Dear White People – Volume 2: Chapter I

By starrymag | May 10, 2018

By: Malasha Parker

 

 

We begin with Sam (Logan Browning) pouring a mound of sugar onto her grits, which leads Joelle (Ashley Blaine Featherson), Reggie (Marque Richardson) and Al (Jemar Michael) to talk about how they like their grits. As they’re doing so Kelsey (Nia Jervier) walks by talking about the different cheeses that go with grits and Coco (Antoinette Robertson) walks by saying that, “Salty grits are trash.” Joelle says that sugar on grits is cream of wheat and Lionel (DeRon Horton) mentions that he loves it.

 

The narrator (Giancarlo Esposito) then points out that there is something different about the Armstrong-Parker residence hall. He goes into a storytime of showing the 1837 former slave quarters of Armstrong Hall and Parker house and showing the ethnic student’s dorms that were Irish and Italian until the 1920s. In 1965 Armstrong-Parker House became the place of choice for black students. It then shows a flashback of Troy Fairbanks (Brandon Bell) vandalizing Hancock Hall. As this is happening, news travels about the events and also the events of a fire at Davis House. It then flashes to and the recap of Martin Luther King’s reciting his “I Have A Dream” speech.

 

The Davis House residents are moving into Armstrong-Parker two weeks after the the fire. Joe and Sam are seen watching the newest residence move their things in and Sam un-approvingly grunts. Reggie tells Sam that he likes agave in his grits, and Sam has a flashback of when her father put sugar in her grits before her first day of school–  it’s the first time in a while that she has felt at home at Armstrong-Parker.

 

Sam and Joelle are in the studio trying decipher what topic to talk about on the next segment of “Dear White People.” Joelle suggests a “don’t touch my hair” quip, but Sam disagrees. Jo says that she should just say something instead of just “wallowing in existential melancholy.” Sam gets an alert from an account called @AltIvyW and many other accounts countering everything about her show. Walking through campus, Joelle asks Sam what’s going on — she receives no response. The two walk through Armstrong-Parker’s lobby and joke about the fact that everybody has on flip flops. Coco passes by and the three exchange hellos. Joelle and Sam pass by Lionel, Al and Rashid (Jeremy Tardy) while Al speculates who set the fire on campus. Lionel asks Al if he really thinks a bunch of rich donors conspired to set Davis House on fire just to integrate A-P. Al tells Sam that she should talk about it on her show, or just say anything at all. Sam says thanks for the feedback and walks off.

 

A guy asks why yoga is happening where their study group should be, but Joelle just says they can have it outside. She leaves and Sam goes to her room. We then see her and Gabe having sex, but Joelle interrupts it and they show that it is just a fantasy. Joelle walks in on Sam masterbating and tells her that it was an hour ago that she left for study group. Joelle asks Sam is she really okay because she’s been acting more strange than usual and if she’s is doing this because she doesn’t want to have sex without someone and face consequences of her actions. Joelle then presses her on if the reason she’s doing it is because of a “certain teacher’s assistant.” Sam asks if Joelle wants to go on a run to distract her from talking about it and eventually Joelle realizes that.

 

They go on their “run,” but only make it to get snacks out of the vending machine. While they’re sitting, Kelsey runs by and encourages them to run but without a response, she runs off. Reggie walks by and tries to ignore them, but he stops and asks them what they’re doing and then leaves. Sam voices that Reggie thinks she’s garbage, so Joelle asks her if that’s the reason she’s in the Sunken Place. Sam shows her the online messages. Sam voices how she was one of the three protest leaders, but she doesn’t know how to respond to any of it. Joele says she started a conversation, but Sam disagrees and stresses her grief about a boy that she feels strongly for. After joking about Lionel being “the boy,” Joelle voices that “the world doesn’t always act the way we thought they would, but we don’t see things the way they are – we see them the way we are.” Sam then decides to take back her narrative and Joelle advices her to try to make sense of things instead of just arguing her opinions because she never actually changed anyone’s mind. Sam goes to class and responds to the AltIvyW page.

 

Sam walks into class watching an assignment for that day. When the professor (Tom Beyer) asks about “Why we fight?” one of her classmates, Jamila (Elle Lorraine), voices her opinions on the documentary and Sam disagrees with her. The professor asks Sam to find a neutral film to counter Jamila’s argument for extra credit.

 

Armstrong-Parker is all gathered to watch a TV show when Al mentions that now due to the recent influx of new residents watching with them, it feels wrong. Rashid says that he was terrified because those types of shows were all he had to look at black people in America.

 

Troy comes through the doors of Armstrong-Parker and everyone walks over to congratulate him on his return. Sam asks him how he is and he asks the same– knowing that she’s getting a lot of grief because of what he pulled. He admits that it was the best thing he ever did though.

 

Sam goes back to her dorm room and begins responding to the troll online. After getting into it for a while, her dad interrupts her with a Facetime call. He asks her when she’s coming home and then tells her that she shouldn’t waste her time with the people on the internet because it only making things difficult. After hanging up she gets a message that sets her anger further off and goes into a long rage of responding to this internet bot. During this time, it is shown that people are coming in and out of her room over a matter of days. She finally stops and falls asleep. When she gets out of her “clapback coma,” Sam watches a clip of Gabe’s documentary when Joelle walks into the room. Sam shows her everything she’s been doing for the past couple of days and Joelle says, “Some of the nuance of this argument was lost on ‘translaysh’.” She then gets Sam some shower shoes so that she can bathe and get away from her computer.

 

In class, her professor asks for her argument to Jamila’s point. She quickly searches for something but comes up with nothing. After class she talks to Jamila to explain her point and when Jamila asks why she didn’t just say it in class Sam replies with, “I wasn’t about to fight with the one other sister in the room for their pleasure, too tropy.” Gabe stops to to talk to Sam, but she tells him she hasn’t needed to talk so they part ways – leaving Jamila with a confused look on her face.

 

As Joelle and Sam walk through campus, Sam recounts how she “dissed” Gabe and Joelle makes a sarcastic comment about how he’s “definitely not making a documentary to get his MFA in documentary filmmaking.” Sam accuses her of being on his side, but when Joelle tries to debate his intentions Sam tells her to save it for the show and asks Joelle to be her cohost on “Dear White People. “

 

When they get into the studio area, they see a white girl and two guys talking on the air about white people’s “issues” on a show called “Dear Right People.” While Joelle is spitting out how she’s going to voice her opinion, Sam reads a hurtful message sent to her by AltIvyW. Joelle sits down and as Sam gets herself together she has a flashback of her as a child at the kitchen table. When they flash back to the present, Sam is turning to the mic with stopped tears looking into the camera.