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Marybeth Fair
Dr. McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric
12 October 2015
An Attack on Ivy League Schools
Dear White People could be renamed Dear Anyone Considering An Ivy League
Education, probably with a subtitle of Proceed with Caution. In this movie, Justin Simien
clearly conveys his negative views of prestigious universities. He attacks different aspects of
esteemed institutions, including the administration, the compartmentalization of students, and the
concern with tradition. The film Dear White People makes the claim that prestigious universities
are negative, unhealthy environments through various rhetorical techniques of film.
The first of these real problems the film identifies is the college administration. Normally,
school administrators are portrayed as kind and sympathetic, genuinely concerned with the
wellbeing of their students. Not at Winchester. This administration is a bureaucratic mess, using
its students only as means to garner income and create good public relations.
The king of PR concern is President Fletcher. From the moment he appears onscreen, he
is cast in a negative light through his speech. The dialogue written for his character is saturated
with lines conveying not only a lack of concern for his students, but a disgusting naivety. His
opening line, Free speech my ass, immediately presents him at odds with all the American
ideals the audience holds dear. This very specific reference to something usually revered lends
to an immediate negative impression upon the audience. Further, his lack of concern manifests
itself when impressing the investors supersedes solving the blatant race issue destroying his

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campus. When he discusses this problem with Dean Fairbanks, Fletcher shows concern, but it is
for possible impact on the upcoming fundraiser than towards the effects of his schools
environment on his students. Next, he mutters racism is over in America anyway, after which
the audience is invited to join Dean Fairbanks in an aghast scoff. Only moments before, the
audience was angry that Fletcher had no response to the issue, and now he goes even further,
claiming it does not even exist. The problem is presented as so obvious at Winchester that a
president who openly denies it can only be either incredibly apathetic about the well-being of his
students or incredibly stupid. Later, when confronting Sam, President Fletcher is condescending
about her little war. He does not treat her as a person, but as a pain in his side, an obstacle on
his desperate mission to impress investors. Finally, the last line of the entire film has Fletcher,
when tempted to exploit his students for a reality television show, asking how much we
talking? The final line remains in the audiences memory, stamping down the final importance
that Fletcher has not changed, money is still number one in his mind.
Even beyond the dialogue, the camera angles convince the audience to dislike President
Fletcher. During the first scene in which he appears, the camera views him from below, forcing
the audience to look up at this figure. The longer the scene stretches, the more the audience
dislikes the President, and the more they resent being forced to look up at him. In this way, they
are aligned with the student body, also being forced to look up at their president. It creates a
feeling of presumed inferiority, which is frustrating to an audience that realizes the President is
unworthy of such respect, is not superior. Again, in the final scene, the audience is looking up at
the President. This time, the President is a little man with a bow tie in a chair that towers over
him. He is arranged to look weak, but the audience still has to look up at him, again creating

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resentment against the President. This specific angle invites the audience to realize the President
is unfit for his position above the students.
The other leader of the school, Dean Fairbanks, may seem to show the positive aspects of
the Winchester University administration. On the surface, he appears to care about Lionel, a
black, openly gay student who is bullied by most of the student body. Lionel even feels
comfortable enough to bring his issues to the Dean. Unfortunately, upon closer examination,
Dean Fairbanks embodies the negative aspects of the administration just as much as President
Fletcher. Instead of working actively to find a solution to Lionels problem, he just moves Lionel
to a different dorm- third times the charm. Obviously, shuffling Lionel from dorm to dorm is
not effective, but it is easy, so that is the action Dean Fairbanks takes, revealing his true concern
lies with the image of his school. More than once in conversation with Lionel he mentions that
he wants this issue kept out of the papers. The Dean wants Lionel to be settled, not for Lionel,
but because he does not want a PR problem. Furthermore, during this scene, a poster hangs in the
room, captioned Winchester University: Where You Belong. The poster mocks the
administration, as obviously, due to the way they run their university, Lionel does not belong.
But the poster shows the smiling students, all fitting in, the perfect outward appearance Dean
Fairbanks so desperately desires.
Even with his own son, public relations and image is the priority for Dean Fairbanks.
When giving his son, Troy, advice, Fairbanks focuses on how Winchester could use someone
like [Troy] as president of the student body. At this point, he is just exploiting his son for the
image of his school. Later, when Troy turns to his father to expose an extremely racist party,
Fairbanks tells him to quiet down multiple times. He does not want the wealthy guests at his

