It is truly incredible the hubris displayed in this move by HBO and by Benioff and Weiss. Just take the flag, whatever version they use for this counterfactual secessionist country will have a flag and that flag will be used as iconography by real life white supremacists no matter how “awful” the show-runners make the Confederate characters (perhaps because of how “awful” the show-runners make those characters).
And how can you make the characters representing the Confederate state anything but awful? If they are moderates, you risk making legal racial division look possible and maybe even responsible for people on the fringes (and closer to the mainstream — just this weekend ALEC is debating proposing to get rid of the 17th Amendment and we have seen omnipresent voter suppression efforts from the State Houses to the White House).
And why in the world are so many of our “new” stories about people of color in chains (or at least in servitude)? Why do two white guys famous for show running an occasionally brilliant show featuring a cast of almost 100% white folks want to let us in on their feelings about race through the lens of doing violence to bodies of color on screen (and most of the people of color who are in the cast play former slaves who are also eunuchs fyi)? And remember, whenever we wonder why people don’t seem to care about Tamir Rice or Eric Garner the answer might be that people of color are almost always depicted as subjugated objects of power even while they might fight that power.
And God help us all if it ends up being another show where heroic white folks “save” black folks. I am not saying white folks weren’t important to emancipation and civil rights, but to hear Hollywood tell it (until recently) people of color were secondary players in the struggle for restoration of human rights (and yes, I am white).
If I am wrong, I will apologize, but I would be shocked if this show ends up being anything but an offensive train wreck.
I do love Game of Thrones, I have read every book and watched every episode, but due respect, this new B & W show is just a terrible idea.
