The “Dear White People” director stopped by IndieWire’s Very Good TV Podcast to talk about how he learned to fight Twitter trolls with truth — and history.
With a title like “Dear White People,” Justin Simien knew his Netflix show was never going to slip under the radar. After all, the director had already gone through a trial run years earlier, when the conversation began.
“With the movie, there were people who were like, ‘Is this racist?’ or ‘Is it going to be like black people talking down to white people?’ People were confused about it,” Simien said in an interview with IndieWire. “People were wondering if racism still existed — if that was a thing in 2014.”
Still, things changed when Simien turned his Sundance hit into an ongoing series. When Season 1 hit in April 2017, reactions weren’t just confused, they were angry — or so it seemed.
“With Season 1 in…