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high-class event to think there is trouble at his precious school. Again, as always, image comes
before his son. With this image-obsessed mindset, Dean Fairbanks stands as a symbol for the
administration at all prestigious universities.
Besides the administration, even the general staff does not really care about its students.
In one scene, Sam turns in a video an entire semester late. When pressed for an excuse, she
admits she had to return home over the summer because her father fell ill. Here is a student, with
a passion for the subject, obviously struggling with a personal issue while balancing a heavy
course load. Instead of trying to help, her professor tells her to pull it together. This is
Winchester. Here is yet another member of the faculty of this university unconcerned with the
wellbeing of its students.
Beyond the shortcomings of its administration, Winchester University also fosters an
environment of diminished student individuality. The students are compartmentalized into
specific stereotypes. The editing of the shots in the opening scene presents this harsh labeling
forced upon the students at Winchester University. When the students are introduced by dorm, a
box is drawn around the students. This box, while at its base simply adding a title to the frame,
also acts metaphorically. The students are put in a box, a colloquial way to say they are
regulated to fit a single stereotype. The directors, knowing this, drew these boxes around the
students to bring this imagery to mind. Beyond this, the shots themselves are created with the
students remaining completely still and the camera moving. This slow movement along a
stationary subject is similar to a pan. This technique works by prolonging, beyond normal
expectations, the time it takes viewers to decipher exactly what they are seeing (Lancioni 105).
Due to this technique, the audience has time to analyze the directors intent behind the

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composition of the shot. The viewers realize that the stationary position of the students suggests
them being statues or dolls, positioned as the creators feel fit. Just as statues are only ever in one
position, spending all eternity doing a single action, the students at Winchester are forced into a
single stereotype. The students, however, are not dolls, but actual human beings, each with his
own complex personality, and he should be regulated to a single box.
The characterization of Lionel shows a specific instance where this compartmentalization
mentality proves particularly harmful. Lionel has trouble fitting a single stereotypical group due
to both his race and sexuality. In one scene, he calls his own home to find an extremely offensive
outgoing message, set by Kurt, that specifically targets him due to his sexuality. This instance
shows how he is not welcome at Kurts house. Later, in Armstrong-Parker, the traditionally black
dorm, he is kicked out along with Kurt when all outsiders are removed from the dining hall.
Lionel obviously does not fit in here either. The dangers of this outsider feeling takes form when
he is manipulated by the newspaper editor. When assigned the profile piece on Sam, Lionel is
visibly uncomfortable, but he does not refuse because that would be a rejection of the only
people on campus that seem to accept him. If the student body was not regulated to specific
stereotypical compartments, Lionel would have an easier time making friends and would not be
so quickly manipulated by the chance at companionship.
This environment is also hugely detrimental to Sam. She struggles with her identity
because she is half white and half black. Feeling she must choose a group to join, a single
stereotype to fill, Sam chooses to embrace her African American identity. Her hair especially is
symbolic of this choice. She works daily to put it up, to make it look more stereotypical of the
group she struggles to join. One scene with Gabe, her secret white boyfriend, shows how this

