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Netflix Users Cancel Subscriptions Over New Series — Here’s the Trailer That’s Fueling the Controversy

Feb 9, 2017  •  Post A Comment

Some Netflix users are up in arms about an upcoming original series on the streaming service, with a number of them canceling their subscriptions and others calling for a Netflix boycott. At the center of the furor is the series “Dear White People,” due out April 28.

The show is an adaptation of the 2014 feature film of the same name, written, directed and co-produced by Justin Simien, who is also behind the series — including reportedly writing its first 10 episodes. The movie focuses on black students at a predominantly white university experiencing racial tensions.

Rolling Stone reports that the new trailer “unsurprisingly irked members of the so-called alt-right.”

A sampling of comments on social media shows that the project has struck a nerve. The New York Daily News posted a few examples, with one Twitter user writing: “Promote racism and white genocide & you get dropped.”

Another tweeted: “I haven’t used Netflix in months, but this Dear White People thing was a reminder to cancel my account and save ten bucks.”

Simien added his own voice to the fray, writing on Facebook that he feels “strangely encouraged” by the reaction.

“To see the sheer threat that people feel over a date announcement video featuring a woman of color (politely) asking not to be mocked makes it so clear why I made this show,” Simien wrote. “I want those who are chronically unseen in the culture to feel seen. And I want those willing to extend empathy to experiences unlike theirs to understand their humanity more deeply.”

Here’s the brief trailer that helped fuel the uproar, which Netflix posted Wednesday to announce the show’s release date …

7 Comments

  1. The race-baiting industry is alive and well! Why is it that the people that claim to want inclusion and a color blind society work so hard to reenforce differences? We just dug our way out from under 8 long years of a deliberately divisive administration that pulled their power from pigeonholing every identifiable subsect (black, hispanic, gay, etc.) and worked day and night to foster more resentment between everyone. Hopefully the same reason the nation said “Not Hillary” will say no to this.

  2. Do you really think this is good for our country? Black president did nothing to help racial tension. Electing him only further polarized the race cards being played. I will give it a shot as I do all of Netflix programs and decide based on acting and content to continue. Sad in this day an age we must continue to point out differences among us and shout to the mountain tops we are better because we are ….whatever.. WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

  3. More proof that conservtives are the real snowflakes.

  4. So let me get this straight. Because the show is about racism, it is racist? Because it is about racism, it is promoting white genocide? Have we seriously come to the point that any mention of racism is considered racist? Oh no! Don’t mention that racism exists! You might hurt the feelings of all the white people who have never experienced it! Seriously, I love how old conservatives call everyone “snowflakes” and make jokes about “safe space”. Who are the sensitive snowflakes now?

  5. Dear White People,

    Chill.

    Black People.

  6. One should first watch the show and judge if it is race baiting

  7. *********************
    RealTVCritics
    February 11, 2017 at 15:44 pm, Reply
    Dear White People,

    Chill.

    Black People.
    *********************
    This is why the show title is considered racist, it sparks feelings of hatred on all sides and fuels negative comments rather then truly engaging conversations that could really benefit change.

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