HBO’s MINSTREL SHOW
HBO has just announced that after “Game of Thrones” wraps up, its white male showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will move onto their next project — an alternate history series called “Confederate.” According to Variety, “Benioff and Weiss will executive produce the series, which exists in a fictional timeline where the South succeeded in seceding from the Union. In this version of the United States — or what’s become of it — slavery has remained legal and has continued into the modern era.
The story takes place during what’s called the Third American Civil War and follows a group of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, now a demilitarized zone. The groups the characters belong to are vast and include freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists and others. One specific group are the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families they control.”
Um. What. The. Actual. Fuck.
This fails both substantively and procedurally. First — who thinks creating an entire world where slavery has won, where we see week after week black people ENSLAVED by white people; black women RAPED by white men; and perhaps the worst offense — -the lineup of good and decent white men who save the day. How many HBO dudes are jerking off right now just thinking about it.
Good God. That’s the abject substantive failure of this utterly misguided HBO bullshit.
Now onto process…TWO WHITE DUDES are running the show here. Seriously? If you’re going to create a minstrel show, can we at least have ALL black producers? ALL. Like not one single white person. And have it evenly split between black men and women.
Okay. There, I’ve said it. Let’s return to our regularly scheduled Russian program now.