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single group does not fully show her personality. He explains the futility of her struggle, showing
how she displays stereotypes of both groups. For example, he tells her that he knows she listens
to Taylor Swift. The audiences understanding of this stereotype of white girls shows our
interpretation of images- or, in this case, speech- often depends upon historical context and the
cultural knowledge we bring to them (Sturken 30). Understanding Gabes reference hinges on
the audiences knowledge of American culture and the stereotypes within it, and a complete
understanding of the speech is necessary in understanding how Sam struggles with the extreme
stereotype situation at Winchester University. Gabe reveals a huge part of Sams character
through her struggle to hide the parts of her identity that society views as white. Sam feels
regulated to a single group, a single stereotype, and so must reject all parts of her that do not fit
with this image. The environment at Winchester lends itself to such a struggle to fit a welldefined mold.
This negative environment not only compartmentalizes students but also hosts a conflict
between modern world and strict tradition. The university attempts to maintain tradition even
when it is unrealistic for the current, modern times. One way the film sets up this juxtaposition is
through the set. The Corinthian columns and general architecture of the physical school,
reminiscent of ancient Greek temples, stand in stark contrast to the students playing soccer on the
quad before them. Another example is the Armstrong-Parker dining hall. Fabric tablecloths and
crystal glasses grace the table before the students, but on these elegant tables Sam flips Kurts
plate. Here, the actions conflict with the set to illustrate this disparity, this conflict between the
modern world and the traditional college setting.

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Some viewers may argue that the film instead embraces the importance of tradition. The
main character, Sam, formulates a personal crusade to strike down the Randomization of
Housing Act, an action by Winchester University to prevent students from choosing their own
dorm, effectively destroying Armstrong-Parker houses African American tradition. However,
when viewed in light of the universitys history, this act is actually a return to tradition.
Originally, the university was mostly white. Recently, a thriving black community was built at
Armstrong-Parker house. To combat this change, the administration proposed the Randomization
of Housing Act to destroy the opportunity for students of color to choose the same house. Sam
must endure weeks of arguing with the administration and petitioning with her fellow students to
convince Winchester to repeal the act. This struggle to move from a tradition to a better way of
living, one that creates a comfortable atmosphere for the students of color, shows an issue that
extends to most prestigious universities. The focus on tradition can be so strong that it strangles
the students who are from the modern world.
The modern students are also strangled by tradition when they attempt to fit the mold of
the traditionally successful college student. Troy attempts to be the perfect model student, always
greeting others, always smiling, always dressed to perfection, always running for some office.
Troy is the student whose day includes Head of House duties, followed by a shift at the
Politicos booth, then a shift at orientation, then a meeting with his advisor. Later, however, we
realize Troy spends a large portion of his time in the bathroom, smoking pot and writing jokes.
Thus, this perfect university figure is not Troys true self, but a traditional role that he sacrifices
his personality to fill. Another figure hurt by this traditional Ivy League student image is Coco.
She changes her name and regulates her appearance again to fill the mold. The name change

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especially is symbolic that Cocos true self is altered in order to fit this mold. The university
forces her to change in order to fit with the traditional mold, because the prestigious school
cannot handle a modern student.
Dear White People is a complex film with many themes, including the negative
environment fostered in prestigious universities. Through rhetorical techniques of film such as
dialogue, camera angle, shot types, set, and more, Simein clearly conveys his feelings on the
subject. He could have placed his characters and their struggle with race in the modern world in
any number of settings, but he specifically chose a college campus to add this second dimension,
this added theme to the film. Through the analysis of this theme, one must note that the claims
made in the movie are responsive to a rhetorical situation. A rhetorical situation is a natural
context of persons, events, objects, relations, and an exigence which strongly invites utterance,
with an exigence being an imperfection marked by urgency (Bitzer 5,6). Every piece of
rhetoric is a reaction to an outside situation, and this film is no different. The writers created a
fictional school, Winchester University, to symbolize an actual Ivy League university. While
Winchester is fictitious, the problems exposed are very real.

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Works Cited
Dear White People. Dir. Justin Simein. S.n. :, 2014. Film.
Lancioni, Judith, and Lester C. Olson. "The Rhetoric of the Frame." Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in
Communication and American Culture. Los Angeles: Sage, 2008. 105-117. Print.
Bitzer, Lloyd F. "The Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy & Rhetoric 1968: 1-14. Print.
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.