History Series / DearWhitePeople

* {{Irony}}: Creator/TessaThompson, who played Sam in [[Film/DearWhitePeople the film]], here plays Rikki Carter, a black conservative commentator with basically the opposite politics (quite likely unintentional).

* ButNotTooBlack: {{Invoked}} by the narrator (Creator/GiancarloEsposito), who states that he was selected for the role due to his being ethnic enough while still being nonthreatening. Coco also complains of being thought poorly about by many black guys due to having dark skin, and claims Sam has "light skinned privilege" because she's mixed race. Sam retorts that no one calls Coco "half breed" or "Zebra".

* BiTheWay: Professor Nieka Hobbs turns out to be bisexual. She has both a female fiancee and [[spoiler: Troy,]] her secret boyfriend.

* StylisticSuck: The ShowWithinAShow that parodies [[Series/{{Scandal}}]], ''Defamation'' is... pretty awful.

** Jerry Skyler = Creator/TylerPerry

* BrokenPedestal: Lionel is devastated when he learns [[spoiler: Silvio is @[=AltIvyW=]]] and even tells him, “You were my mentor.”

* EnsembleCast: While Sam is definitely the lead character, each of the main characters have [[RotatingProtagonist episodes devoted specifically to them]], and even the side characters have significant CharacterDevelopment.

** The third season has one of ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'' (with the Handmaids in blue rather than red), which

* {{Parody}}: The A-P students’ favorite shows are ''Defamation'', a parody of ''Series/{{Scandal}}'', and ''Prince O’Palities'', a parody of ''Series/{{Empire}}''.

* SelfDeprecation: In the first episode, the narrator says the writers need him to set up the plot because they're too lazy to do it the regular way.

-->'''Troy''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint I know right]].

* IncompatibleOrientation: Brooke comes onto Lionel, even though she knows he's gay, insisting that's "too reductive".

* LemonyNarrator: Giancarlo Esposito serves as one, humorously commenting about the events and issues of the story. [[spoiler:Until the Season 2 finale where [[DelayedNarratorIntroduction ''he's'' the one to meet Sam and Lionel]] when they finally track the Order of X's secret meeting spot.]]

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: {{Averted}} with Coco. She considers long and hard whether to have an abortion after getting pregnant, even daydreaming about how her life might turn out with a child. Ultimately though, she decides to go through with it, and isn't portrayed as bad at all for this.

* WantsARewardForCommonDecency: Reggie and Troy react this way when Kurt tells them solemnly how he now understands that by supporting the system he's upholding racism.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Kurt in the film was a JerkAss who frequently expressed racist and homophobic statements with pride. In the series version, while still a huge dick and the originator behind the blackface party, his overt racism and and homophobia is absent and [[EveryoneHasStandards is just as horrified as everyone else]] by [[spoiler: the campus police pulling a gun on Reggie at the party]]. He also tries to reach out to Sam to work together on a statement against the incident and in the Season 1 finale, delivers an ArmorPiercingQuestion to her about the effectiveness of her outrage-driven tactics.
* AdaptationalVillainy: In the film, Troy's father, though a bit of a ControlFreak in making sure his son cultivates a respectable image while ignoring what Troy actually wants, was a ReasonableAuthorityFigure where the students were concerned and sympathetic to Sam's insecurity about her identity. Here, he's a DeanBitterman who's much more antagonistic to Sam and more concerned about appeasing wealthy donors than listening to the students.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Lionel becomes a hero once again for exposing the Hancocks and standing up to Silvio (which earns him a well-planted kiss after the latter is turned on by the former developing a backbone), and Joelle and Reggie eventually becomes a thing, but Troy is arrested after destroying the town hall door in upset over the revelation that he was indeed a puppet to the Hancocks via his father's perfectionistic upbringing and nearly loses his life while resisting before Dean Fairbanks intervenes. Gabe ends his relationship with Sam, who was willing to make things right, but the latter rekindles her friendship with Coco as they bond over ''Defamation''. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Kelsey experiences her first genuine encounter with racism as Sorbet has been dognapped, only being left with a note, "Black girl, white dog, not on my watch",]] and is met with mass dismissal from the other black students.]]

* CerebusSyndrome: Episode 5 is when the show takes a darker yet [[TruthInTelevision realistic]] turn where [[spoiler: Reggie is held at gunpoint by campus police after a fight at a party, where ''he's'' considered the instigator and for nothing more than talking back to the officer.]]

* EmergingFromTheShadows: In the season 2 finale, [[spoiler:this is how the narrator introduces himself to Sam and Lionel, implied to actually be a member of the Order of X.]]

* EveryoneHasStandards: With racial tensions at an all-time high in the second season and now people acting openly racist on campus, Kurt actually sees himself [[TookALevelInKindness mellowing out]] since he doesn't find any humor in Sam getting doxed and threatened.

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Thane dies when attempting to "fly" out of a window while intoxicated near the end of]] Episode 3.

* LemonyNarrator: Giancarlo Esposito serves as one, humorously commenting about the events and issues of the story. [[spoiler:Until the season 2 finale where [[DelayedNarratorIntroduction ''he's'' the one to meet Sam and Lionel]] when they finally track the Order of X's secret meeting spot.]]

