Dear White People is an American comedy-drama television series on Netflix that follows the lives of several black students at Winchester University. Winchester University is a predominately white Ivy League college that holds many white and black-empowering student organizations on campus. The first scene in the series is the starting point for the political activism lead by the black students at Winchester University. We start off seeing a blackface themed party supposedly held by the white males running Pastiche, the white-run satire magazine publication on campus. This resulted in a cry of outrage from the black students as this party was seen as a sign of disrespect from the ignorant white students on campus because blackface was and still is used as an African American stereotype to represent a caricature of a black person. "Beginning in the early 19th century, white performers darkened their faces with burnt cork, painted grotesquely exaggerated white mouths over their own, donned woolly black wigs and took the stage to entertain society" (Green).

However, we later find out Sam White, head activist and speaker for the Black Student Union (BSU), was the one that sent out the invitation for the blackface party "to bring out their racism." In legal terms, this could be seen as a form of entrapment. The students of BSU, specifically Sam White, found a way to play victim and scream racism at the students who attended a party that BSU themselves sent out invitations for. This particular form of self-inflicted racism will be the concept behind many of the arguments explained throughout this paper.

Throughout Dear White People the African American students at Winchester face racial discrimination from their peers, professors and faculty. At times it can be quite overwhelming to see how true this series is to the real world. However, most of the accusations made against the white students, specifically the men running Pastiche, could be considered self-inflicted and a ploy to "play victim." The series Dear White People in my opinion was used as propaganda to strengthen the "Black Lives Matter" movement and to broadcast the systematic discrimination African Americans face in our country today.

On the contrary, what I was able to learn from watching the series is that racism will continue to exist and will continue to have a strong presence in our everyday lives if we do not take steps to eradicate self-segregation amongst all races. Though the concept reverse racism is highly controversial and is argued to not exist, we continue to see the white students on campus generalized as "uneducated and unaware of their white privilege." This form of stereotyping on the white students at Winchester is synonymous to the form stereotyping the black students are fighting against within their own cultural identity such as being violent or using drugs.

Cultural identity in cinematic representation has been a controversial topic in present time due to it either by overly-expressed to the point where television series are being accused of being "too white", "too black or "too brown" or relaying false information about a certain culture to its impressionable audience members. Stuart Hall states "our cultural identities reflect the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us, as 'one people', with stable, unchanging and continuous frames of reference and meaning, beneath the shifting division and vicissitudes of our actual history." This statement alone speaks volumes behind the notions presented to us audience members while viewing Dear White People. Our cultural identity is based on historical events that occurred long before we were born. Is it fair to hold White Americans accountable for their ancestor's actions against African Americans? Would it be fair for me to dislike all Pakistani's because their grandparents were the reason millions of Bangladeshi's were raped and killed? History is changing day by day and instead of acknowledging it we stay stuck on events that occurred decades ago and in the process intensify the self-segregation between races.

Self-segregation is defined as separation of a religious or ethnic group from the rest of society in a state by the group itself. It is a form of social exclusion. We create a divide between races when we create rules on what race can wear this, what race can say this and what race can do this. In episode "Chapter V" of Dear White People, we see Reggie explain to his friend Addison why he felt uncomfortable hearing him sing along to a rap where the artist says the word "nigga." We later see Reggie begin to repeatedly say "nigga" in a way to mock Addison for not being able to say it. Addison then creates a scene because he felt as if he had to defend his actions and announce that he was not racist. But why should Addison have to do that?

The term "nigga" stems from a derogatory term that was used to demean and devalue the lives of African Americans in a time of slavery. One would assume that no one, no matter what race, should say "nigga" in a casual or profession setting. However, we seem to believe that African Americans are allowed to use the term "nigga" but no other races are. The term that "nigga" stems from is even described as "a term [that] is strongly racially offensive when used by a white person in reference to a black person" by the Oxford English Dictionary. But is it not strongly racially offensive when any person uses it to describe a black person? By creating this norm of who can say "nigga" and who can't say "nigga" we begin to create this divide and a way to scream racism when we see someone do something we believe that only we can do.

