"Roots"

[MarcATL]

Did not watch either version. I had no interest in them.

How come?

It had no appeal to me. Same reason I don't go to some movies.

'kinda movies do you like?

 

[MarcATL]

Remember all the Germans Americans complaining about how they were portrayed in Schindlers list? And how they demanded they show all the good Germans in Hitlers Germany?

No? Me neither, what could be the difference?

I am American of German descent. Schindler's List was the first movie based on the Jewish genocide to finally acknowledge that all Germans were not intent on eliminating Jews and that at least one was willing to risk his personal safety to protect some of them. There needs to be more movies that will concede there were far more Germans than Oskar Schindler during that era who protected Jews in a number of ways, many of whom lost their lives for doing it.

The pianist was another such example. It revealed the long disregarded existence of organized groups of Germans, and there were quite a few, which managed to hide Jews and provide many with fake identities. But for decades after the early 1940s the word German became synonymous with Nazi where most Jews are concerned.

Likewise, for a substantial percentage of Black Americans, mainly the lesser-educated, the word White is synonymous with the words slavery and Jim Crow.

Schindler's List was a very good movie.

If you watch shows like "Underground" on WGN, you'll see the type of characters you're looking for, good white folk that ended up risking life and limb for the plight of negro slaves.

Not an easy task when the entire society is against it.

What you seem to fail to grasp is that what blacks are angry about is the fact that society was so against blacks for practically no reason. We were considered less than dogs. Hence they could enslave us, mistreat us, breed us, hang us, all while going to their "Christian" church claiming to follow God, many of which actually justified slavery through the Bible, clearly perverting the Word, but that is what was common. In more modern times, the white society felt that segregation was just fine, that blacks shouldn't vote, that blacks could be watered down with hoses, hunted with dogs, hung, etc. These things occurred up to modern times, as a result of the slave trade. It's no wonder that up to today, black lives are considered not worthy, hence an unarmed black child can be gunned down by a rabid gun nut, and nobody bats an eye, and even lets the bastard off the hook by a almost all-white jury.

However, I bet you won't see the connection and will find some reason to dismissed the facts I just presented to you.

 

[MikeK]

What about the Diary of Anne Frank?

Anne Frank lived in Holland and her benefactors were Dutch, not German. But they still paid the ultimate price for their defiance of the Nazi occupiers.

 

[Gracie]

The Slave Ship: Marcus Rediker | Socialist Review

The Slave Ship

The Diligent

 

[Two Thumbs]

Did you guys watch it? Did you watch the first one? Which one you prefer? Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

watched the first one with my family. gave up tv years ago so won't see this one.

heard that it was racist somehow.

You heard it was racist somehow? Well yeah, it's about the days of freaking slavery

no moron, Snoop Dogg made the news claiming it was.

when I heard that, I changed the channel b/c I didn't want to hear him cry.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Did you guys watch it? Did you watch the first one? Which one you prefer? Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

watched the first one with my family. gave up tv years ago so won't see this one.

heard that it was racist somehow.

You heard it was racist somehow? Well yeah, it's about the days of freaking slavery

no moron, Snoop Dogg made the news claiming it was.

when I heard that, I changed the channel b/c I didn't want to hear him cry.

I dont think thats any better reason. Because Snoop said so? lol.

By the way, OF COURSE ITS RACIST ITS ABOUT SLAVERY!!

Its like saying trying to tell a story about a Serial Killer having an anti-life agenda

 

[Divine Wind]

Did you guys watch it? Did you watch the first one? Which one you prefer? Thoughts?

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My wife and I watched and enjoyed them all. Yes. No reference. It's a good story. It was interesting at the end when Laurence Fishburne as "Alex Haley" said "this could only be told as a story", a good correction since Haley had been successfully sued for plagiarism and accused of passing fiction off as fact.

 

[Divine Wind]

Did you happen to watch a documentary on the topic of slavery (also on the History channel) called The Castles of Hell?

Link? I googled "The Castles of Hell" and only got this: NationStates | The Dictatorship of The Castles of Hell | Government

Nothing on slavery.

 

[Divine Wind]

Given that TV is not a good source of accurate history, it is not a good idea to watch this show and think that anything you are watching reflects what really happened during the days of slavery.

In the 1930's, when Hollywood was pro-South, slavery was almost always portrayed as a benevolent institution, with happy-go-lucky darkies working for generous and kind-hearted white masters. Gone With The Wind portrayed slavery this way, and the North was portrayed as an evil aggressor for forcibly ending this "civilized" way of life.

The current Hollywood line that all blacks were miserable and beaten, and that all whites were cruel, heartless, abusive taskmasters who mercilessly whipped their slaves, is as much as a lie as the previous pro-slavery portrayal. I'm not saying that slavery is ever a good thing, but exaggerating and lying about slavery does not serve the greater truth, which is that slavery is always wrong even if the masters are trying their best to be good masters, and the slaves are happy in their enslaved condition.

