‘Black America’: Amazon Alt-History Drama Envisions Post-Reparations America - take that HBO

[escapegoat]

The Man in the High Castle is sci-fi, more than just alt history.

 

[CatParty]

If you want to see this alt history well done, watch White Man's Burden

 

[Mungo]

While I haven't seen too much of the show, the occupying forces (the Nazis especially, of course) are not exactly depicted with all too much humanity. From what I understand, the depictions of the Japanese villains have led to some minor SJ outrage, for the usual pointless reasons.

 

[Cyber Bowling]

I'm actually optimistic about this. Alt-history is a neat concept, but it ultimately tends to focus on the same type of stories, most notably the "What if X happened during WW II."

This actually sounds like a fresh take on it. My biggest concern is how courageous the writers are willing to go with it. After seeing the Confederate backlash, I imagine they're going to be very on edge and hesitant about anything that displays an all black nation as negative, since it will be met immediately with waves of "that's racist" from tumblr. I can't imagine there would be much story telling potential if they just showed this nation as being a perfect utopia, unless they went with a "white man threatens to destroy perfection" type storyline. I'm willing to at least give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

 

[The Nameless One]

If Black America opens up with a prologue of the first leader of New Colonia giving an inspiring speech reminding the newly freed citizens that "WE WUZ KANGZ", I am going to shit myself laughing and watch every episode.

DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME, MCGRUDER

 

[Pikimon]

Looks great

 

[Steve Mayers]

I'm actually optimistic about this. Alt-history is a neat concept, but it ultimately tends to focus on the same type of stories, most notably the "What if X happened during WW II."

This actually sounds like a fresh take on it. My biggest concern is how courageous the writers are willing to go with it. After seeing the Confederate backlash, I imagine they're going to be very on edge and hesitant about anything that displays an all black nation as negative, since it will be met immediately with waves of "that's racist" from tumblr. I can't imagine there would be much story telling potential if they just showed this nation as being a perfect utopia, unless they went with a "white man threatens to destroy perfection" type storyline. I'm willing to at least give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Aaron McGruder can be pretty critical of the black community. He's never been one to paint a completely sanitized picture of Black America. The Boondocks is critical both of US Race Relations, and Black Culture.

 

[Y2K Baby]

Looks great

You're gay.

 

[usernames can change now!]

Aaron McGruder can be pretty critical of the black community. He's never been one to paint a completely sanitized picture of Black America. The Boondocks is critical both of US Race Relations, and Black Culture.

If the Boondocks creator is working on it, maybe it won't all be sunshine and flying pyramids.

 

[Steve Mayers]

If the Boondocks creator is working on it, maybe it won't all be sunshine and flying pyramids.

If anything seeing as Aaron McGruder is somewhat meme savy he'll make fun of it. He's done episodes based around memes before.

 

[ICametoLurk]

It would be interesting to see where Aaron McGruder goes with this. He stopped all the hating on Nigger culture when Obama became president because people didn't like it when he said that Obama wasn't Black (Which I assume is similar to this). He's also a 9/11 Truther Old School Afro-centrist Communist.

 

[breadandcircuses]

So what exactly is the plot explanation for New Colonia not going down the happy fun "post-white" collapse of Liberia and Zimbabwe and South Africa and Somalia and...

Because plot armor. That's always the answer. It's why the only alt history I like is typically Turtledove. He doesn't do bullshit plot armor.

Prediction: the Nazis in The Man in the High Castle will be portrayed with more depth than the Confederates in Confederate.

Supposedly, Confederate is taking inspirational cues from the Southern Victory series.

 

[MarineTrainedTard]

Alternative history is right up my alley, so I'm pretty interested in both this and Confederate.

I like the people reeeeeing about "historical revisionism". Like... uh, there's an entire subgenre of fiction called "alternative history". Harry Turtledove springs to mind as a prominent writer in that subgenre. And yeah, Aaron McGruder is not known for being all sunshine and puppies about the black community (SEE: "Nigga moment")

EDIT: I hadn't even read the last post in the thread when I mentioned Turtledove. But he's written stuff including a series of books based on the premise of the Confederacy winning the Civil War, one where the Korean War evolves into World War III, hell, even a series about a fucking alien invasion during WWII.

 

[Tranhuviya]

lol at blacks going for the exact thing actual white supremacists want.

 

[breadandcircuses]

Alternative history is right up my alley, so I'm pretty interested in both this and Confederate.

I like the people reeeeeing about "historical revisionism". Like... uh, there's an entire subgenre of fiction called "alternative history". Harry Turtledove springs to mind as a prominent writer in that subgenre. And yeah, Aaron McGruder is not known for being all sunshine and puppies about the black community (SEE: "Nigga moment")

EDIT: I hadn't even read the last post in the thread when I mentioned Turtledove. But he's written stuff including a series of books based on the premise of the Confederacy winning the Civil War, one where the Korean War evolves into World War III, hell, even a series about a fucking alien invasion during WWII.

Thank you!

And you can tell his timeline 191 isn't the same mastubatory bullshit that the fucking Draka.

 

[Pikimon]

You're gay.

Youre black

 

[Y2K Baby]

Youre black

I wish.

 

[TheMonkeyMan]

lol at blacks going for the exact thing actual white supremacists want.

 

[The_Truth]

So it's just going to be Detroit?

Ehh, I don't really get the hate. Conceptually, this isn't any worse than Confederate, hell, it may very well have been greenlit because of Confederate. The premise, like most alternate history works, dramatically misunderstands the history it's branching off from, but to no greater a degree than something that I know is awful like CSA.

I'm a sucker for this sort of alternate history stuff, and I'm happy to see more (good) examples of it. There are a lot of shitty expectations being piled onto both this and Confederate, so here's hoping that both shows can rise above that and actually depict something interesting or thought-provoking about an often-misunderstood time period.

I think the difference is that white people know Confederate is just a TV show where as "woke" black people think they flew to earth on pyramid shaped spaceships.

 

[Pikimon]

I think the difference is that white people know Confederate is just a TV show where as "woke" black people think they flew to earth on pyramid shaped spaceships.

nigga pls theyre whining on Twitter that HBO is going to "mock muh heritage bc lieberals"