The Handmaid’s Tale — The Story of African American Slavery

I’ve been deeply engrossed in Hulu’s original series, The Handmaid’s Tale for the past few days — constantly admiring the cinematography, set designs, and the strangely twisted storylines.

I’m now at the beginning of season two and something just dawned on me. I’d seen and heard this f’d up narrative before, which in itself was an unnerving feeling. I couldn’t quick grasp the ever growing feeling of deja vu.

The longer I began to watch, all the while paying closer to this feeling, it began to become clearer and clearer. The initial feeling had now become something of a realization, like that of a kernel that was quickly blossoming into a budding flake of popcorn.

While The Handmaid’s Tale was depicting wildly fictional tales of abused women, it was also piggy backing off of a very real narrative — one that has haunted the African American community for decades, slavery.

Each fictional offense the women endured while in captivity, each depraved, twisted, and sick event that transpired to June and the other Handmaids were exact replicas of the struggles African Americans, my ancestors, truly had to endure.

So as I covered my mouth or, tried to comfort my twitching eyes back to life, after witnessing the horrors in the show, I nearly lost it. The glaring similarities to that of which my forefathers had to endure was mind numbing. This actually happened, all these horrors in the show, and for me, that was a twilight zone moment.

It’s often a strange moment to come to a real life realization while watching a fictional show. A fact or a point that is so sharp it almost feels hurled from the screen and deep into your soul, leaving you unable to see anything the same.

The part that slapped me so hard it sent me backwards, into a time warp, came as June, the main character, was being helped and transferred from safe house to safe house. She waited days, to weeks, to months in the same location, not even 100% sure her heroes would come back alive to take her to the next destination. I realized that this, well these moments of uncertainty and emotional angst were exact replicas of what it must have been like within the Underground Railroad.

The great risk those kind and brave souls put themselves through is nothing short of remarkable.

The deep and poignant issues the show dramatizes are definitely understood from my perspective, but that is all they are in the show, issue that are overly dramatized to make very clear points.

These lives, these lives were lived, but not by a fictional character named June, but by countless millions of black men, women, and children. Many of whose names, legacies, and lives will never be known, thus rendering them virtually nonexistent.

Unspeakable horrors transpired, to which our nation continues to deal with today, in our so-called modern era — and, while watching a show that has been somewhat of a trending topic to speak on issues of women and the lbgqt community, there is one voice I didn’t hear too much from, that of the African Americans.

The only community, that has truly dealt with these atrocities within the United States of America.

So, the real story of The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t necessarily one of a woman from a overly fictional world, but that of the countless millions of African American who will never have the opportunity to have a show created in their honor, to tell their narratives and share their voices.

The voices of real of struggle.