Will Packer and Aaron McGruder Imagine Post-Reparations United States in Amazon's 'Black America'

Producer Aaron McGruder, who will also be writing the show's script according to Deadline.

Amazon's "Black America," will explore an alternative history where newly freed slaves secured slavery reparations after the American Civil War, according to Deadline. Producers Will Packer ("Straight Outta Compton") and Peabody winning "The Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder will helm the series, which has been in the works at Amazon for over a year.


Producer Will Packer.

In "Black American," Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were brought together to form the sovereign nation of New Colonia; the country gave former slaves an opportunity to grow and form a community free from white oppression. New Colonia still has a rocky relationship with "Big Neighbor" the United States, and the countries have a violent history of coups, incursions, and assassinations. The show is set after 20 years of peace with the U.S. and unprecedented prosperity for New Colonia, while the U.S. struggles to survive.

"Black America" will present an alternate timeline flipside to HBO's recently announced "Confederate," which explores an alternate timeline where the South successfully seceded from the Union, and slavery is still legal in modern times. "Confederate" immediately drew the ire of the Internet with the show's concept. Within days, the Twitter hashtag #NoConfederate was trending, as people banded together to protest the HBO green-lit project. The public was particularly critical of "Confederate's" imagining of a modern white supremacist society, as many white supremacists still yearn for one. "Black America" will clearly not have that problem, and has not received the same anger "Confederate" got for its announcement. Both shows run in the same vein as Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle," which explores an alternate timeline where the Axis Powers won WWII.

In fact, HBO's announcement for "Confederate" prompted the release of new details for the show, which had previously been announced back in February. Packer said to Deadline of the show's premise:
“It was something that was personally intriguing for me as a black American. 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.”
In further remarks, Packer said the show will speak to modern issues that can be traced back to the Civil War's aftermath. It's too early to speak to the show's overall message, as the script is currently being written by McGruder. However, Packer expanded on what "Black America" will tackle, remarking:
“there definitely is a message about how we co-exist today where... there weren’t reparations, and you still have black Americans who are suffering from the effects of slavery in various ways. You still have the prison-industrial complex that disproportionally imprisons black and brown people, you can trace that back for many reasons to slavery.”
No premiere date has been set for "Black America."

What do you think of the recent trend of shows based on alternate timelines? How do you think "Black America" will stack up? Let us know in the comments below!

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