* LovingAShadow: In the penultimate episode, Troy calls out Coco on the fact that [[spoiler: she doesn't even love him, let alone ''like'' him - she just loves the idea of him as a model leader.]]
* LoveTriangle: Gabe is being madly in love with Sam, but the latter later becomes close to Reggie who's been attracted to Sam from [[LoveAtFirstSight the moment he laid on eyes on her.]] Complicating it further is that Reggie himself is the object of an unrequited attraction from Joelle.
** Turns almost into a LoveDodecahedron when you add in that Sam dated Troy before the start of the series and Coco dates him briefly in season 1.

* PoliceBrutality: What sets up the second plot in the climax of Episode 5 - [[spoiler: when Reggie eventually quarrels with a white student over NWordPrivileges at a party, campus police show up with immediate assumption that Reggie was the instigator and demand identification while virulently dismissing Joelle when she comes to his defense. Reggie's quip "Fuck these pigs" provokes one of the officers to [[DisproportionateRetribution draw his gun on him]], conjuring a scene that where people of color [[TruthInTelevision have either experienced and/or unfortunately not survived to tell the aftermath]] while the surrounding students are horrified and pleading with the officer to withdraw his firearm. Fortunately, though Reggie shakingly complies with fear for his life and does leave with it, he's understandably broken by the confrontation.]]

** Season 2, the reveal of [=@AltIvyW's=] profile page on [[spoiler:Silvo's computer screen.]]

** Carson Rhodes = Ta-Nehisi Coates

* WritersCannotDoMath: Winchester College is an Ivy League school with an annual budget of around $14 billion and about 240 black students who are paying about $59,000 a year to go to a school that sets aside one building just for them. And while the Dean puts down public institutions, for comparison, Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey has around 39,500 non-white students, 5000 of which are black, one dorm devoted to special interest students, and an entire sub-college and campus that opened in the 1960's in order to cater to minorities. This, on a yearly budget not even a third of Winchesters ($4.4 billion) with students paying an average somewhere between $32000 and $48000 a year to attend. For other comparisons, Harvards budget is $4.5 billion, Yale's is $3.6 billion, Standford's is $5.9 billion, and Princeton's is $2 billion.
** Alternatively, this is a GeniusBonus suggesting Winchester isn't all it's cracked up to be.

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Troy was hoping for this, but it didn’t quite work out.

** Not to mention the episode centered on Gabe where all his [[FantasySequence fantasy sequences]] are parodies of films like ''Film/DoTheRightThing'', ''{{Film/Persona}}'', and {{Blaxploitation}} flicks.

** Not to mention the episode centered on Gabe where all his [[FantasySequence fantasy sequences]] are parodies of films like ''DoTheRightThing'', ''{{Film/Persona}}'', and {{Blaxploitation}} flicks.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dwp.jpg]]

* TheDitz: Kelsey, in some aspects. Following the blackface party, Kelsey successfully manages to get a therapy dog for herself because she told the counselor she would kill herself over the party. In addition, she was genuinely surprised that racism was still a thing that could happen. [[spoiler: She actually does experience racism in the aftermath of the final episode where Sorbet is dognapped, with only a note reading, "Black girl, white dog, not on my watch" left behind, but is dismissed by virtually everyone in the room.]]

* HiddenDepths: True about many of the characters, but Kelsey is a particular standout. In Season 1, she is largely portrayed as TheDitz, but she proves to be very caring and more aware of others than they are of her. She is especially there for Coco [[spoiler: when Coco learns she is pregnant and chooses to get an abortion.]] Kelsey is also a lesbian, which Coco – and likely all the main characters – never realized, because she is (they are) so self-absorbed.

* TwoferTokenMinority: Kelsey is a black lesbian.

* BlackAndNerdy: Lionel. He dressed as [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Geordi LaForge]] at a high school dance, causing some mockery from other black guys.
* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Sam is secretly having sex with a white guy, Gabe, at the beginning of the series. After she's outed, this doesn't go down well with her friends, particularly since she wrote against "dating the oppressor". Gabe receives a less than warm welcome when she brings him to TV night with the black students.

* BrokenAce: Troy. He's very much the BigManOnCampus, beloved by majority of the Student Body. It quickly becomes apparent during his spotlight episode that his father puts an insane amount of pressure on him to be the model black student, to the point that Troy resorts to drugs to help cope with the stress.

* CategoryTraitor:
** Sam, who wrote an editorial titled "“Don’t Fall in Love With Your Oppressor: A Black Girl’s Guide to Dating at Winchester,” is seen as this by some of the black students in Season 1 when her relationship with Gabe (a white person) becomes public.
** Silvio is a gay Mexican [[spoiler: who has secretly become an alt-right Twitter troll, because of what he sees as Sam’s attack on campus free speech .]]
** Rikki Carter [[ExploitedTrope exploits]] this, because she knows white conservatives particularly value having a racial minority who agrees with them. She even maintains a fake feud with Carson Rhodes, a black liberal commentator, in order to [[MoneyDearBoy up her book sales and speaking fees]].

