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For eight days in January, 1977 -- January 23 to January 30, twenty-five years ago -- the television mini-series, "Roots," captured the then-largest audience in American viewing history. Even today, it ranks among the top five all-time TV hits. Given its tremendous impact as both entertainment and cultural phenomenon, it is sad and unfortunate that so many of the people celebrating the rebroadcast of this series on cable -- and so many of the original 130 million viewers -- have missed the fundamental lessons demonstrated in this "docudrama."
Published in 1976, Roots by Alex Haley (who also wrote Malcolm X's autobiography) captured the imagination of the country. A bestseller, this history of Haley's family traced his ancestors back to Africa in the mid-Eighteenth Century. While making Haley a literary star, the book also helped spark the interest of black Americans in exploring their own genealogy.
In Haley's recreation of events, his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, is captured and sent to America as a slave. Defiant, he is punished for his independence. How he survived and the legacy he passed on to succeeding generations forms the core of Roots.
The popularity of Haley's book may have led to its television adaptation, but the executives at ABC Television were not convinced that Americans were fully prepared to accept this tale. Its eight-day-in-a-row format resulted from a fear that a once-a-week presentation (as was then the norm) would lose ABC ratings.
Apparently, that network once again had its doubts regarding the viability of this franchise. "Roots -- Celebrating 25 Years: The Saga of an American Classic," was turned down by ABC and broadcast on NBC.
Maybe this time, ABC was on to something.
Hosted by one of the series stars -- LeVar Burton -- this special solicited the opinions of other "Roots" actors. Ben Vereen, Leslie Uggams, Richard Roundtree, Ed Asner, and Maya Angelou, and others offered their reactions to the series and to the culture in which it appeared. Other commentators included Larry King, Will Smith, Michael Jordan, and a selection of "everyday" folk not directly tied to "Roots."
(Odd, though: where was Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell or Shelby Steele? Or John Stossel?)
Much of what the guests had to say about the series itself is well-taken. The depiction of blacks in "Roots" helped "humanize" blacks for many white Americans, giving the latter images they could more readily "relate to." The characters of Kunta Kinte (a.k.a., Toby) and his descendant, Chicken George, for example, are far cries from the images presented by Steppin' Fetchit or Amos and Andy. Haley's slave ancestors and those who followed them after the War Between the States express, in "Roots," the same kinds of fears and desires and hopes as any other people. Indeed, Kunta Kinte's admirable and ferocious desire to escape his masters leads to the amputation of part of his feet so he will no longer be able to run.
Any of us can applaud such sentiments.
Unfortunately, when the commentators on this show -- regardless of race -- when they explain how they felt towards their white friends and the dominant white culture of the time -- and today -- they reveal their abysmal ignorance of both justice and liberty. The majority of the people on this show -- and doubtless many other Americans who reflect their views -- are, like small children, fixated on past grievances. They refuse to move on with their lives until someone, dammit, corrects the injustices of history. To people who share this worldview, America now is just as racist and reactionary as the culture a quarter-century ago when "Roots" was broadcast...and that society was as unjust as the United States of a century-and-a-half ago.
Rather than embracing the celebration of individualism implicit in "Roots," many American blacks and liberals promote collectivism.
Rather than embracing the wonders -- and hazards -- of freedom as advanced in "Roots," many American blacks and liberals implicitly advocate slavery, the very condition they supposedly rail against.
Rather than embracing the ideal of justice as advocated in "Roots" -- in which a person receives the rewards or punishments for what he alone has done -- many American blacks and liberals believe wholeheartedly that innocent people should be made to pay for the transgressions of real evildoers.
In this NBC show, Michael Jordan tells us that when he saw "Roots," he became extremely angry at his white friends because of how the blacks in the series were treated by their masters and other whites. Only with the help of his mother -- who told him to let his anger go -- was he able to move past his intense reaction towards whites.
When "Roots" was first broadcast, over a century had passed since the end of the Civil War; over two centuries had passed since Kunta Kinte was captured in Africa and shipped to America to be sold as a slave.
In his response, Jordan reveals the same errors underlying such travesties of justice and individualism as affirmative action and "slave reparations." For anyone nodding sagely as Jordan described his inflamed emotions regarding his white friends, there is no "statute of limitations," no point at which old wrongs committed against and by people dead and buried long ago are not to be blamed upon those whites who "benefitted" from being white in a "white" society.
Forget the fact that "corruption of blood" -- punishing family members for the crimes of a relative -- is a discredited principle prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. Forget the fact that no American alive in 1977 -- or today -- ever owned a slave. Forget the fact that, statistically, every person of any race has an ancestor -- somewhere, some time -- who was a slave.
Shall I hold present-day Egyptians responsible and liable for any slave-ancestor of mine who was forced to help build the pyramids? If not, what is the magical cutoff point for absolving living people for what their ancient ancestors did? By what principle does one decide?
What about the black Africans who first captured the blacks of other tribes and shipped them to the Americas? What about black Americans who bought and sold other blacks?
Collective guilt is a morass from which there is no extrication. Riddled with contradictions, it is as untenable as the exaltation of the group -- of collectivism -- over and above the actions of the individuals who comprise those groups. Time after time, collectivism has demonstrated its destructive results while individualism has created better conditions for those who accept its ideals. But apparently, world wars, racism, and slavery are insufficient to disabuse most blacks and statists of their obscenely unjust believes.
The "victim mentality" of many American blacks simply ensures that they will continue to wallow in their misery and perpetuate the very conditions they claim they oppose. After all, as long as your "rotten" life is somebody else's fault, you don't have to do anything to change your conditions for the better. "They" do.
Yet, as someone once said, if a racist knocks you down, why would you look to him for a hand up?
The story of "Roots" is, on one level, a quest for freedom, but most of the people involved with the NBC show are well-known advocates of the "quiet" slavery of modern-day statism. The commentators gnash their teeth because blacks were once treated as property -- the antithesis of freedom -- yet they are oblivious to the rank hypocrisy of touting government redistributionist programs and laws and regulations that violate the property rights that are the essence of individual freedom of action.
When fully half of average incomes are seized by the State; when the State dictates how we will -- or will not -- be permitted to act in virtually every realm of life; when welfare and special favors for groups and for corporations outweigh the real welfare of unique individuals, slavery is alive and well.
Yes, most of us are not literally chained. But then neither were the majority of slaves in America.
They had passes to travel between one location and another. We have passports to travel from one country to another...and perhaps soon, even within our own.
They were allowed to keep small portions of their income and, sometimes, to buy their freedom. We are allowed to keep small portions of our income...but we can never purchase our freedom.
They were given minimal housing and food by their masters. We have government housing and food stamps.
They had to seek permission to work in certain occupations. We have to obtain licenses.
They had their children taken from them and sold to other masters. We have social services that seize children from "unfit" parents, i.e., ones with unpopular beliefs, and pass them around among foster homes.
They had to obtain permission to marry a particular person. We have marriage licenses and prohibitions against any type of family not approved of by the State.
I could go on.
The rejection by most blacks and their statist cohorts of individualism, justice, and freedom is the root of their problems. Only when such people fully understand and implement these concepts will the lessons to be learned from "Roots" be truly fulfilled.
