The Netflix show Dear White People is the sequel to the 2014 film of the same name. The series is a comedy drama about the lives of black students who attend the fictional ivy league school Winchester University. The show mixes biting commentary, poignant humor, and interpersonal drama with some of the smartest TV writing around.
In October of 2019, the series was renewed for a fourth season which was announced to be its last. With its ensemble cast, the show presented characters with a wide variety of experiences and beliefs. Here are five characters who will be missed when the show ends and five who won’t be:
Missed: Samantha White
Samantha White is the host of the college radio show “Dear White People,” for which the series and film are named. She is a passionate articulate activist who uses her platform to confront systemic oppression on her campus. Her willingness to speak truth to power has earned her the ridicule of many of the student body, but also gave voice to the concerns of her peers in the black student caucus.
Throughout the show, her character is fleshed out, her political pathos tempered with insecurities, procrastination, grief, love, and longing, making Sam one of the most human faces of activism in modern media.
Not: Coco Conners
Coco is an ambitious student with a strong sense of fashion and a Type A Personality that inspires her to do whatever it takes to get ahead. She dreams of success and doesn’t care who she has to hurt to get it (or at least that’s what she tells herself).
In truth, Coco is a much more complex character. She grew up in poverty in Chicago and survived traumatic violence before she attended Winchester. Her drive to succeed is inspired by the desire to overcome all she came from early in life. While she and Samantha were once close before having a falling out, Coco has continued to support Sam in times of need. Despite her tragic past, Coco’s cutthroat ambition means she won’t be missed.
Missed: Lionel Higgins
Lionel is a young writer who is slowly in the process of coming out of the closet and finding himself at the start of the series. He has a lot of insecurities, none of which are helped by living with his roommate Troy, a fit womanizer who is the dean’s son and whom Lionel crushes on.
When Lionel uncovers a plot by the school’s conservative donors that will dramatically impact the lives of black students, he exposes it even when he knows it will get his student newspaper defunded. Despite his insecurities, he demonstrates courage and convictions that are truly inspiring.
Not: Troy Fairbanks
Troy is the son of the school’s dean. As such, he has been groomed to have it all, fitting in at all the elite parties and rubbing elbows with rich peers and donors (most of whose whiteness comes with a sense of entitled Old World supremacy). He is fit, good-looking, a womanizer, and the heir apparent to his father’s success.
Despite this, Troy has some deep-seeded insecurities and a lack of real identity, having always lived the life his father wanted for him. After committing an act of protest at the end of the show’s first season, Troy sets out to shed his old expectations and find himself, eventually taking up comedy writing. Despite this new trajectory, he still keeps letting down those he cares for.
Missed: Joelle Brooks
Joelle is Samantha’s best friend, and in a less well-written show, it is likely that she would be reduced to little more than the role of best friend. Joelle shares Sam’s passion about social justice, but she is less of a firebrand and rabble-rouser, speaking truth to her dear friends but serving as more of a peace-weaver who is willing to give less enlightened opinions a pass.
Joelle and Sam also share an interest in some of the same men, particularly Reggie, who Joelle eventually ends up dating. Despite her less confrontational public persona, she serves as a counselor and confidant to a number of her friends.
Not: Kelsey Phillips
Kelsey started out as a minor character, barely developed in the first season. Her main role was to be a squeaky-voiced and slightly out of touch comedic secondary character, jogging and spoiling her pet dog. However, after her dog was kidnapped, she began to get more fleshed out.
She is one of only a few characters with close relationships to their family, often quoting her Trinidadian mother. She is a supportive friend to her roommate Coco and eventually attempts a relationship with Brooke. However, due to her underdeveloped origins, few will miss Kelsey.
Missed: Reggie Green
Reggie is a computer science major with confident good looks and a bold swagger to his step. He has no problem standing up for what he believes is the right thing, and while he will not start a conflict, he also refuses to tolerate injustice in silence.
After a white friend of his says the N-word at a party, arguments break out as the party devolves into chaos. The cops are called. Unlike the white students, Reggie is asked to produce an ID, and when he points out the racism, one of the campus police draws a gun on him, causing Reggie to develop PTSD as he fears for his life. Despite this, he continues to advocate for what he believes is right.
Not: Al Lucas
Al is a relatively minor character in the show, a loud-mouthed rabble-rouser who has a penchant for conspiracy theories. His roommate Rashid is clearly sick of living with him, something certainly not helped when it is eventually revealed that Al was the one who kidnapped Kelsey’s dog as a prank.
One of the ways Season 3 tried to shock audiences was to show Al fighting to get others to sign a petition to help others, since his characteristic selfishness usually meant he was one of the few students not engaged in activism. Of course, his business dealings with the openly racist Silvio showed he was not as committed to equity as he claimed to be.
Missed: Gabe Mitchell
Gabe is an interesting character. As Sam’s boyfriend at the start of the series, he is supportive of her, but also sometimes struggles to understand the nuances of some elements of systemic racism, as shown when he calls the cops to intercede at a college party without thinking about the consequences of this action.
In a show called Dear White People, Gabe is one of the only white characters who actively works throughout the series to check his privilege and serve as an ally to his friends. His experiences also add layers to the dialogues between characters, making both his personality and his beliefs important to the series.
Not: Silvio Romo
Silvio is the snarky cynical editor of the college newspaper The Independent. He hooks up with Lionel, then leads the younger man on until Lionel finally discovers Silvio is behind an alt-right trolling account that is spewing hate speech against people online.
One reason Dear White People has been so successful is it explores racial politics with nuance, showing how some seemingly mundane acts can have racist implications as well as parodying some extreme beliefs that do not contribute helpfully to dialogues about race. There is almost nothing nuanced about Silvio’s overt racism, unless one considers that he is rejecting identity politics by embracing hate speech despite his own minority status. Worse, he succeeds in radicalizing a massive white copycat supremacist movement on campus.
