When I learned that a new version of the Roots television miniseries was being developed I wondered whether it was needed since 130 million people watched the excellent original series and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, had read the book. But that was a long time ago, and two recent events made me realize that my answer was an emphatic, “yes!” We need all accurate portrayals of African American history we can get. The first event was the unfortunate utterances of the rapper Snoop Dog. He questioned the showing of such a “negative” story and pleaded for Hollywood to focus on black success.
To my continuing chagrin I have met similar sentiments all too often. Snoop Dog is far from being alone. However, as the columnist Leonard Pitts argues, “History is not obliged to make you feel good when the truth is bad.” The problem here seems to be that some African Americans misinterpret aspects of our history, especially slavery. Too many seem to feel there is a defect in Africans brought to America conditioning them to be slaves. Rather than celebrating the triumph of these Africans in America in freeing themselves from slavery many African Americans seemed to buy into the lie that the captured Africans were savages fit only for slavery–the Tarzan story. Yes, I said “freeing themselves,” as they did. From W.E.B. DuBois’ writings over 80 years ago to recent books and articles, scholars have tried to correct the record on the part African Americans played before, during, and after the Civil War.
Perhaps more African Americans need to be clearer about the heroes in African American history. A friend and former colleague of mine at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Asafa Jalata from Ethiopia, speaks and writes effusively about how amazingly blacks weathered the degradations and deprivations of slavery, worked to free themselves, and once free set about helping to develop this country. With more media and discussions about these issues, fewer African Americans would be so uneasy about our history. We need to understand that the 246 years of slavery and the following 100 years (1865-1965) of racial apartheid in the United States made us, but should not define us.
The other event that answered my question about the need for another Roots miniseries occurred in another Leonard Pitts article about Roots. In this article he relates his lack of knowledge about slavery in the United States when the original Roots series was shown, during his senior year at USC. That such a bright young man could be that clueless tells a lot about the state of knowledge among African Americans about their own history. Unfortunately, with every two steps forward by African Americans there have been one or more steps backward. For example, with school integration came the end of black history for black students in schools.
This history is important for whites as well, including people like Pitts’ white classmate, who after seeing the original Roots miniseries apologized to Pitts, saying, “I’m sorry. I did not know [slavery was that bad].” We needed the new Roots miniseries, and we need a lot more. We could use more telling of the real history so that white America can stop denying the horrors blacks endured.