Lovecraft Country made me uncomfortable. Not because of the gore, or the monsters, because quite frankly both of those were unbelievably awesome. The show unnerved me because, like Watchmen before it, Lovecraft Country isn’t afraid to show that American history has been horribly whitewashed.

When HBO’s Watchmen came out last year, I was shocked to learn about Black Wall Street and the Tulsa massacre. In my thirty-seven years of life, most of which had been spent in school, I never once had heard about how the Klan and its allies had gone into Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 and proceeded to kill any black person they could find. The number of people killed in the massacre is disputed, ranging anywhere from the low thirties to a few hundred. I was flabbergasted that never in all my years of education had this been taught to me. It seemed like the sort of event that was just too big to not be included in history.

I watched Lovecraft Country a few days ago without any real expectations. I typically enjoy HBO’s programming so I figured no harm in giving it a shot. I was hoping for some cool monster moments and some cheap thrills, but not much more. Instead, Lovecraft Country decided to follow the same path as Watchmen and school me in a side of American history that I hadn’t seen before, and it was all the better for it.

The majority of the first episode is spent showing the viewer the experience of being a black person in the post-Korean War America. This is an America that I would argue most white people are probably not aware of. Yes, we all knew that racism and segregation were there and that they are terrible things, but I don’t think we really understood just how bad it actually was.

The first real sign for me was the travel guide that George, the main character Tic’s uncle, was constantly writing for. I couldn’t understand why his wife got so worked up about him going on another trip to write for the guide. As the show went on, I came to understand that the travel guide, more commonly referred to as The Green Book, was written for black travelers to show where they could safely travel with the least amount of risk to their lives. Traveling through parts of rural America in those days could quite literally be fatal for black travelers.

This danger was really hammered home when Tic, Leti, and George stop for some food at a diner that George had heard was safe for black people to eat at. It becomes very apparent very quick that something isn’t as it seems with the diner. Tic realizes that the original diner had been burnt down by the white residents of the town and the trio has to make an quit exit as the town’s police (!) arrive and start shooting at them, simply for being black in a white town.

The final gut wrenching part was when I learned about sundown towns and counties. When Tic and company make it to Massachusetts, they are approached by a sheriff who informs them that they are in a sundown county. For those that don’t know what that is, like myself before watching the show, a sundown county were places where it was legal to hang black people if they were found inside county lines after sunset. My first instinct was to say that the show was taking some liberties there, especially in Massachusetts. I did a quick google search after the show was over and found out that not only are sundown towns and counties real, but there are places in the country that are still considered sundown towns. In Massachusetts for example, the city of Dedham was a long time sundown town and prided itself on being a white city. This absolutely blew my mind.

At this point the show went into full horror mode, with the frantic attempt to escape the county and the subsequent betrayal by the sheriff, which lead to an amazing scene in the woods featuring a pack of vampric squoggoths (Lovecraftian monster covered with eyes) and some great, gory kills. The way the show blended the horror of racism with the horror of the unknown was fantastic and made for one heck of a climax to the episode.

However, after the show was finished it wasn’t the awesome monsters or nighttime horror that made me want to see more; it was the visible, in your face daytime horror of what it was like to be black in 1950’s America that I wanted to see more of. I pride myself on being an educated individual and it was shocking to me how ignorant I am about the plight of black people in my own country. I want to know more, even if it means exposing how ugly and evil this country can be.

I can already envision the comments on Facebook and YouTube and all the other platforms saying how the show, like Watchmen before it, is SJW (social justice warrior) nonsense. While I vehemently disagree with that assessment, I do understand why so many white people would want to make that argument. We live in a time where black artists are really starting to get the exposure that they have long deserved, and a large part of that is exposing how terrible people that look like me, i.e. white people, have been in our history. There that initial gut reaction to say that never happened, just like my reaction to sundown towns. However, I think it is more important than ever for white people like myself to listen to the black voices around us and hear about a world that was never taught to us, and I think that shows like Watchmen and Lovecraft Country are fantastic vessels for that conversation.

I am truly looking forward to watching the rest of Lovecraft Country. Did you watch the premier? If so, what did you think about it? Tell me in the comments!