Netflix’s Dear White People series builds on themes of 2014 film but goes further, using humour, in the age of Black Lives Matter

Dear White People was met with critical acclaim when it hit cinemas in 2014. Director and writer Justin Simien’s satire, which followed a group of black students at a predominantly white Ivy League university, rejected the notion that we live in a post-racial society.

Three years later, the idea of a post-racial society isn’t one that needs to be disproved. We’ve got the message – through the incessant churn of social media, our 24-hour news cycle and the efforts of activists calling on a generation to wake up (or in more current parlance, “stay woke”).

Enter Dear White People, the 10-episode Netflix series, which is now available for streaming and elevates its source material into a deeply poignant exploration of where we are now.

Like its predecessor, which arrived in the form of a concept trailer in 2012, the series is a timely and hilarious send-up. Simien adapted it for television and is the writer-director behind several episodes. But he taps several other directors – including Oscar-winning Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins – to helm instalments, all of which feature characters subtly breaking the fourth wall, usually with pointed stares.

The show’s tagline, “Bet you think this show is about you”, is a pithy nod to anyone who (still) thinks the provocative title is racist. (If you’re in that camp, it’s safe to say this isn’t the show for you.)

Dear White People returns to fictional Winchester University, where a blackface-themed party hosted by the white editors of the campus humour magazine, Pastiche, has sent long-simmering racial tensions to new heights.