Netflix is facing an online backlash after releasing its first trailer of "Dear White People", a comedy TV series about racial politics on a university campus.

Based on the acclaimed film of the same name three years ago, Dear White People "satirises 'post-racial' America as students of colour navigate a predominantly white Ivy League college," according to the site’s description.

The trailer shows an an African-American student at the fictional, largely white Winchester University urging “white people” to stop wearing blackface costumes.