This concept can also relate to the episode "Indians on TV" in the television series Master of None when Dev Shah was asked to perform a scene, where he was portrayed as a cab driver, in an Indian accent. Instead of conforming to the racial stereotype commonly found among South Asian Americans he fought the director against it claiming it to be "kind of racist." Dev Shah saw something that us as regular audience members fail to see. That we ourselves are fueling the discrimination against our own race by our actions. We fail to see that African Americans saying "nigga" is racist or that South Asians faking an Indian accent is racist. Us claiming that our actions are justified because of our skin color and that someone else of a different race performing that same action is racist is self-inflicted racism and intensifying self-segregation.

Keeping the topic in the realm of self-segregation, there were many instances within the series where the students in the Black Student Union were unwelcoming to those who were not black; even to those who were not "black enough." There is one scene in particular that stood out to me. Gabe Mitchell, a white male who attended Winchester, was fully aware of the discrimination the black students on campus faced everyday and just so happened to be dating Sam White, the lead activist for the Black Student Union. Gabe was adamant on making his presence known at BSU to show that not all white people were racist and unsympathetic. Yet his presence angered some of the members, specifically Reggie. There was one instance where Gabe was trying to sympathize with the BSU members after the blackface party took place. Instead of acknowledging his attempt to understand what the black students were going through, Reggie began to accuse Gabe of only being at the meeting because he "had a black girl on his arm." At this point, Gabe makes an effort to introduce himself in which Reggie's only response was "why are you even here" as he starts to get up from his chair with a gaze in his eyes. Gabe who became uncomfortable at this point responds to his gesture with "what are you going to do, hit me?" Now some may scream racism, that of course he assumed the angry black man was going to hit him; the violent and angry black man/woman is a prime example of an African American stereotype. But can we blame Gabe for believing that Reggie may hit him? His change in tone, body posture and the look in his eyes that some may call the "gaze." Bell Hooks states it best saying "the 'gaze' has always been political in my life. Imagine the terror felt by the child who has come to understand through repeated punishments that one's gaze can be dangerous."

Indeed, it may have been wrong or "racist" to assume Reggie was going to hit Gabe because of a slight disagreement but let us not forget what initiated this argument. The idea of Gabe, a white man, actively defending and protesting against institutionalized racism was unheard of and unwelcomed by the black students at Winchester. The idea of their "oppressors" defending them was not apart of their agenda in accusing all white students at Winchester for being ignorant and unknowingly racist. Novara blatantly stated to her white readers that "if we are not part of any spaces that are racially and/or economically diverse, or in which our presence creates more diversity, then we are furthering segregation" The members of BSU actively try to segregate themselves from the white students at Winchester in order to validate their claims that "white people do not try to understand us" and that "white people oppress us." This act of self-segregation simply intensifies the self-inflicted racism the black students at Winchester endure.

Dear White People broadcasts the institutionalized racism towards African Americans in the United States in a humorous and unconventional manner. We see all "types of blacks," the gays, the straights, the half blacks, the jocks and the "I'm black but I want to be white" blacks. The overall purpose of the show Justin Simien was trying to convey to the audience members was that black people are just like white people, but with more melanin. However, what he also showed us was that we as people do tend to segregate ourselves with people who look like us.

Of course there are many factors involved in the institutionalized discrimination towards African Americans in the United States and self-segregation is only one. I do not personally believe eradicating this form of self-inflicted racism will end all racism in the world, but I do believe it could be one small step forward for the greater good. A recent study showed that "61% say the country needs to continue making changes to give blacks equal rights with whites, compared with 35% who say the country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites" (Smith). Only 12% of the population in the United States is African American, this statistic shows us that it is not only blacks that notice there needs to be a change in the racial inequality in this country, but almost all races do. The war against racism is not a he said-she said or a I am right and you are wrong. It is a battle that we as a country need to fight; because it is not the country that is causing the racial inequality, it is us.