Rev Dr Sparky
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

A horrible idea, and I am deeply disappointed with those two. I believe they have lost themselves in the heady realms of their hyper-success — they now think everything they do is genius, and no one has the spine to tell them that this idea, as presented without any context or rationale so far, is tasteless, destructive, offensive, and ludicrous. If they go through with this production, I’m sure it will get an audience, but as some have intimated, it may not be the high-minded audience they might like, but instead be an audience drawn to a very ugly place of the imagination. And I suppose it could continue to enrich them, but it could also be a career-killer. It has already cast a shadow for me on their work; I cannot imagine what they are thinking. My kindest conjecture is that, perhaps, they intend to make a sort of cautionary tale, to show us that, really, slavery was a bad idea, and here’s how it would have played out, you see. On the face of it, it’s one of the stupidest fucking idea I’ve every heard. It’s “Springtime for Hitler”-level awful.

For decades, I’ve given my beloved fantasy and science-fiction genres a (shamefaced) pass on the diversity front. As a white child, I did not question the colors of the characters; later, I saw the lack and understood the lens. By then, as a a grown woman, I also had to acknowledge that I had tolerated the genres’ abysmal misogyny (GOT included). Why? I don’t know. I wanted to go to the stars, I suppose, and they were going there. Those writers were escaping; they were trying to break free.

But mostly our minds are not free. It appears we can easily imagine living on other planets, or in alternate universes, or spinning off into alternate histories, medieval or contemporary or future — but we simply cannot imagine ever being any different, as human beings. We’ve got an ideal or two, I suppose, but then we’re violent, territorial, sexual, flawed, and deeply, stubbornly bigoted. The racism continues; the oppression continues; the white privilege continues. And today, people of color are asked to hear an idea like this — with no spiritual or moral or ethical context given, no positive purpose or rationale proposed — and respond with a straight face or a dignified response? Oh, hell, no.

And yet, Ezinne Ukoha, you did give an important and a constructive response to this news, and I thank you very much.

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Rev Dr Sparky

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Preaching courage in the face of absurdity. Starting now.