Thank you so much for writing this! When I first saw the story for this, I cringed so hard. It’s clear that these guys are living in a very different reality, one were their whiteness and wealth afford them ignorance.
This show idea is disturbing for so many reasons. The premise seems to center around the idea that black slavery doesn’t exist in the U.S. anymore, which just isn’t true. The U.S. just made slavery legal for prison, and it’s comes as no shock that black people are incarcerated at a much greater rate than white people. Another thing that is incredibly problematic is the fact this shows just reinforces the idea that the only type of racism that is valid is malicious racism. It’s easy to say ‘ya it’s clearly racist when white people degrade black people and use them as objects’, it’s much harder to prove that black people live with other types of racism, like structural racism or implicit bias.
A show that wants to do a nuanced job talking about race must go past malicious racism. The writers must show the more prevalent and insidious racism that is a disease on our country and within our citizens. This show cannot do that, seeing as it’s premise is based solely on malicious racism.
Thanks again, your piece was incredibly insightful and put into words what I was thinking about this show.