Opinion: The Problem with You People

You People is one of the latest Netflix original romantic comedies to hit the streaming service and it was released right on time for Black History Month, hurray! However, as funny as this movie was in certain instances, the writing and overall message of the film left a lot to be desired.

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I was initially hesitant to watch this movie. This is because time after time, Hollywood has done a very poor job of making movies like this so as not to really rock the boat on a very important issue. So my initial reaction to the trailer of You People was “meh, I’ll skip it.” This was further heightened by the reactions of certain groups of people online who had their own opinions of the film based solely on the trailer. It was bad and it further elevated the reason why we need to have more solution-based discussions about the subject matter of racism and also films like You People.

Don’t get me wrong, films like You People need to exist and I am happy it does because it opens the door for more films like this to exist and gives a platform for Black writers and filmmakers. However, at a few points in this film, the mark was missed horribly. While it is very important to have a conversation about racism and how to navigate through it, You People took the easy way out on a lot of things and left a lot to be desired.

The film itself is about a Black woman and a Jewish man who fall in love and want to get married. Their parents, members of the Nation of Islam and of Jewish faiths, respectively, cannot come to terms with this and go out of their way to make both of their children as uncomfortable as possible. Sounds like a great time, right? If not, it’s because it isn’t. As someone who has gone through this type of treatment from the family of a significant other (not even just once because I’m not that lucky), it can be a breath of fresh air when I see movies like You People explore this hard reality.

The thing is, scratching the surface and then shying away from the topic does more harm than good, especially on a topic regarding racism. That’s where this movie fails and it’s even worse because you can just sense how the writers are continuously patting themselves on the back, thinking they’ve done something groundbreaking. Sure, a lot of good points were made and if you truly paid attention you might have learned something that you didn’t know going in and it helped you understand another group of people. However, this is not the monumental film that it would love to be. You People is as tone deaf as a lot of the intended audience who needs to see and/ or hear these things are. And that’s a huge problem.

For other streaming content coverage, check out Temple of Geek’s breakdowns of HBO’s The Last of Us.