Remember the times in middle school when “talkin’ slang” was considered normal to our peers, while on the other hand our elders face palmed and shook their head in utter shame. At that age, we were considered naive with the belief that “kids will be kids” and we will easily grow out of it, yet many African Americans continue to face the stereotypical belief that they are just illiterate. The book Pinned by Sharon G. Flake and the movie “Dear White People” directed by Justin Simien, exploit the stereotypes associated with people of color such as the belief that most are: uneducated, underdressed, lazy, ill mannered, and have poor speech; and causes the needed breakdown of social constructs that are create around the African American and Latino
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The visual of the school goes a little like this: Bing School of Business --White, Desmond School of History --More White, and School of Media --wait... Is that a color person?! It is!. One of the colored students in the School of Media is the melata girl Samantha White, who hosts the radio talk show on campus called “Dear White People”, which she uses to combat the racism seen around campus. I consider Sam a prime example of a person that suffers from what Johnson called “Stereotype threat”. Throughout the movie Sam took on the role as the leader of a group that resembles Malcolm X’s Black Panthers, the Black Student Union, and in doing so she felt the need to overcompensate for her lack of one color. This caused her to: strategically tie up her long hair into a small afro, present herself in a very dominate way, hide the fact she was dating her white Teacher’s assistant, and almost lead a picketing against the white students on campus; because she believed it was expected of her through her fellow black peers. Samantha taking on such a large role, thus caused her to lose herself and fall behind in her film major classes. The fellow peers of Sam does not make it easier for her education as they constantly push her to take the next step in the race war that is occurring on the university grounds; as Vega stated it took the guidance of the Dean of students, to motivate Sam to push away her rebellious personality and put it into something more constructive: A voice behind her
The visual of the school goes a little like this: Bing School of Business --White, Desmond School of History --More White, and School of Media --wait... Is that a color person?! It is!. One of the colored students in the School of Media is the melata girl Samantha White, who hosts the radio talk show on campus called “Dear White People”, which she uses to combat the racism seen around campus. I consider Sam a prime example of a person that suffers from what Johnson called “Stereotype threat”. Throughout the movie Sam took on the role as the leader of a group that resembles Malcolm X’s Black Panthers, the Black Student Union, and in doing so she felt the need to overcompensate for her lack of one color. This caused her to: strategically tie up her long hair into a small afro, present herself in a very dominate way, hide the fact she was dating her white Teacher’s assistant, and almost lead a picketing against the white students on campus; because she believed it was expected of her through her fellow black peers. Samantha taking on such a large role, thus caused her to lose herself and fall behind in her film major classes. The fellow peers of Sam does not make it easier for her education as they constantly push her to take the next step in the race war that is occurring on the university grounds; as Vega stated it took the guidance of the Dean of students, to motivate Sam to push away her rebellious personality and put it into something more constructive: A voice behind her