An epic television mini-series is now available on DVD. From the review by Booker Rising’s Shay:
“Roots” did not present a moonlight-and-magnolias version of slavery, as does “Gone With The Wind” and other movies. The slave ship that brings Kunta Kinte to America is dangerously crowded and full of human waste and sick, tortured passengers. The graphic realism persists throughout the series. Once on Master Reynolds’ Virginia plantation, Kunta Kinte is brutally whipped because he refuses to accept his slave name, “Toby.” When Kunta tries to escape in a later episode, his foot is cut off. The practice of white slavemasters raping black female slaves was also addressed. Kunta’s grandson, Chicken George, whom he never met, was the offspring of Kunta’s daughter, Kizzy, and the treacherous Tom Moore.
“Roots” also sparked a movement. Thousands of black Americans started studying genealogy, trying to find where in Africa their families originated. “Roots” also was the impetus for creation of many black studies programs.
Read it all.
And buy it and watch it:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.