Racism. A word still present in our modern society. One would hope that our culture would have moved away from hearing this word so often in the news. Often the first thing we think of when we hear the word racism is the Ferguson shootings or the Baltimore riots. It was these racist events and issues that sparked the creation of Dear White People, a film set on an Ivy League campus that attacks racism and its complexities in the 21st century. The film was simply created for box office success, but “for the sake of something beyond it” (Bitzer 3). The film revolves around racial ideas and how black students react to situations. One method the film uses to attack racism is unique; From the film's opening scenes, CoCo's desire to be part of the white community is made clear. In the first scene, we are introduced to CoCo and a reality TV producer named Helmut West. Helmut interviews CoCo for a potential new TV series. In this interview, we learn that CoCo prefers to live with Tisch's “rich white kids” rather than with Armstrong-Parker's blacks; the traditional black case. This desire to be associated with whites rather than blacks is only the first example of CoCo's characterization. Later in the interview, after Helmut comments that CoCo is from the Chicago neighborhood, CoCo again quickly denies his association with her black background and growls, "There's nothing weird about me." These two consecutive comments quickly and effectively characterize CoCo as someone who extremely desires to be defined as white. CoCo's characterization shows the extreme of black identities because despite her skin color, she strongly desires to be white and be with white people. CoCo's dissatisfaction with her life affectations demonstrates her desire to fit in with the whites. In addition to CoCo's desires, she also denies her personal connections to her black background. It is through these two moments in the film that we can see CoCo's attraction to being