Dear White People: Season 2/ Episode 1 “Chapter 1” [Season Premiere] – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)
Dear White People returns and Sam is struggling to get back into her groove, until some anonymous person takes things too far. Network Netflix Director(s) Justin Simien Writer(s) Justin Simien Air Date 5/4/2018 Actors Introduced Jamila Elle Lorraine Easy Listening: Sam After the protest, Troy’s arrest, and Davis dorm catching on fire, Sam has been…
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Dear White People returns and Sam is struggling to get back into her groove, until some anonymous person takes things too far.
| Network | ||
| Netflix | ||
| Director(s) | Justin Simien | |
| Writer(s) | Justin Simien | |
| Air Date | 5/4/2018 | |
| Actors Introduced | ||
| Jamila | Elle Lorraine | |
Easy Listening: Sam
After the protest, Troy’s arrest, and Davis dorm catching on fire, Sam has been a bit overwhelmed. Especially since she has received perhaps more backlash than she expected to. Thus putting Dear White People on hiatus and becoming an opera station – for the culture.
Commentary
One side of the wave of social activism we don’t see is when they are vulnerable, feel weak, tired, and honestly on the verge of saying “F it.” Which is a shame for it is in that vulnerability we saw in the likes of James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and more which made things seem like more than a job opportunity at times. For, take a look at Sam, her crusade for equality at her school began to take away from her actual schooling.
Now, don’t get me wrong, we need Sams in this world, but sometimes I think they suffer from the same cloak of anonymity at times when they don’t note their own burnout from fielding nonsense. Much less, take on causes they have no real strategy on but blind rage against. For, as the actress who plays Joelle said on The Breakfast Club, [tooltips keyword= ‘ ain’t no real point in a clapback ‘ content = ‘At least I think it was her’].
Water Me, Challenge Me: Joelle, Sam
With Davis hall catching fire, by means no one seems to know how or why, that means the former, unofficial, Black dorm has been integrated and a lot of students doubling up. Such as Sam and Joelle. Which is cool, to a point. I mean, Sam can’t masturbate in peace, to former sex session of Gabe, but Joelle is good people. She is a guiding force.
However, what Sam really needs is a challenge and she gets two. One academic, from Jamila, who pushes the idea all documentaries are bias, and then there is some ivy league alt right social media person. Now, with Jamila, who is chatting with Gabe, so you know that put a little heat on Sam’s heels, that forced Sam out of her funk a bit. Maybe brought her back into some kind of comfort zone because she didn’t have to argue with some white boy but instead debate a sister.
Well, at least she would have if she wasn’t self-conscious about doing so in class and didn’t spend her entire week going back and forth with a troll. One who she goes into overdrive on and I’m talking, maybe skipping classes and definitely skipping taking showers. To the point, Joelle has to drag her out of the room because she can’t let her girl end up a stereotype of a soldier who cares nothing about hygiene, just the battles ahead.
Commentary
Let’s take a second to talk about Joelle real quick, in the linked video above, there is a conversation about Joelle branching out and you see some shimmers of it. There is this idea her major isn’t Sam’s Mental and Emotional state at any given time. Which, from what we are seeing, seems to be a little all over the place. Especially considering how much she is going in on a random profile.
But, and I say this with some hesitation, based on Sam talking about likes she got, I can only figure that part of her activism deals with validation. For, as noted in the next topic, the thing which breaks Sam isn’t statistics or growing tired of back and forth, it is when her being interracial is brought up. And as can be seen in the real world, be it because the media pushes them forward or their communities, usually the ones who get to be prominent, especially in terms of women, are those who are interracial and/or light skinned.
Which isn’t to imply they are activist to find acceptance and a place within their community or compensating for their privileges. Yet, in a way, you have to wonder, taking note upbringing and experiences are an unquestionable factor, if what was noted is one too?
The Return of the Ankh: Sam, Joelle
Somewhere between Jamila waking Sam up and getting her to have a conversation, Joelle willing to be a co-host, listening to alt right peers talk, or the random profile bringing Sam’s parents into their back and forth, Dear White People is reborn. Now, as for how Joelle is going to fit into what usually was an impassionate monologue from Sam? Who knows. What is for sure though is that, alongside Gabe’s “Am I Racist?” getting traction, Sam isn’t going to mute, or lower the level, of her voice anymore.
It’s time for the return.
Commentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVA0T7-ceeQ
Based on the teaser, there is a lot to cover and it seems Joelle might not be the only one in the booth. Making you wonder, whether we won’t just see the radical Sam get her voice amplified but others as well. We see Kid Fury and Todrick Hall, so maybe Black gay men will get featured more? Perhaps Lionel won’t be sort of alone.
Though, you also have to wonder if things are going to stick to preaching to the choir? Not to mention, what the climax of the season is going to be? For the larger idea, I take, is not just showing different hues and sides to Blackness, with the exception of showing the disabled and heavyset people but can’t have it all… but also trying to figure out how the conversation ends. After a certain point, will it just be there can’t be reconciliation no matter how many facts or impassioned speeches are given? Or maybe, just maybe, while there remain differences of opinion, they at the very least are recognized and respected?
Gotta stay tuned to find out.
Collected Quote(s) & .Gifs
So the world isn’t acting the way you thought it would. But we don’t see things the way they are, we see them the way we are.
Highlights
- Sam showing the sometimes lonely, stressful, and tear-inducing side of activism.
- Joelle slowly showing she has a life outside of Sam and her drama.
- Sam learning that, with her platform, she needs to have more conversation than monologues featuring clapbacks.
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Previous Episode’s Recap
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