The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder and producer Will Packer are teaming up to create a new drama series for Amazon entitled Black America, according to Deadline. In short, it envisions an America were black people were given Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama as post-slavery reparations. The states form a new nation called New Colonia that’s constantly at odds with their “Big Neighbor,” the US, which is in the state of decline.
“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,” Packer said to Deadline about the series’ premise. “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.”
Black America‘s announcement comes after HBO was roasted for Confederate, a drama from the Game of Thrones creators that envisions America before the “Third American Civil War.” Of course, this means slavery is still legal, not a promising premise considering Game of Thrones‘ own treatment of the issue (white messiahs “liberating” people of color tend not to go over well). Black America‘s reveal isn’t just good timing: Confederate‘s existence pushed Packer to reveal Black America.
“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 said to Deadline.
McGruder’s most recent series was the Adult Swim comedy Black Jesus, which aired its second season in 2015.
