Dear White People: Season 1/ Episode 5 “Chapter V” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Reggie found the perfect woman for him but she belongs to someone else, a white guy, and that hurts his ego so much it clouds everything else.

She Went With A White Guy: Reggie [Marque Richardson], Joelle [Ashley Blaine Featherson], Sam

Reggie has been crushing on Sam for perhaps years at this point. He has been so giddy about her that, as seen in the past, he has made a fool of himself. Yet, she isn’t feeling him like that. It isn’t clear why but while they may be kindred spirits when it comes to being “Woke” and some form of activist, nothing clicked beyond that.

Which, with Sam dating Gabe, it hurts. He feels rejected, his ego is hurt, and he can’t find a replacement for Sam. Joelle seems maybe down to checking Reggie out, but it isn’t clear if either one is serious about that possibility. For while Joelle is work, she isn’t the same social justice warrior Sam is.

Commentary

On one hand, I’m glad Reggie isn’t calling Sam out of her name because she is dating a white man. Yet, on the other hand, considering his whole “I want dark and ashy babies” point of view now, could it be part of the reason he liked Sam so much was because she was light skinned? I mean, one thing you have to note with this show is not everything is going to be full on explored. The show is only 10 episodes. So you got to wonder if him pining after Sam but now talking about wanting a dark skinned chick is just a poke at how all these afro-centric and SJW types are slight hypocrites. You know, right? The ones who love their Black woman and have all this art of them with hourglass shapes, usually passing the paper bag test, and naked.

Don’t Say Nigga: Reggie

Despite what we have seen, Reggie does have white friends. Well, a white friend. His name is Addison [Nolan Gerard Funk] and he, even before Noelle and the rest, knew about Reggie’s tech genius. For example, Reggie has made an app, based off Sam’s most recent “Dear White People” rant that hashes out whether someone is woke or not.

However, problems arise when Addison decides to say, Nigga, while singing to a rap song. With that, Addison asks him not to say that in a polite way. Leading Addison to get defensive about not wanting to seem like a racist, feeling like he was called a racist, and this causes enough commotion for campus security to come out. With that, they go straight to Reggie asking if he is a student, if he has ID, and because they are campus cops they get no respect – until they pull a gun out. Thus causing a seriously traumatizing experience that Reggie can’t quickly get over and, to make things worse, Sam is the main one checking on whether he is okay.

Commentary

Setting aside Sam’s part in, well everyone’s damn story, Reggie’s real focus is the little things that turn into big things and how the Black person is likely to pay for it. Just telling a dude, someone you are friends with, to not say Nigga caused the type of commotion which Reggie not only got singled out for but nearly shot over. Of which the cop put the blame squarely on him for. And that is a common fear, I think, for a lot of Black parents. Bad enough if you are in a group of Black kids and the cops are around, but with white kids? You get deemed the trouble maker, even if your friends vouch for you, and you are the one who gets harassed. Then, thinking it perhaps isn’t as serious as it is, you may act out of pocket and there goes your life.

It’s scary, but Reggie’s story is true. Hell, in my life, my own mother was worried about me hanging with this white kid who often got into things and while my story doesn’t exactly mirror Reggie’s, there is one clear example of similar issue but different disciplinary action. In school, I hated gym. I wouldn’t change, would treat it as study hall, and was dumb enough to say to a teacher that I wish someone blew it up. I technically got expelled for that. A friend of mine brought a bullet to school, not a real one but something you’d find on a Hot Topic belt, and what happened was a school lockdown and now they have metal detectors. He never joined me in the alternative school.

So believe me when I say there isn’t much in the way of exaggeration here. Being singled out and receiving a harsher punishment is a real thing on a multitude of levels.

Collected Quote(s)

Sometimes being carefree and black is an act of revolution.