* ComingOutStory: Lionel, unlike the character in the film, is still questioning his sexuality at the beginning of the series. He grows increasingly sure he's gay before finally coming out to his roommate Troy (who he finds attractive, though [[IncompatibleOrientation the latter is very straight]], and he doesn't tell him this). Troy accepts it easily.
* ConspiracyTheorist: Quite a few in Season 2

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Coco in Episode 6 reveals she grew up on Chicago's South Side and watched friends and family get shot and killed, [[SurvivorsGuilt harboring the feeling that she could've done something to save them.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: Sam is this. While her rhetoric is both insightful and inciteful, she accomplishes very little of substance compared to Lionel, who plays pivotal roles multiple times. And while she does get a significant amount of focus and development, [[EnsembleCast so do the rest of the cast]].
* DemotedToExtra: Gabe goes from being one of the major characters of Season 1 to barely present in Season 2, except for Episode 8, when he and Sam address the events and causes of their breakup.
* DisappearedDad: Lionel's dad died before he was six. Even before this he wasn't around, due to having a {{secret other family}} he wouldn't leave.

* FaceHeelTurn: Silvio has one after the Independent goes under, [[spoiler: and he takes on the SecretIdentity of @[=AltIvyW=].]]

* FriendsWithBenefits: Sam and Gabe's relationship starts this way, but quickly becomes a full romantic relationship.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Played with [[spoiler: with Coco. She is deeply conflicted about the decision, but ultimately decides to have one. But when she goes to the abortion clinic with Kelsey, she decides against it, leaves Winchester, ultimately becomes a lawyer, and raises her daughter (with Troy’s apparent help), who herself gets into Winchester. But it’s then revealed to be a DaydreamSurprise, and Coco instead goes through with the abortion. She obliquely refers to the abortion throughout the rest of Season 2, but it’s not shown how much it truly affected her.]]
* GoshDangItToHeck: Lionel always uses terms like "malarkey" and "hooey" rather than actual swear words.

* GreenEyedMonster: Downplayed, but Reggie is clearly less than pleased at finding out Sam and Gabe are in a relationship. Ironically, Joelle is one for him, but never acts on it because of his clear attraction to Sam.
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Sam mentions that people insult her sometimes over being mixed race.

* ImportantHaircut: Lionel has Troy cut his afro after at last admitting to himself that he's gay.
* IronicName: Sam ''White'' identifies strongly as being black.

* MixedAncestry:
** Sam openly mentions she's biracial to her friends, something which she never does in the film.
** Silvio, Lionel's editor, specifically mentions that he's mixed Italian and Mexican-American.
* MrFanservice: Troy in Episode 3 has about two sex scenes [[spoiler: with Coco and later Nieka Hobbs]] along with a shower scene showing his bare ass.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye[=/=]PartingWordsRegret: Though Sam knew her father’s health wasn’t great, she didn’t know how bad it was or that he had undergone two surgeries before dying. In their last conversation, she cut it off early, because he was cautioning her against spending too much of her emotional energy fighting others. Sam is wracked with guilt that this was their last conversation until she found [[DeadManWriting a last letter from him]].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Corresponding with the above NWordPrivileges, [[spoiler:Gabe]] was the one to call on Campus Security in order to break up the ensuing fight. [[spoiler: Gabe didn't predict that one of the security guards would pull a gun on Reggie however.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Rikki Carter tries to deliver one to Sam. Made all the more ironic that [[CastingGag Rikki's actress]] [[spoiler: Tessa Thompson formerly played Sam in the film.]]

* OpenMouthInsertFoot: When Sam gets a caller on her radio show who disagrees with her aggressive perspective on [[spoiler: campus police pulling gun on a Reggie at a party,]] she accuses him of being unaware of his white privilege - only for the caller to reveal that [[YouKnowImBlackRight he's actually black]] while they're still both on the air.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: @[=AltIvyW=] is revealed to be [[spoiler: Silvio, who uses his new platform to lash out at Sam for "attacking" free speech and enabling privileged rich kids, no matter what their race or ethnic background... despite him being a gay Latino himself]].

* ReallyGetsAround: If Lionel's POV is accurate going by the incessant female moans, Troy has a lady over every night of the week.
* RoleReprisal: Brandon Bell and Marque Richardson reprise their roles playing Troy and Reggie.

* RomanticRunnerUp: Joelle feels this way compared to Sam, especially when it comes to Reggie. Ultimately defied though, as Joelle and Reggie get together in the Season 2 finale.

* StraightGay: Lionel, though another gay guy notices even so.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: In-universe. Gabe begins flirting with the new black woman in his film course in order to make Sam jealous.

* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler: Troy and Professor Nieka Hobbs.]]
* TherapyIsForTheWeak: Reggies tries several methods to deal with his PTSD—[[ArsonMurderAndAdmiration sex, drugs, a Bible study]]—but refuses to see a therapist.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Troy structures his entire life around his father's approval. Unlike in the film though, [[spoiler: he realizes it made him into a puppet for the Hancocks and ''violently'' rejects it]].