Really! So what are you saying? Just forget history, don’t teach it or watch movies that depict it? This is the one piece of history (slavery) we should not forget. We must never forget the stain of slavery. You can never loose site or let go of the bad old days. I’m glad this movie is out. The African American experience in this country has never been fully depicted. I say, more, more, more of these kinds of movies.
Did I say to just forget history? Did I? No, I did not. I am saying that incessantly sensationalizing an already sensational past only fuels the flames of hatred. Do you really think there is not an undercurrent of hatred in this country? Just read the news! Take a look at this article from “The Root”:
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Hello, white people. Thanks for stopping by and reading!
As many of you may already know, during the Memorial Day holiday, the History Channel began airing a four-part remake of Roots*—the iconic miniseries tracing a black family’s history starting in West Africa, through American chattel slavery and up to the present day. As you can imagine, watching a depiction of the centuries-long capture, enslavement, rape, displacement, torture and murder of our ancestors can be a pretty harrowing and emotional experience for black people. And** I can imagine that the fact that this capture, enslavement, rape, displacement, torture and murder was done at the behest of some of your ancestors**
is probably quite awkward, especially when you’re interacting with your black co-workers the morning after a Roots episode.
With this in mind, I’ve decided to give you a helpful guide on exactly how to do this.
Just don’t. This is the safest bet. Of course, we (black people) are not stupid. While the effects of slavery linger—and probably always will in America—we realize that the events depicted in the story happened hundreds of years ago. We also realize that you don’t own any slaves and that there’s even a chance that none of your ancestors did, either. Again, we know this.
But the morning after we just watched Kunta get his foot chopped off … or whipped into accepting “Toby” as his name … or have his daughter sold away is not the best time to ask us about when we’re going to finish that late TPS report. Or stop past the cubicle to ask about Memorial Day weekend. Or send us a Paperless Post invitation to your family’s annual deep-woods potluck. Or use the word “picnic” in any context.
Because while we are very aware that you personally didn’t do any of what happened,
there’s somewhere between a 47 and 92 percent chance that Roots-watching residue might make us hate white people for the next 24 to 144 hours. So it’s in everyone’s best interest if you just keep your distance for a little while. Maybe even use a few of those paid-time-off days and come back to work when we’re not fantasizing about choke-slamming overseers. (And yes, since none of us personally know any overseers, the protagonist in those fantasies may very well be you.)
If you must interact, don’t bring up or reference Roots. Or 12 Years a Slave. Or slavery as an institution. Or racism. Or Clarence Thomas. Or … you get my point.
**
The black author of this post is admitting that watching “Roots”, “12 Years a Slave”, “Django Unchained”, etc, etc, etc, makes black people
hate white people. And he admits the hatred is irrational. He knows white people today are not responsible for slavery, yet that hatred is fanned like pouring gasoline on a fire. There is no learning history going on here with these kinds of movies. There is only fanning the flames of hate and resentment. The scenes he refers to (“we just watched Kunta get his foot chopped off” and “whipped into accepting “Toby” as his name”) are
works of fiction. Slavery was real. These inflammatory stories are fiction designed not to educate, but for generating ratings and revenue. I do not want anyone to be forced to tiptoe around angry black people because they just got done watching “Django Unchained.” Do you?
