Think Kunta Kinte, Amistad, Glory, or Django Unchained. For years, the quintessential slave drama centered around the story of a black man proving his manhood. We can always use more stories about women.It has to be done right, but I believe it’s possible to find comedy in the absurdity of racism. (I’m tired of this trope too.) Comedy Central’s Drunk History, Lizzie Mae’s Ask a Slave YouTube series or even Key and Peele’s sketch on the auction block are proof than there is a way to satirize this dark period of history. Slavery was a gruesome practice, but that doesn’t mean every single movie has to be one extended whipping scene.It doesn’t get any more complex than that. Your father could own you, his wife could sell you, marriage was illegal, and you existed as someone else’s property. In slavery, everyone’s relationship status is always complicated. Viewers don’t want villain or hero stereotypes anymore welcome to the age of the anti-hero. The most successful dramas on TV right now are the ones that offer multi-dimensional characters.To those white people or black people who think they’ve seen it all-I guarantee you, you haven’t. This is a story of humanity and inhumanity, citizenship and denial, power and struggle. The period beginning with the start of the Transatlantic Slave trade and ending with emancipation in the Western world includes nearly 400 years of history and five continents.Don’t believe me? Here are nine reasons why: The fact of the matter is, we need more representations of slavery in entertainment, not less. Few historical events rival the compelling stories from this period: the enslaved who mailed themselves North, those who cross dressed for hundreds miles in order to get to freedom, those who single-handedly stole a confederate ship, or incited a slave rebellion. Sure, we know about Harriet Tubman, but how many of us can offer three different examples of her accomplishments? The woman lived to be over 90 years old, and we’ve barely scratched the surface as far as her personal narrative is concerned. But, when it comes to America’s history of slavery, so few stories are ever fully told. Otherwise, how do we explain Fast and Furious 7? Seriously, 7? Or the mania over Star Wars? Rarely is anything original in Hollywood anymore. We love seeing the same story over and over again. Don’t be fooled: the debate over Roots is not about remakes.

Roots remake