Tips For Avoiding Racial Missteps From The Makers Of 'Dear White People'

By now, most indie film fans have heard of Dear White People, the much-hyped debut feature from Justin Simien. It's out in wide release in theaters today. The movie, which garnered a lot of buzz on the festival circuit, is styled as a satire about being black and navigating life at a fictional, elite liberal arts college.

Here's the trailer:

My Code Switch teammate and play-cousin Shereen Marisol Meraji went to a screening of the film at Harvard, where it resonated with the audience, largely made up of black college students.

A few weeks back, other members of the Code Switch team went to see a screening of it. None of us really dug it too tough. More on that in a later post. But we have been enjoying the ads and fake PSAs that have been rolling out to promote the new film.

Here are a few of the best. Our favorite, on "racism insurance," contains some naughty language, so we can't embed it here on the blog. Feel free to click through, though.

Here's the "diversity" promo for the fictional Winchester University:

How to pretend you actually watched Scandal last night:

Fried chicken facts!

Don't paint yourself into this corner!

Some fun stats about welfare!

To me, many of the conversations about the movie have been more interesting than the film itself. Have you seen it? If so, let's chop it up in the comments below.