“See how alt-history is handled by black creatives?”
Today, it was announced that Amazon is making a new show titled Black America from prominent producer Will Packer and Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder.
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According to Deadline, Black America, which is still in development, envisions an alternate post-Reconstruction history where the newly-freed African Americans take over the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama as reparations for slavery.
They form an independent nation called New Colonia that continues to have "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." When the series begins, New Colonia has become a major industrialized nation while the US is on the decline.
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McGruder is no stranger to writing about race relations in America given the success of the Peabody Award-winning comic and TV series The Boondocks. He also has some experience writing alternative history with his show Black Jesus.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to Amazon and McGruder for more information on Black America.
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Packer told Deadline they are "bringing on the appropriate historians to make sure we are telling the story in an accurate and responsible way."
“Even though the story is set in contemporary society, not post-slavery, it relies on us being factually correct in telling the story of how we got to a contemporary society where you’ve got a sovereign country that is run by black Americans.”
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