Justin Simien, the creator of Dear White People, has a few words for the special snowflakes who are boycotting Netflix because the upcoming series’ title and subject matter have them shedding white tears.
Shortly after Netflix announced the premiere date of the 10-episode series, some white people got all butt-hurt because:
- “Dear White People” sounds racist;
- They have nothing else to worry about and got tired of boycotting Starbucks;
- White genocide (lolz).
In a series of tweets, Simien addressed the “boycott”:
“Equality feels like oppression to the privileged, and thus, three benign words send them into a fight for their very existence, which happens to it actually not [being] in any real danger,” Simien wrote. “This is how a minute-long date announcement becomes a distorted call for white genocide in the minds of some people. Despite all signs to the contrary.”
“‘Dear White People’ was a widely reviewed film three years ago. A cursory Google search would confirm it has no racist intent. But that Google search is not embarked upon because they NEED it to be hate speech. They NEED to fight an enemy, lest they sit alone in their own pain. Feelings of being [passed] over by an evolving society,” he tweeted.
“I’m not the first artist to use a misnomer as a title and I reject any notion of ‘causing a divide’ simply by stating that one exists. Which is my role as artist. To state what is. But if facts and common sense can not wake us up from our delusions and distorted ways of seeing, what can?” he asked.
“Stories. Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others. Our entire concept of reality is stories. So tell your story. Come out of the closet. Write your thesis. Make your film. But do it honestly,” Simien continued. “Tell the inconvenient truth. It is the only thing that has ever saved us. So while it was fun engaging the trolls [...] it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. The harder thing is to listen and present what is.”
This boycott is going to flop just like all the other boycotts these crybabies have tried to pull off. Hopefully, those who boycott will put that extra $8 a month they’re saving to good use. I hear there’s a sale on Mountain Dew.