forget ‘confederate’, aaron mcgruder drama imagines if reparations happened

When HBO announced a new show by Game of Thrones show-runners following an alternate history in which the Confederacy won the Civil War and slavery was still legal, the internet erupted into outrage. As many pointed out, slavery is already still legal, and there is no reason at all to trust these two white men to cover the topic effectively given their own racist history, prompting the protest hashtag #NoConfederate to quickly begin trending.

Enter Amazon, Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder, and Girls Trip producer Will Packer. Sensibly finding the aftermath of the Confederate controversy timely, McGruder confirmed to Deadline Tuesday that the three would be joining forces for their own alt-history show titled Black America, which follows a timeline in which former slaves took a few Southern states as reparations and created their own Black nation.

As Deadline reports, Black America “envisions an alternate history where newly freed African Americans have secured the Southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama post-Reconstruction as reparations for slavery, and with that land, the freedom to shape their own destiny. The sovereign nation they formed, New Colonia, has had a tumultuous and sometimes violent relationship with its looming ‘Big Neighbor,’ both ally and foe, the United States. The past 150 years have been witness to military incursions, assassinations, regime change, coups, etc. Today, after two decades of peace with the U.S. and unprecedented growth, an ascendant New Colonia joins the ranks of major industrialized nations on the world stage as America slides into rapid decline. Inexorably tied together, the fate of two nations, indivisible, hangs in the balance.”

Now that’s an alt-history show we are here for.

Black America is described as a drama, but fans of McGruder’s humor don’t fear, Packer confirms “it wouldn’t be Aaron McGruder without traces of his trademark sardonic wit.”

We absolutely cannot wait!