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Equity In Dear White People

Decent Essays

Equality Versus Equity in Dear White People In the film, Dear White People (Simien & Serrano, 2014), there were many conflicts among different social groups, but the most conflicts that took place were among the racial groups of whites and blacks. The black group of students throughout the film called attention to the lack of fairness they received compared to the white group of students who were treated better than them. This represents the concept of equity defined by Baumeister and Bushman (2014) as the idea that each person receives benefits in proportion to what he or she contributes. Equity is a contrast to Baumeister and Bushman’s (2014) definition of equality, which is where each person gets the same amount, regardless of what he or …show more content…

In the show, Sam drew attention to how black people are treated unfairly by white people. She made remarks such as “Dear white people, this just in: Dating a black person to piss your parents off is a form of racism” (Simien & Serrano, 2014) or “Dear white people, the minimum requirement of black friends needed to not seem racist has been raised to two” (Simien & Serrano, 2014). These statements were made because she interpreted that there was racism in the student body and consequently, made group dynamics between white and black students more hostile. An implied message in these statements was that black people have been treated unfairly because of an equity based system, not an equality based system. Black students did not have more money, resources or student numbers as much as white students, which made them contribute less to the student body. Also, the messages subtly made the point that black people have been seen as lower status and that trying to make things equal and fair among races was a failed attempt and more of an insult to blacks. This furthers the interpretation that there is an unspoken difference between the races, when really there should not

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