And that's because slavery perpetuates the idea that a human being can ever be legally or morally treated as anything less than a human being, with full human rights, inalienable, endowed by our Creator, and guaranteed in the United States Constitution. The ideals of the Declaration of Independence, written by slave owner Thomas Jefferson, was the death knell of slavery. What it proves is that though the some of the Founding Fathers owned slaves, they knew it was wrong, and what's more important, they knew that slavery was a violation of everything the American Revolution stood for.

So what Roots is going to offer is "slavery porn." It will show black people getting beaten to an inch of their lives, and white people doing the whipping, and none of it will get us any closer to the answer we seek, which is that all human beings, regardless of age, sex, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or status as born or unborn, is entitled to full rights under the U.S. Constitution, since we are all fully human and children of God. When Hollywood starts tackling current injustices, like abortion, with the bravery it tackles injustices that have already been resolved, then I will be impressed.

Agreed. Kinda like listening to Rush or reading Breitbart and expecting to be given completely true and accurate, unbiased information.

 

[MikeK]

Schindler's List was a very good movie.

If you watch shows like "Underground" on WGN, you'll see the type of characters you're looking for, good white folk that ended up risking life and limb for the plight of negro slaves.

Not an easy task when the entire society is against it.

What you seem to fail to grasp is that what blacks are angry about is the fact that society was so against blacks for practically no reason. We were considered less than dogs. Hence they could enslave us, mistreat us, breed us, hang us, all while going to their "Christian" church claiming to follow God, many of which actually justified slavery through the Bible, clearly perverting the Word, but that is what was common. In more modern times, the white society felt that segregation was just fine, that blacks shouldn't vote, that blacks could be watered down with hoses, hunted with dogs, hung, etc. These things occurred up to modern times, as a result of the slave trade. It's no wonder that up to today, black lives are considered not worthy, hence an unarmed black child can be gunned down by a rabid gun nut, and nobody bats an eye, and even lets the bastard off the hook by a almost all-white jury.

However, I bet you won't see the connection and will find some reason to dismissed the facts I just presented to you.

Thank you for the reference to WGN and the Underground program. It seems to be something I would be interested in watching but I don't know what WGN is or if I have cable access to it. But I will research it tonight.

Re: your belief that I will find some reason to dismiss the facts you've presented about why Blacks are angry, I have read quite a bit about the cruelties imposed on Black African slaves in America, and I've watched a number of well-crafted movies and tv documentaries which further reveal the horrors involved in that national disgrace.

I have also read a great deal about and watched an endless progression of movies and tv documentaries about the persecution and genocides perpetrated on a number of ethnicities and social categories by the Third Reich. Because my lineage is German I've grown accustomed to the very subtle but unmistakable change in the facial expression of most Jews I meet when they hear my last name.

The first thing I wish to say regarding the above circumstances is none of my forebears lived in America during the slavery era and they all departed Germany because of its economic depression long before the rise of Adolf Hitler. Further, they landed in and settled in New York City where Jim Crow segregation did not exist.

I was born and raised on the Brooklyn Waterfront during the Great Depression. (If you saw the movie, On The Waterfront, you know what that was about.) We lived in a six-family tenement and for some time had cause to understand the meaning of the word, poverty. What I have to say about all that in relation to this discussion is while Blacks have and have had their problems, we had ours. And while we were able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, so were a hell of a lot of Blacks I've known.

There were Blacks in every class in every school I've ever attended, from St. Francis Xavier to Columbia University, and a substantial number of my civil service co-workers were Black -- including a number of my supervisors. I have watched the rise of a substantial number of Blacks in American politics, up to and including the U.S. Presidency.

So the bottom line to all of the above is, where slavery is concerned I do acknowledge the deplorable criminality and outrageous cruelties of that practice, but I feel that I am totally without guilt and neither I nor any of mine owe anything to any Blacks simply because we happen to be White. Further, I feel perfectly justified in my rising anger toward American Blacks who are increasingly expressing rage over oppression, past and present, by violently attacking innocent, defenseless Whites.

I am fully aware of and I do not dismiss the cruelties imposed on American Blacks. But I had nothing to do with any of it. As far as the matter of White Privilege is concerned, I believe the issue is restricted to that economic class of Americans which is totally devoid of Blacks.

 

[MikeK]

Did you happen to watch a documentary on the topic of slavery (also on the History channel) called The Castles of Hell?

Link? I googled "The Castles of Hell" and only got this: NationStates | The Dictatorship of The Castles of Hell | Government

Nothing on slavery.

Too bad. It is a well-crafted documentary including footage of the actual slave castles along the West African coast, with the steel collars, hobbles and other restraints which were "hot-rivited" onto the slaves.

Reality, rather than such imaginative fiction as Roots.

 

[OldLady]

Gracie brought this up in another thread and disappeared when I told her that Africa had higher education in the past.

I'm sure they did have smarts. But back then, most tribes damn sure were not talking about going to University and riding off in a huff from dad, on an arabian stallion. It's a crock of shit and most know it.

How the fuck do you know, Gracie?

