Actually, Nah: ‘Confederate’ Sounds Like a Terrible Idea

[divider type=”space_thin”] If you’ve read me on Black Nerd Problems before, it’s a good bet you know that my fandom for Game of Thrones is hard to contain like wildfire. Showrunners Benioff and Weiss have done some miraculous work bringing a very good source material to a premium network and making that show one of the most popular viewing spectacles of all time. These guys know what they’re doing. I trust them with a lot of things. Like, 70% of the things. Slavery falls in the 30%. Confederate just got greenlit by HBO as the follow up for the duo after Thrones concludes. The show will chronicle the events that lead to a third civil war in an alternate version of America, where slavery is still legal and part of the modern institution. Long sigh. Why white people love slavery so much, yo? But we’ll get back to that. For the many, many strengths that Game of Thrones presents, a couple of things that don’t get high marks are the treatment of women, and the glaring lack of diversity for people of significant roles. The highest profile Black person currently on Game of Thrones is a former slave-turned-councilor and translator for perhaps the greatest white hope in the modern TV era. Any Black characters besides those of the queen’s court never had an enduring storyline or character development beyond an episode or two. And before someone says some dumb shit about realism, I will remind them that while the settings may be based on feudal Europe, this is a show about zombies and d…