A post shared by Will Packer (@willpowerpacker) on Apr 11, 2017 at 9:36pm PDT
This article was originally published by i-D UK.
Amazon has announced Black America, a new series that imagines an “alternate-universe” version of contemporary America where the Southern states Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have been ceded to black Americans as reparations for slavery. The series is being made by Straight Outta Compton and Girls Trip producer Will Packer and creator of Adult Swim series The Boondocks and Black Jesus, Aaron McGruder.
“It was something that was personally intriguing for me as a black American,” Packer say of the show’s premise in an interview with Deadline. “You would be hard pressed to find many black Americans who have not thought about the concept of reparation, what would happen if reparations were actually given. As a content creator, the fact that that is something that has been discussed thoroughly throughout various demographics of people in this country but yet never been explored, to my knowledge, in any real way in long-form content, I thought it was a tremendous opportunity to delve into the story, to do it right.”
The announcement follows a backlash against a competing alternate-universe drama from the Game of Thrones creators and HBO, titled Confederate, which is set in a contemporary America where the Southern states remained seceded from the union and slavery continued, becoming in this series “a modern-day institution.”
Though the creators of Black America would not comment directly on the controversy surrounding Confederate, it did precipitate their own announcement. “It felt this was the appropriate time to make sure that audiences and the creative community knew that there was a project that preexisted and we are pretty far down the road with it,” Packer told Deadline, noting that they have engaged historians on the series to ensure that they, “are telling the story in an accurate and responsible way”.
Noting the issues exposed by Ava DuVernay’s affecting Netflix documentary The 13th, Packer adds, “You still have the prison-industrial complex that disproportionately imprisons black and brown people, you can trace that back for many reasons to slavery.” Black America, “will speak to where we are now and the mistakes this country has made and things we should do going forward,” he adds.
Amazon’s Black America does not yet have a release date.
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush