For those of you just tuning in, what was supposed to be a protest against the removal of Confederate monuments in the city of Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday turned into a full-blown Ku Klux Klan, “alt-right,” neo-Nazi revival meeting complete with burning torches, black people being attacked and beaten by racist whites, and an innocent person being killed because white supremacy always has to win no matter what the cost.
Listen. The Root warned you a whole-ass two months ago that the Klan was coming to Virginia, and even though y’all read and made more than 300 comments, it would appear that no one, not even Charlottesville police, took the threat seriously.
White supremacy and the ideas behind the proposed HBO show Confederate are already a real thing; black people live this experience every single day, so why is HBO still wanting to make this a thing?
Notice how silent HBO and the creators of the show, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, are on this issue, even though yesterday’s events have gotten international attention. Even your dumb-ass president seemed to be tongue-tied and couldn’t figure out what to say or who to blame for yesterday’s events.
You know who is not tongue-tied? The women behind the #NoConfederate hashtag that will be used for the third Sunday in a row to draw attention to the atrocity that is this show’s premise and its real-life embodiment that is still playing out in Charlottesville as we speak.
In another “Fuck it, I’ll do it” black-woman-empowered movement, April Reign, Lauren Warren, Shanelle Little, Jamie Broadnax and ReBecca Theodore will once again take to Twitter on Sunday during Game of Thrones to raise awareness and show HBO that the bullshit has got to stop.
There’s no need for a show about the Confederacy when we watched it play out in real life on the internet and TV screens all day and night. Saturday’s events make the hashtag more timely and more important than ever.
In an email to The Root, Reign said, “The white nationalist rally in Charlottesville served as an example of either what HBO’s new show could look like, or what could happen as a result of the show. It is a vicious cycle of art imitating life and life imitating art. The hateful rhetoric and the lack of a direct rebuke from Trump only embolden bigots, racists, homophobes, and Nazis. In a time when this country should be attempting to heal its racial divide, HBO must see that this proposed show will only serve to stoke the flames of hate and intolerance.”
Warren echoed those sentiments and posed important questions.
“How will a show on a premium network, which equals more money and is not accessible to everyone, teach lessons that couldn’t be learned in the past,” she asked. “How will a show on a network not accessible to everyone reach those die-hards in the ‘heartland’ who are generations deep into hate?”
How, indeed?
Referencing the death of Heather Heyer, who was part of a counterprotest against the Klan-Nazis-alt-right racists, Warren asked, “After the death of a white woman, is it still art? If so, then we are lost.”
As they did the last two weekends in a row, the women are asking everyone to use the hashtag #NoConfederate from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT and again from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. PDT to register their objection to the announced show.
Even if you are not watching Game of Thrones, you can still use the hashtag with your tweets.
In light of yesterday’s events and the many tragedies tied to them, this is important now more than ever.