Keschw
Keschw
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

First off, from Vulture: “One thing left out — or minimized — in many of the critiques is the fact that while Benioff and Weiss will be the official showrunners and creators of the new show, HBO’s announcement also prominently noted the presence of two other writers/executive producers on Confederate, husband and wife Nichelle Tramble Spellman (The Good Wife) and Malcolm Spellman (Empire). The GoT duo noted in the press release that the Spellmans, who are black, would be their partners, not just part of the writing team.”

In other words, it’s not just that they threw a couple token poc in the writer’s room. Half of the creative team are black. They probably just didn’t prioritize their names in the announcement because they didn’t just run HBO’s most popular show.

Either way, it baffles me how people can both complain that we don’t “talk about race” enough, and then complain when four very talented, ambitious storytellers, decide to tell a story about race. I’m gonna be honest — they will have some “problematic” characterizations. If it goes 7 seasons, I’m sure there will be some depictions people aren’t crazy about. Just like Game of Thrones did. Just like Girls did. Just like, I’m sure, Mad Men, did. And, pretty much any other show, movie or book with meaningful ambition.

I agree with others was well, that “humanizing” slave owners isn’t a bad thing. For one, humanizing slave owners isn’t the same as condoning slavery. Tony Soprano is humanized — the show doesn’t condone organized crime. Either way, they were people, who in the context of their time were probably decent human beings who had beliefs with regards to race that we find abhorrent today (and, who some people felt were abhorrent at the time). While I hope it’s not as bad as slavery, I have little doubt that in 100 years some things we do today (say, poverty is alleviated to the extent that we no longer have to rely on sweatshops in China for Iphones. Suddenly, partly because of the ethical questions, partly because it’s no longer an economic necessity, people turn against the idea). I would hope that in 100 years the idea of people using Iphones isn’t so anathema that humanizing them in art is an issue.

    Keschw

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    Keschw