Getting to the Root of the Issue

This past week BET ran in its entirety Alex Haley’s “Roots”.  Originally broadcast in 1977, “Roots” was a transformative event in American television.  It told Haley’s family story from the capture of a young Gambian teenager, Kunta Kinte, sold into slavery before the American Revolution, through Haley’s own life as a successful author in the late twentieth century.  It was a moving, powerful story of a man’s search to find who he is and the relationship of that quest to this nation’s story.

I read “Roots” as a high school sophomore.  And, as a senior, I sat in my living room and watched Haley’s family saga unfold.  That Haley was criticized for “creating” dialog for his ancestors didn’t faze me.  The fact that I was a WASP with family roots traced back to the 1600s didn’t strike me as odd.  Like my own family’s story, Haley’s was as American as apple pie.

With that in mind, I watched dozens of young black men between the ages of twenty and thirty watch “Roots” and completely miss Haley’s point.  And, I became discouraged and troubled.

For starters, not one man in here had ever read Haley’s book.  “Roots” was a seminal publication.  Haley almost single handedly led Americans of all races, creeds, and national origins to discover who they were and how they tied into the quilt that is America.

As with most issues in here, they saw “Roots” purely in terms of black and white.  Slavery, oppression, failure.  “No wonder all of us are locked up.  They’re doing the same thing to us they did to Kunta.”

That’s a shame.  Prison breeds ignorance and victimization.  Too many black – and white – inmates see their situations one dimensionally.  And, that one dimension is race.  They miss the big picture.  The story of Kunta Kinte and all of Alex Haley’s other relatives is a story of triumph.  It is the Exodus story, a story of struggle and ultimate success.  And, it is a story that needs to be told especially here in prison.  Only then will the chains of ignorance be broken.