History Film / DearWhitePeople

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Creator/TessaThompson's Sam White gets this reaction repeatedly and resents it. Gabe goes so far as to accuse her of playing up a "Tragic Mulatto" front. Sam herself identifies unambiguously as black, and does not once question, deny, or attempt to hide her own blackness. In fact she gets accused of overcompensating due to this.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Among the criticism towards white people that Sam makes on her radio show are touching her hair without asking, dating a black person to piss off your parents and... dancing.
%%* AuthorAvatar: Lionel and Sam for Justin Simien.

* BlackBestFriend: Troy attempts to become this for Kurt, but he's able to see through it.

* ButNotTooBlack: Coco invokes this for herself when joking that white girls' tans are getting darker than her own skin tone, "which...isn't ''that'' dark..."
* ButNotTooWhite: Sam does not once address [[spoiler:her white father]] until the end of the movie.

* DatingCatwoman: He's certainly no villain, but building racial tensions and Sam's very vocal position in them leads her to hide her relationship with Gabe, even antagonizing him in public.

* GhettoName: Coco's real name is Colandrea.

* IronicName: Sam ''White'' identifies strongly as being black.

* MalcolmXerox: Sam serves as a female version, though she mellows over the course of the film.

* {{Misblamed}}: Sam and the BSU voice their discontent with the American film industry's treatment of black characters, with Tyler Perry being named in particular as producing offensive movies. But rather than a producer or a writer, they complain to the poor man behind the ticket booth at a local movie theater.
* MissingMom: Troy's father plays a large role in the film, but his mother is unmentioned and never seen.
** In the series he reveals that she left when he was young.
* MistakenNationality: Reggie apparently mistook Sam for Puerto Rican at first.
* MixedAncestry: Sam, whose father is white, though she identifies only as black.

* StraightGay: Lionel is gay, though none of his mannerisms suggest this.

* PayEvilUntoEvil

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality

* KarmaHoudini: Kurt assaults Lionel in front of witnesses, but isn't expelled or prosecuted (the fact that [[{{Nepotism}} his father is the university president]] helps with the latter, but the former is left unexplained).

** Not so much as you might think. While Kurt has spent most of the movie as the [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racism-trolling Jerkass]] he doesn't turn violent until Lionel starts [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge trashing his house]]. At which point Lionel [[PlayedForLaughs sexually assaults Kurt]] but gets away with it because of [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Protagonist-Centered Morality.]]
** But the real Karma Houdini is [[spoiler:Sam]] who inflames racial tensions, orchestrates a racial incident that becomes a riot, and gains national renown for reporting on the incident she herself caused.

%%* BiggerBad: President Fletcher.

A Creator/{{Netflix}} series based on the film was released April 28th, 2017.

A Creator/{{Netflix}} series based on the film is currently in production.

* MissingMom: Troy's father plays a large role in the film, but his mother is unmentioned.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Creator/TessaThompson's Sam White gets this reaction repeatedly and resents it. Gabe goes so far as to accuse her of playing up a "Tragic Mulatto" front. Sam herself identifies unambiguously as black, and does not once question, deny, or attempt to hide her own blackness.

* ChekhovsSkill: Programming, or rather the aptitude at which the character can use it [[spoiler: Sam's friend Reggie boasts his skill of hacking early on during the BSU meeting, later Sam is called into the Dean of Students office to discuss a problem with the app that took the votes for the election, she won...but she kept winning]]
* ChessMotif: Invoked by Kurt, discussing his and Troy's fathers' long-running conflict.

* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Sofia is implied to be dating Troy for this reason. Unintentionally {{lampshaded}} by Sam almost immediately after the couple is introduced:

* FireForgedFriends: Lionel and [[spoiler: the Black Student Union, after he takes the reigns during Sam's [[HeroicBSOD brief departure]]]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: An early scene has the black homosexual Lionel sitting on the college campus observing two different groups: [[ScaryBlackMan tough-looking black guys]] and [[{{CampGay}} limp-wristed gay guys]], neither of whom he feels he identifies with. It more or less sums up exactly what the movie is about.
* FreudWasRight: InUniverse. Kurt brings up ‘Pastiche’s motto, metaphorically saying that comedy and criticism should not hold back and hit raw nerves: ‘Sharpen thy sword’. One of the members thinks it’s a euphemism for [[ADateWithRosiePalms something else]].

* ImportantHaircut: Sam and Lionel. Lionel finally cuts his hair down, signifying [[spoiler: his new found confidence in approaching the members of the BSU]], and Sam doesn't spend the bulk of her time trying to force an outward appearance of "blackness" and instead [[spoiler: prioritizes who she is over what everyone sees her for]].

* MissingMom: Troy's father plays a large role in the film, but his mother is absent.

* BatmanGambit: Sam, in the final act - After overhearing [[spoiler: the cancellation of the Blackface party]] Sam forces the invites out anyway, but that's all, banking on the members of Pastiche and their guests to do the rest.

* BatmanGambit:Sam, in the final act - After overhearing [[spoiler: the cancellation of the Blackface party]] Sam forces the invites out anyway, but that's all, banking on the members of Pastiche and their guests to do the rest.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: As noted in the AluminumChristmasTrees entry, BlackFace parties have occurred. Right before the credits roll, a montage shows numerous pictures of real life, white college students donning BlackFace as part of their costume.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: As noted in the AluminumChritsmasTrees entry, BlackFace parties have occurred. Right before the credits roll, a montage shows numerous pictures of real life, white college students donning BlackFace as part of their costume.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Sam is outstandingly racist, though she denies this, claiming that racism is a system of disadvantage based on race, thus black people can't be racist because they don't stand to benefit from being racist.

** Before Sam's radio show takes a hard swerve into EverythingIsRacist territory, it does bring up some pretty common complaints that plenty of real-life African Americans have had.

%%* EverythingIsRacist: Sam's defining characteristic for a majority of the film. At one point, she claims that ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' is [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation about white suburbanites being afraid of black people]].

* EverythingIsRacist: Sam's defining characteristic for a majority of the film. At one point, she claims that ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' is [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation about white suburbanites being afraid of black people]].

* BiggerBad: President Fletcher.

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Sam, in the final act - After overhearing the cancellation of the Blackface party Sam forces the invites out anyway, but that's all, banking on the members of Pastiche and their guests to do the rest.]]

* ImportantHaircut: [[spoiler: Sam and Lionel. Lionel finally cuts his hair down, signifying his new found confidence in approaching the members of the BSU, and Sam doesn't spend the bulk of her time trying to force an outward appearance of "blackness" and instead prioritizes who she is over what everyone sees her for.]]

* StylisticSuck: Sam's films. [[spoiler:At least, the first one.]]