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If the content wars of cable and streaming giants were an episode of Game of Thrones, Amazon just pulled a Cersei Lannister-level move on its competitor, HBO.
What looks like a standard announcement of a new series called Black America is actually a beautifully-executed troll on the content giant, whose own alt-history series Confederate has been brutally scorched on social media ever since it was announced last week by folks claiming it to be exploitative. Unlike Confederate, which will be headed by (white, male) Thrones show runners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, Black America is the brainchild of Boondocks and Black Jesus creator Aaron McGruder and super producer Will Packer (Girls Trip, Straight Outta Compton).
If comparing the titles of the two shows doesn’t tell you all you need to know, consider the way they’re described:
According to HBO, Confederate “takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution.”
In other words, life under the Trump Administration.