Netflix Releases Trailer for ‘Dear White People’ (VIDEO)

Netflix has released the first trailer for its new series, Dear White People, an expansion of writer/director Justin Simien’s 2014 film of the same name.

The satirical indie film centered on students of color as they navigated life at a fictional—and predominantly white—Ivy League college. The film starred Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris, Dennis Haysbert and became a critical darling of the festival circuit.

In the Netflix series, Logan Browning takes over the role of Samantha White (played in the film by Tessa Thompson), a biracial student who uses her campus radio program Dear White People to address the student body and its racial transgressions.

Brandon P. Bell reprises his role from the film as the privileged son of the school’s dean, with Antoinette Robertson, DeRon Horton, John Patrick Amedori and Ashley Blaine Featherson joining Browning as a diverse group of students who witness firsthand Winchester University’s social injustices, cultural biases, political correctness (or lack thereof) and misguided attempts at activism.

The series cleverly uses irony, self-deprecation and honesty to hold up a mirror to the racial issues plaguing society, and also serves as a poignant reminder that “the black experience” isn’t a catch-all phrase, and is as varied and diverse as the people who experience it.

The trailer itself uses irony and satire as it leads off with a “trigger warning” of sorts, indicating that the series is for all audiences (actually indicated via a quote from a review by Variety). This was perhaps a tongue-in-cheek reaction to some viewers who had over-the-top reactions to the initial announcement of this series, and even threatened to cancel their Netflix accounts because of it, in the process ironically showing why a series like this is needed.

The “warning” may not have satisfied those viewers, but it shows everyone else just how bitingly topical and funny the series looks to be.

Dear White People, streaming beginning April 28, Netflix