viewers why she had
trouble leading the movement to end the random housing assignment act. Simien uses Sams
character to generalize what it would be like to be a black kid of mixed descent in society today.
Although Sam is a mulatto, some may argue that she still has the potential to be the
revolutionary leader in the much heated racial disputes at Winchester University because of her
characters rhetoric. Rhetoric often plays a critical social role in making determinations about
what is true, right, or probable (Herick, p.21). Therefore, depending on how you interpret the
actions and speech of Sams character you may be more or less convinced that she may or may
not be unchanged at the end of the film. There are two possible angles of how her character could
be shown as being unchanged. The first angle would be that the situation with her dad being sick
exhausted her to the point where she simply needed to take a break from being the leader, or the
second angle where she decided to try interracial dating to create more disorder on campus.
Either view would be plausible since Sam was forced to cope with her father being ill for quite
some time and since she was labeled as an anarchist by Gabe. As an anarchist, Sam could have
been putting on a front at the end of the film to create more confusion and disorder between the
races at Winchester as the movie ended. However, this seems unlikely since she seemed content
with the idea of no longer living on campus so she could move into an off campus apartment.

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The use of blonde wigs, weave, and blue colored contacts as props immediately
distinguishes Coco from the other main characters in the movie. In terms of black identity, she
represents the assimilation to white culture in modern society. In the scene when she was talking
to the director of the reality television series, Helmut West, Coco claims that there is nothing
hood about her after a stereotypical remark about females from the south side of Chicago was
made. This is immediately followed by a look of disinterest shot at Coco from Helmut because
he wanted authenticity from her and if she claimed not to be hood she would not fit the criteria
that he was trying to meet. Helmut automatically assumed she was hood and was disappointed
to find out that she did not identify with that stereotype. Through this interaction, Simien
attempts to show how not all black people identify with some of the common stereotypes that
they are labeled with such as being hood.
Another character that tries not to live up to a typical black stereotype is Troy. However,
this is not completely his choice, but instead is due to the influence by his father, Dean
Fairbanks. Troy, is seen with the same haircut throughout the course of the film, but his hair is
unlike the other main characters because of its professional look. This look is directly influenced
by his father since his father always wants to keep him well presented. Therefore, his
professionalism in appearance and presentation also influences some of his actions. This
professional demeanor mixed with his bad habits, such as smoking weed, is why Troy in the film
represents the equilibrium between black and white culture. The dining hall scene where Troy
attempts to break up the altercation between Sam and Kurt is a well depicted scene in terms of
showing Troy as the median between black and white culture. He, in this situation, neither
dresses like the white students, nor the black students in the movie and he plays an unbiased role
in the altercation. Simiens use of the dean as a driving influence on the character of Troy shows

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how black stereotypes in individuals can be suppressed through ones upbringing and a sense of
authority.
In the scene where Dean Fairbanks and Troy have a private conversation to discuss the
matter of what exactly Troy is trying to do by breaking up with the presidents daughter and by
smoking pot, Dean Fairbanks states, You are not going to be what they all think you are. You
are not going to give them that satisfaction. Do you hear me! The influence of Troys father here
is blatantly obvious and shows viewers how half of his identity was formed. However, Troys
other half of his identity is almost the utter opposite of what his father expects from him. This
other half of his identity is shown between the flipping of scenes where Troy is putting on a show
for Kurt and his friends while Sam is proceeding to tell the members of the black student union
what an oofta is. An oofta, as described by Sam, is a jazz age term for bojangle types who
blacked it up for white audiences and who could modulate their blackness up or down depending
on the crowd and what he wanted from them. Although, naturally his ambitions drive him to act
in a such a way, his fathers presence will always restraint him to his falsified sense of identity.
Simiens attempt to show modern day black identity does not define a black person as a
set of stereotypes. Instead, it shows viewers that black identity is a term that is more than
flexible. Black identity for one individual does not have to have any relation to the meaning of
black identity for another individual in todays society as we could see from Simiens underlying
messages that were presented throughout the film. By developing characters that generally
displayed all different aspects of black identity, Simien displays how the concept of black
identity has changed in recent years and how we have matured, as a nation, out of a period of
ignorance.

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Works Cited
Dear White People. Dir. Justin Simien. Perf. Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Brandon
Bell, and Dennis Haybert. Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, 2014. Film
Griffin, Dustin. Satire: A Critical Reintroduction. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky,
1994. Print.
Herick, James. The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001.
Print.