I spend a lot of time thinking about some of the most painful parts of our nation's history.

Slavery, the slave trade, segregation, and racial violence pervade so much of my work.

This stuff is hard.

So I'm not apologetic about keeping my TV viewing light.

I remain unashamed that I watch every Hallmark Christmas movie,

even though I can tell from the first scene exactly how it will play out. And I'll much sooner

watch Saturday Night Live than an episode of Ozark. But a lot of my family members like

their entertainment to be a little bit darker,

a little more real than I do.

Those family members watch the HBO show Watchmen that premiered in 2019.

The show takes place in a modern-day Tulsa, Oklahoma, but in an alternate timeline of American history.

In this Tulsa, our protagonist is serving as both a police officer and a vigilante superhero named Sister Knight.

Spoiler alert. Her grandfather is a survivor of the Tulsa Massacre.

I'm not going to get into what seems to be an alien squid attack or a subplot set on one of Jupiter's moons.

Let's just say that even though it's set in a very different America,

the characters are dealing with political and racial issues,

which are grounded in the very real American universe.

In 1921, white Oklahomans, aided by police officers and the National Guard, raised 35 square blocks of Black Tulsa and the thriving Greenwood community known as Black Wall Street. The reason? The rumored assault of a white girl by a black man.

The allegation was proved false, and the black community resisted.

But before the massacre was over, between 70 and 300 people were dead dead and 8,000 were homeless.

The first episode of Watchmen begins with a reenactment of the Tulsa Massacre.

We see chaos on the streets. There's smoke everywhere, and people are ducking gunfire

...