I Want To See a Black Fantasy Story

Little Marvin and Lena Waithe present, Them, a limited anthology series aimed at exploring terrors that black people face in America. The first season will follow a black family during The Great Migration, where they move to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood from North Carolina. The family faces supernatural forces in the house as well as racist neighbors outside.

The first episode won’t debut until April 9th. Discussions on how the story feels familiar, the intense trauma, and colorism portrayed within the trailer have taken place.

The need to show dark skin people being tortured in fictional worlds puzzles me. Them, where a dark skin family faces racial persecution by white neighbors while also being haunted by a Black ghost coated in white paint, is a prime example. The story itself feels unoriginal, with Shows like Lovecraft Country and the breakout horror film Us, where dark skin families are tortured exist.

A notable traumatic story Queen & Slim, a film by Waithe, where a dark skin couple is pulled over for a minor traffic violation, the situation escalates resulting in Slim shooting the officer in self-defense. They run from the law. When a video of the incident goes viral the pair become a symbol for people all across the country.When I watch a movie or read a book I love to enjoy the world that creators built. In these stories that showcase nothing but black trauma that is already experienced in real life what is there to enjoy?

The amount of movies where a dark skin family doesn’t go through trauma is slim to none. I beg for casting directors to stop placing dark skin representation in trauma porn.