When HBO announced that the Game of Thrones creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, would be producing Confederate as their next project, I really didn’t think of the consequences at the time. It’s a bad idea.
I liken it to the Amazon series, The Man in the High Castle. Amazon has already renewed it for a third season. The series, of course, being based on the book of the same name by writer Phillip K. Dick. I never read the book nor do I honestly have any interest in watching the series online. The reason being: I’m Jewish and have zero interest in watching a series or reading a book set in a world in which the Nazis won World War 2 and the United States ends up being divided between German and Japanese control.
I’m not a person of color so I am not really in a position to comment on their feelings towards seeing a series that depicts a world in which the Confederates didn’t surrender and slavery is still legal. My friends who have commented on the series have had some not so nice things to say about it. One comedian writes that they are “honestly so tired of white people and white ran institution continuously benefiting from the fetishizing and fantasizing oppression of black bodies.”
I hear you. I think back to a few years ago when 12 Years a Slave was released in theaters. Steve McQueen directed the film from a screenplay written by John Ridley. Chiwetel Ejiofor starred as Solomon Northup. While it was hard to watch the events transpire on screen at the time, it was essential cinema because nobody should ever be forced to live in those conditions ever again.
If HBO is smart, they will listen to the viewers and cancel the project.
