“Dear White People,” the new Netflix series based on the film of the same name, has become one of the most talked about new shows this year.
The series, created by Justin Simien, takes a humorous and unflinching look at racial politics by following the lives of several black students at a fictional and predominantly white Ivy League school.
The show has sparked some interesting conversations about issues like blackface, interracial dating, colorism, and police brutality, to name a few. All of these issues are brought forth through amazingly witty, sharp, and perceptive writing, making for some of the best one-liners on any screen in years. Below, we’ve compiled some of the funniest, most poignant and downright brilliant lines from the show’s first season. Check it out (spoiler alert):
1. SAM: Dear white people, here’s a little tip: When you ask someone who looks ethnically different ‘what are you?’ the answer is usually a person about to slap the shit out of you.” (Ep. 1)
2. JOELLE: You’re not Rashida Jones biracial, you’re Tracee Ellis Ross biracial ― people think of you as black! (Ep. 1)
3. NARRATOR: Ah, the racially insensitive party. A mainstay of primarily white institutions since time immemorial. A chance for the white majority to celebrate marginalized communities by reinforcing the very stereotypes that oppress them. (Ep. 2)
4. SAM: I like my men like I like my coffee ― full-bodied and preferably with Kenyan origins. (Ep. 4)
5. COCO: Dear white people, having a black vibrator does not count as an interracial relationship. (Ep. 4)
6. SAM: Equal? You could only vote if you owned land and didn’t have a vagina. (Ep. 5)
7. JOELLE: Sometimes being carefree and black is an act of revolution. (Ep. 5)
8. REGGIE: I plan on marrying me a dark-skinned sister; have the ashiest black babies possible. (Ep. 5)
9. SAM: Dear white people, our skin color is not a weapon. You don’t have to be afraid of it. (Ep. 6)
10. COCO: As soon as you double down on your blackness, they will double down on their bullshit... Who cares if you’re woke or not if you’re dead? (Ep. 6)
11. REGGIE: Gun in my face, your hate misplaced, light-skin, white skin but for me not the right skin. (Ep. 6)
12. REGGIE: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For some of us maybe. There’s nothing self-evident about it. (Ep. 6)
13. SAM: The whole movement is about pain. That’s why we’re out in these streets. (Ep. 6)
14. SAM: We’re going to bring together every marginalized group on this campus and demand a protest! (Ep. 7)
15. Joelle: I like him black, actually black as hell and unapologetic about it. (Ep. 7)
16. NARRATOR: If only the real world had a block button. (Ep. 8)
17. TROY: So you didn’t have a man around to show you what’s what?
LIONEL: Yup. Which is why I chose to be gay… kidding. That’s not how it works. (Ep. 8)
18. NEIKA: You’re here to show that not all black students want to burn this place down. You’re props. (Ep. 9)
19. SAM: Troy’s got you drinking his Kool-Aid… or his daddy’s Kool-Aid. But guess what? I ain’t thirsty, girl. (Ep. 9)
20. COCO: I’m smarter than you. I’m more ambitious than you. Thirty years from now when I am the second black female president, all you’ll be able to do is think about me and I won’t remember your name. (Ep. 9)
21. SAM: Have you been to a Winchester townhall? They’re so regimented even Kim Jung Un’s like ‘guys, chill, let somebody talk.’ (Ep. 10)
22. SAM: So because I call it out, racism is my fault?!
23. KURT: The truth is, you like things to be fucked up so you can have a machine to rage against, Sharpton.
SAM: None of this is a threat to you because you already have the power. Kurt. Can’t you see that? (Ep. 10)
Before You Go
