Double standards just don’t exist when it comes to racism, and Dear White People’s Justin Simien and Logan Browning took to “safe space,” HuffPost Black Voices to clear that up on Monday (May 22).
This is a superfluous conversation that has been able to stand the test of times, despite the many occasions the inarguable explanation has been expounded to the misunderstood.
Upon the mere announcement of the series premiere on Netflix, those opposed to the show were irate. The similarities among their argument rest at the misinterpreted “finger-wagging” and white-people blaming voice of the show that Simien combats in their HuffPost spot—of which are still present after the airing of the multi-layered series.
#dearwhitepeople not all non whites hate you or ignore your heritage & contributions to the free world, never feel guilty for being white👌🏻
— M.gearsWest👌🏻 (@mgearsWest) May 22, 2017
werent yall the ones sayin that the name of the show #dearwhitepeople wasnt racist? so why is the #whitepeople racist now?lol im so confused
— . . . (@SpaceGrass_) May 14, 2017
#dearwhitepeople be proud of great white Americans like Charlton Heston! President of #NRA and advocate for civil rights!! pic.twitter.com/qqGjykATxg
— FREE SPEECH IS DEAD (@magpulmaster1) May 14, 2017
#dearwhitepeople Be proud of the 1,264,000 white men that fought for their ideals and their rights and their beliefs in the great Civil war.
— FREE SPEECH IS DEAD (@magpulmaster1) May 14, 2017
Creator, Simien clarifies that the show is, in fact, about “being a marginalized group among a bigger group that doesn’t see you.” While he jokes that all of America is “kind of a Dear Black People,” he doesn’t fail to recognize that, due to the pressures of this country, “if a white person makes jokes about black people, that actually affects black people’s lives.” Which brings the two to the harmonious verbal decree, “Yeah, not a double standard.”
And of course, you can’t have a double standard conversation without discussing the partially-viewed and partially-opposed one behind the usage of the N-word. Browning rhetorically answers, “How many things do white people have?” More intricately elaborated, the former Hit The Floor star explains that when it’s spoken from the mouths of those who aren’t black, there’s a hatred behind it. Simien laces the icing on the cake, saying, “We made medicine out of our poison.”
“There’s this one word that black people took and use as a form of endearment and it’s ours, let us have this one word.” – Logan Browning
The duo also go on to discuss media representation for blacks and why there’s a HuffPost Black Voices, but not a HuffPost White Voices. Because, duh, Huffington Post, along with the “entirety of the Internet” spotlights white voices as its source of prose. Needless to say, when in doubt, the answer is most likely, “Yeah, it’s not a double standard.”