 

[OldLady]

What they did was make it seem as though africa was not a 3rd world country, and the people of tribes wanted to go to University...whereas most didn't even fucking know what a university is. Nor did they ride arabian stallions willy nilly thru the african countryside. On top of that, they completely skimmed over the inner warring of each tribe and the greed or corruptness of the winning tribe in a war was to sell off their captors to the white guys ready to buy.
MOST tribes have their own intelligence factors but let's face it....most were running around with bones in their hair and they damn sure didn't have stallions to prance around on. Zulu's were heavy duty warriors...they didn't use horses in battle. And their shields were from cow or zebra skin on tree bark. But kunta wanted to go to University? Pahlease.

And all those young target black folks all pissed off on what happened 200/300 years ago with slavery? I guess they forgot about Amistad.

And you are right Mike. The whole movie was about generating profits, riling up pissed off black folks that still are pissed off, ignoring history as it happened and just want to show just how horrible whities were to blacks to keep the proverbial ball rolling into more chaos.

In short...it sucked. It was bullshit. And it was indeed an awful time but so was the holocaust, so was pot pol, so was rome, so was...(insert evil here____________).

One thing that stands out about low-level treatments of this highly sensitive topic is way all Whites are casually stereotyped as brutally sadistic, when in fact if that were true slavery quite likely would still exist in this Country -- or there would have been a genocidal effort that would make the Nazi attempt seem amateurish. The truth is many Whites vocally opposed the practice of slavery, hundreds became social pariah because of their opposition, some lost their lives because of it, most notably John Brown and his sons. But these humanistic Whites are ignored in this cheap fictional propaganda film.

What I have to say to the Roots cheering section is were it not for slavery they wouldn't exist, or they would be living in mud huts, subsisting on rat soup and hoping their neighbor wouldn't steal their clothes off the wash-line.

Yes, slavery was a terribly cruel practice. But its true nature cannot be judged today by the standards of the 1600s. Africa is the birthplace of slavery, where it is practiced there in some places even today. It was exported to America by Black Africans -- but it was never accepted or approved of by most White people.

Movies like Roots should point that out.

What's wrong with living in mud huts and eating rat soup? At least it was their neighborhood, their culture, their lives. Jesus. Slavery was no favor to them.

 

[OldLady]

I saw the first one which I thought was good...
I have no interest seeing the reboot or whatever it's called these days.

You didn't miss much. I agree with whoever said it was slavery porn. The first one was better.

 

[Gracie]

Gracie brought this up in another thread and disappeared when I told her that Africa had higher education in the past.

I'm sure they did have smarts. But back then, most tribes damn sure were not talking about going to University and riding off in a huff from dad, on an arabian stallion. It's a crock of shit and most know it.

How the fuck do you know, Gracie?

It's called....ready?....BOOKS.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Did you guys watch it? Did you watch the first one? Which one you prefer? Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

watched the first one with my family. gave up tv years ago so won't see this one.

heard that it was racist somehow.

You heard it was racist somehow? Well yeah, it's about the days of freaking slavery

no moron, Snoop Dogg made the news claiming it was.

when I heard that, I changed the channel b/c I didn't want to hear him cry.

I dont think thats any better reason. Because Snoop said so? lol.

By the way, OF COURSE ITS RACIST ITS ABOUT SLAVERY!!

Its like saying trying to tell a story about a Serial Killer having an anti-life agenda

you are shocking ignorant and narrow minded.

 

[Gracie]

Has anyone ever read those documents written or transcribed by slaves that are on file? Fascinating reading. Sad, too. Some were very uplifting too on how they dealt with it. Yes, there are documents from the slaves themselves. Most could not read or write, but they were interviewd and it all documented. I will see if i can find the link on google to some of them.

 

[Gracie]

Voices from the Days of Slavery - Faces and Voices from the Presentation (American Memory from the Library of Congress) (Audio and written testimonies).

African-American Slave Testimonies

Isaac Johnson, 1844-1905. Slavery Days in Old Kentucky. A True Story of a Father Who Sold His Wife and Four Children. By One of the Children.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Did you guys watch it? Did you watch the first one? Which one you prefer? Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

watched the first one with my family. gave up tv years ago so won't see this one.

heard that it was racist somehow.

You heard it was racist somehow? Well yeah, it's about the days of freaking slavery

no moron, Snoop Dogg made the news claiming it was.

when I heard that, I changed the channel b/c I didn't want to hear him cry.

I dont think thats any better reason. Because Snoop said so? lol.

By the way, OF COURSE ITS RACIST ITS ABOUT SLAVERY!!

Its like saying trying to tell a story about a Serial Killer having an anti-life agenda

you are shocking ignorant and narrow minded.

Concession noted.

 

[MikeK]

What's wrong with living in mud huts and eating rat soup? At least it was their neighborhood, their culture, their lives. Jesus. Slavery was no favor to them.

That's true. But if you are an American Black, even if you're living off welfare in a depressed neighborhood, you are doing a lot better than many African Blacks are doing today -- especially those who are subjected to enslavement and torture by Boko Haram and other murderous terror organizations which are flourishing in Africa today.

The living standard of American Blacks at all economic levels is far higher than that of Blacks anywhere in Africa, and as perverse as the unfortunate circumstance may be, compared with the lot of most African Blacks contemporary American Blacks live far better as the direct result of their ancestors' ordeal.