As HBO continues to dodge the shrapnel from Confederate, their upcoming series from the Game of Thrones showrunners about an alternate history when the Union has seceded and continued to implement slavery, Amazon has decided to piggyback on the controversy. A few months ago news came out about a mysterious new series that would team ultra successful producer Will Packer (Ride Along, Girls Trip) and Aaron McGruder (The Boondocks). Well, that series has now been revealed to be Black America, and the details were spread yesterday as a total jack move against HBO.
Imagining a similar scenario from a different angle, Black America imagines a post-Civil War future in which African-Americans have secured the southern states as reparations for slavery. Ooooh boy. Check out the synopsis according to Deadline:
It envisions an alternate history where newly freed African Americans have secured the Southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama post-Reconstruction as reparations for slavery, and with that land, the freedom to shape their own destiny. The sovereign nation they formed, New Colonia, has had a tumultuous and sometimes violent relationship with its looming “Big Neighbor,” both ally and foe, the United States. The past 150 years have been witness to military incursions, assassinations, regime change, coups, etc. Today, after two decades of peace with the U.S. and unprecedented growth, an ascendant New Colonia joins the ranks of major industrialized nations on the world stage as America slides into rapid decline. Inexorably tied together, the fate of two nations, indivisible, hangs in the balance.
So this promises to be just as controversial, just with a different group of people. Reparations remain a hot button issue and a goal for certain activist groups, but as you probably guessed it's met with a lot of opposition.
I'm intrigued by those who praise this series but railed against Confederate. Both bend history to create a different, potentially entertaining premise with a ton of storyline potential. If it's simply a matter of disliking Confederate because it imagines the continuation of the most repugnant part of our history, then I think that's probably a narrow-minded way of looking at it. Both shows have the potential to, and probably will, go down a repellant path at some point. I look at them as flip sides of a coin, and I'm interested in seeing where both shows go in the long term.
