'The Gilded Age' reminds us that the Black elite existed and thrived
CNN
The storyline of "The Gilded Age" begins less than 20 years after slavery was abolished in the US, and so the creative forces behind the historical series would have been well within their rights to feature a Black family struggling post Reconstruction.
But, instead, there is the well-to-do Scott family, whose characterization is a breath of fresh air to many viewers, especially African Americans.
"It means a great deal to me to have Black folks tune in to 'The Gilded Age' and to feel represented," Erica Armstrong Dunbar, the show's historical consultant and one of its producers, told CNN. "We're in a moment where we need to see dignity, where we need to reconcile with the violence and the trauma of segregation, of anti-Blackness, but also to see how these men and women who lived in the 19th century managed to live with that and still not be dehumanized by it."
