The backlash to filmmaker Justin Simien’s debut feature film Dear White People has reached a new level as YouTubers have left disparaging comments about African Americans and the Netflix organization.
In a post on Medium titled “Why Did I Name It “Dear White People?'” Simien explained in detail the history of the project, which has turned into a 10-episode TV series for Netflix, which will air this April.
Simien revealed that he knew the title was “provocative” but also necessary to “break through the clutter” back when he came up with the idea in 2009.
“Currently the clip has received [sic] 300k dislikes compared to 34k likes, despite trending in Youtube’s top 10 for days,” Simien wrote. “This kind of negatively weighted ratio is a classic, and frankly transparent tell that automated tools for harassment, perfected during the latest election cycle, were at play.”
The movie is not only affected by bots and mass dislikes that have been tossed at Simien. Simien has also been targeted and affected by racist comments on Twitter.
“Among the now perfunctory ‘what if there was a dear black people’ comments, were accusations that I, and by association Netflix, were promoting a call for ‘white genocide,’” he said. “Complaints that racism isn’t real, sat beside comments calling me a n*****. Assertions that all black people do is whine and destroy property were wedged between threats that the alt right would burn this country to the ground if we kept promoting ‘white hate. Being called a n***** as well as being called the sole cause of the racism I was complaining about was a sort of recurring theme.”
Members of the alternative right are calling for a boycott of the show and the cancellation of Netflix subscriptions, though, as Simien pointed out, the stock price of Netflix has gone up following the release of ‘Dear White People’ trailer.
“Even though I have the wherewithal to recognize their hatred as just a knee jerk attempt to avoid experiencing the deep pain of feeling powerless, I’ll be damned if I allow for someone else’s pain to become my prison,” he concluded.
Buckle your seat belt; Dear White People premieres on Netflix on Friday, April 28th.
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