HBO was trending on social media over the weekend but not in a good way. The pay-cable channel’s upcoming slavery drama “Confederate” became the focus of a social media campaign urging HBO to abandon the project.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed reports that the grass-roots campaign against the project hit No. 2 Sunday, during HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” on Twitter’s worldwide trending topics.
The outcry prompted a response from HBO, which released a statement saying: “We have great respect for the dialogue and concern being expressed around ‘Confederate.’ We have faith that [writers] Nichelle, Dan, David and Malcolm will approach the subject with care and sensitivity. The project is currently in its infancy so we hope that people will reserve judgment until there is something to see.”
As we reported earlier this month, the series comes from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of “Game of Thrones.”
“Confederate” imagines an alternate universe in which the Southern states have seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The series tracks the activities of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone, including freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists and the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate.
“The campaign, organized by April Reign, creator of the #OscarsSoWhite outcry, urged viewers to tweet #NoConfederate during Sunday’s episode of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ in a bid to send a message to the cabler that their subscribers don’t want to see a show that explores slavery in any sense,” THR reports. “By the end of ‘Game of Thrones’ East Coast broadcast, #NoConfederate had reached No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 2 worldwide among Twitter’s trending topics.”
I’m so tired of these social justice warriors, I could just throw up. Make whatever you want HBO, people don’t have to watch it if they don’t like it !!!!!
“The campaign, organized by April Reign, creator of the #OscarsSoWhite outcry, urged viewers to tweet #NoConfederate during Sunday’s episode of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ in a bid to send a message to the cabler that their subscribers don’t want to see a show that explores slavery in any sense.”
Really? So, basically, what April Reign and others supporting this nonsense are saying is… “Let’s ignore the past. Slavery is so bad, we don’t want to talk about it… or let anyone else either.”
I agree guys. How does a society ever improve if it can’t confront the mistakes of the past and work to correct them? It’s not like this is a new concept. I can’t remember off the top of my head the name of the author who writes “alternate history” fantasy books (like if the Germans had won WWII and all of Europe was under NAZI control etc…) If April had an ounce of brains she’d realize that this show is probably going to revise history and show how Jefferson Davis, the evil Republican successfully defeated the noble Democrat Abe Lincoln and seceded from the union. It would be interesting to see how the show would portray “modern America” under this system. Would the Minnesota Vikings (with an integrated team), travel to Atlanta to play the Falcons “all white” team? Would the Falcons have players of color playing for them, but as slaves? How would that affect their salary cap??? I say this in jest, but what’s next? ZERO shows that show slavery?? Who decides what is O.K. to show and what’s NOT? Can ABC still show “The Ten Commandments” every Saturday night before Easter because that movie depicts the Jews living in Egypt as slaves?? Where does this political correct madness ever end??
Being born & raised in the south as a second generation American, it get very upset with non-southerners lecturing the south about slavery. Obviously, they do not know US history. The North also had & profited from slavery. New York City was originally built by slaves. Most of the ships transporting slaves were owed by companies in the North. Northern Cities became rich because of the slave trade.Don’t hear much about that part.
Following this theory programs like Roots and Underground would have never made it to TV.