Dear White People

Dear White People follows four Black students at a predominantly white Ivy League college where racial tensions build around a satirical campus magazine and a Halloween party with an offensive theme. Samantha White hosts a radio show challenging the school's casual racism, while Lionel, a shy journalism student, becomes caught between communities. The conflict grows as the students navigate friendship, romance and questions of identity at an institution that presents itself as progressive.

Justin Simien wrote and directed the film, his first feature, ahead of Bad Hair and Haunted Mansion. Tessa Thompson leads a cast that includes Tyler James Williams, Teyonah Parris, Brandon P Bell and Kyle Gallner, among 32 credited performers. Effie Brown, Simien and Lena Waithe produced the film, which was made for about 1 million dollars and took roughly 5 million dollars worldwide, a solid return on a modest production.

Reception split along familiar lines. On IMDb it holds 6.1/10 from 27,000 votes and on TMDB 6.1/10 from 491 votes, while critics rated it 7.5/10 across 133 reviews, noticeably higher than general audiences. The film later inspired a television series of the same name.