After watching Dear White People I was surprised by how much the characters fought and hid the race of their parents. This idea that you were somehow not black enough if you were mixed was a strong these throughout the movie. This is seen in the dean’s son and in Sam. I have never understood the argument that having a white parent somehow makes you less black. I understand that it can make you light skin and have a bit more privilege, but it is a matter of how you identify. This relates to the common theme throughout the movie of not white enough for the white kids or black enough for the black kids. I think this is a problem that is faced by many mixed kids and society as a whole has not yet figured out how to address it.
Additionally, I was really intrigued by how the movie commented on sexuality. Lionel was also kind of isolated from the black community because he didn’t feel like his sexuality was accepted. I thought a really interesting scene was when he was sitting on the steps and watched a boy go from one group of mostly white people where his sleeves were rolled up in a more feminine style to unrolling and puffing out his shirt to look baggy with the other group. This short moment showed what he was going through and his internal debate to conform to the group or not.
It is interesting that you bring up the racial issues surrounding mixed black people. I think often we are not aware that there is separate racial discrimination that mixed people face that is entirely different than the whole black population. This is something I want to hear more testimonies about, and how it is like to not feel as if you aren’t “black” or “white” enough for a certain race. I feel like this is an issue not spoken about nearly enough.