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| Game of Throne producers ponder a news series for HBO. |
That's why we are joing the rising chorus against HBO's proposed Confedrate, a show they hope will take the place of Game of Thrones when the Westeros drama ends next season.
The premise of Confederate is an alternative universe where the Confederate States of America wins the Civil War. America is divided into two countries, the Union which fought against slavery, and the South where slavery still exists and part of the norm.
The show is being produced by the same team that brought us the wildly successful Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. HBO wanted to keep the two in their stable so any project they proposed would probably have been given the green light.
Not surprisingly, the concept was met with skepticism and cynicism from people of color. The originator of #OscarsSoWhite launched a campaign #NoConfederate to oppose the proposed show.
In response to the backlash, HBO felt compelled to respond. Here’s the statement in full:
"We support everybody’s right to express an opinion but the suggestion of irresponsibility on our part is simply undeserved. HBO has a long history of championing intelligent storytelling and we will approach this project with the same level of thoughtfulness that has always defined our programming. We recognize the sensitivity of this project and will treat it with the respect that it deserves. Our creative partners should be given time to develop the series rather than face prejudgment."
But considering the recent events in Charlottesville and Donald Trump's lame attempt to downgrade the seriousness of the growing menace of white superiority. Sometimes, businesses need to look at the bigger picture and consider their social responsibility over profits. I'm sure HBO's shareholders, if aware of the uproar, could sway executives' minds.
Any attempt to portray racism as normal, will only embolden the low-lifes who confuse fiction and reality, ie. those survivalists who are preparing for a zombie apocalypse or preparing for a war against the federal government or some imagined race war. Even contemplating the plausibility of slavery is enough to make the current cadre of white supremacists solidify their warped beliefs.
From D.W. Griffith's silent Birth of a Nation, in which the KKK were portrayed as heroic figures, to Bette Davis Jezebel to the Academy Award-winning Gone With the Wind, Hollywood has a major hand in fostering this myth of Southern gentility and the "loving" relationship between slave and master.
The worst thing about these classic movies is that as "cinema," they were actually really, really good. As historical portrayals, they were terrible. Unfortunately, they set the tone for a generation of films about the South that romanticized that era, which southerners embraced.
Unlike the recent movies (after the 1965 Civil Rights Act) about the Civil War, (Roots, Glory, Ride With the Devil, Gettysburg, Lincoln, etc. and the modern Birth of A Nation) The earlier movies helped nurture this romantic image of the South. I always resented the portrayals of Southern gentlemen and sweet-talking Southern belles while the Union generals and soldiers were always the crude outsiders who didn't mind their manners.
When HBO announced the Confederate project last week, criticism came in loud and strong.
The sci-fi site io9 posted: “It’s difficult not to be more than a bit skeptical about a show (dreamt up by two white men) built around the premise that the South won the Civil War and has modernized slavery.” The Daily Beast’s Ira Madison III wrote, “all you really need to know is that (‘Confederate’) sounds stupid as hell.”
Social media was even less kind.
Actor David Harewood of the CW’s Supergirl tweeted, “Good luck finding black actors for this project.” NPR’s Linda Holmes tweeted, “This seems extraordinarily unwise.”
“It goes without saying slavery is the worst thing that ever happened in American history. It’s our original sin as a nation. And history doesn’t disappear. That sin is still with us in many ways,” Weiss told New York magazine. “ ‘Confederate,’ in all of our minds, will be an alternative history show. It’s a science-fiction show. One of the strengths of science fiction is that it can show us how this history is still with us in a way no strictly realistic drama ever could, whether it were a historical drama or a contemporary drama. It’s an ugly and a painful history, but we all think this is a reason to talk about it, not a reason to run from it.”
From D.W. Griffith's silent Birth of a Nation, in which the KKK were portrayed as heroic figures, to Bette Davis Jezebel to the Academy Award-winning Gone With the Wind, Hollywood has a major hand in fostering this myth of Southern gentility and the "loving" relationship between slave and master.
The worst thing about these classic movies is that as "cinema," they were actually really, really good. As historical portrayals, they were terrible. Unfortunately, they set the tone for a generation of films about the South that romanticized that era, which southerners embraced.
Unlike the recent movies (after the 1965 Civil Rights Act) about the Civil War, (Roots, Glory, Ride With the Devil, Gettysburg, Lincoln, etc. and the modern Birth of A Nation) The earlier movies helped nurture this romantic image of the South. I always resented the portrayals of Southern gentlemen and sweet-talking Southern belles while the Union generals and soldiers were always the crude outsiders who didn't mind their manners.
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| In the 1915 'Birth of A Nation' the Klan were the good guys., even as they get set to lynch one of the runway slaves. |
The sci-fi site io9 posted: “It’s difficult not to be more than a bit skeptical about a show (dreamt up by two white men) built around the premise that the South won the Civil War and has modernized slavery.” The Daily Beast’s Ira Madison III wrote, “all you really need to know is that (‘Confederate’) sounds stupid as hell.”
Social media was even less kind.
Actor David Harewood of the CW’s Supergirl tweeted, “Good luck finding black actors for this project.” NPR’s Linda Holmes tweeted, “This seems extraordinarily unwise.”
“It goes without saying slavery is the worst thing that ever happened in American history. It’s our original sin as a nation. And history doesn’t disappear. That sin is still with us in many ways,” Weiss told New York magazine. “ ‘Confederate,’ in all of our minds, will be an alternative history show. It’s a science-fiction show. One of the strengths of science fiction is that it can show us how this history is still with us in a way no strictly realistic drama ever could, whether it were a historical drama or a contemporary drama. It’s an ugly and a painful history, but we all think this is a reason to talk about it, not a reason to run from it.”
Racism is not some distant chapter in history books. It is something that still lives with us today, ingrained in our institutions and our culture.
Prominent writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, said in a piece in The Atlantic earlier this month that "African Americans do not need science-fiction, or really any fiction, to tell them that that ‘history is still with us.’ It’s right outside our door. It’s in our politics. It’s on our network."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier versions of this post did not include material about Hollywood's influence in painting a false image of the Civil War.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier versions of this post did not include material about Hollywood's influence in painting a false image of the Civil War.
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