Have you seen ROOTS?

[yurbud]

Poll question: Have you seen ROOTS?

I posted a poll about LeVar Burton, and was surprised that some people have never seen it.

It was on TV when I was about 12, and in terms of the public image of African Americans, it was probably just behind the Civil War and Civil Rights movement in shaping the rest of our perceptions.

[Dora]

1. I voted for #2, but I was too young to get it at the time.

[Momgonepostal]

5. same here

I just didn't have the attention span to really stick with it. I'd like it if I saw it today, though.

[RebelOne]

2. I saw Roots in the movie theater and also read the book.

[yurbud]

4. In the theater? Was that another country? That would be one long ass

movie.

[RoyGBiv]

12. It played in a theater?

Where? Did they give you nap breaks?

[noonwitch]

3. We watched it as a family

I think I was in either 6th or 7th grade at the time. We talked about it in school, though, because the teachers were really into it.

[blue neen]

6. No, I didn't see it.

I was in college, and we didn't have a TV in our apartment.

I did read the book later, however. It's fantastic.

[Neoma]

7. I never got a chance to see it.

:shrug: But i'd rather read it anyways.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. I read the book first...

and it made a lasting impression.

The stories of Alex Haley's ancestors were fascinating; and I was especially impressed with his determination to trace his ancestry to Africa. What a feat!

And yet, I now find websites such as these:
http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/alex.htm
http://www.martinlutherking.org/roots.html

which discuss a plagiarism controversy that Haley settled out of court.
Wikipedia has info on that too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley

Still, I enjoyed the book and the mini-series. :-)

[yurbud]

9. any time something is written in novel form, I assume it's

fictionalized to some degree.

Frankly, the story is more interesting than the author or authorship. It would be just as good if it were written by a white guy living in New Zealand who had never seen an African American.

[July]

10. Without ROOTS, my whole family probably would be dead.

Murder-suicide, I figure.

We were five teens/young twenties and our mother, trapped in our house in Buffalo during the Blizzard of '77. We had the heat turned down to 55 and couldn't use the phones or go outside (high winds + drifting snow). We all slept in the living room in front of the fireplace, wearing hats and sweaters. When we weren't eating or playing cards and board games, we were watching Roots . . . for days on end. It kept us sane until it was safe to go outside and shovel our asses off. We were so young, stupid, and silly (except Mom, who's still 25 in her mind, though she's three times that age now) that we thought we were having fun. Wait a minute -- we WERE!

[yurbud]

16. great story--sounds like your "Roots"

[JVS]

11. I saw it when it was re-broadcast once. And once at school.

When I was in HS there was a week where 10th and 12th Grade students had to take a series of examinations, because of this the 11th grade students were told to stay in home room. Since there was nothing to do, most played cards and the school decided to run root throught the in class TVs because it was February. The "Your name is Toby" scene was violent enough that people stopped playing cards to have a look at the TV.

[LostinVA]

13. How about this option:

"I saw Roots when it was on originally broadcast, and it made a lasting impression, and then saw it many years later and was so longer terribly impressed"?

[yurbud]

17. It would be hard to reproduce that individual and cultural moment

There are other ideas, books, and movies that changed my thinking in pivotal ways, that aren't as interesting when I revisit them because they have already served their purpose--it was the ideas not primarily the art that made the impact.

[bridgit]

14. of course...

[Merrick]

15. Got it from netflix about a year ago

good mini.

[YankeyMCC]

18. I saw it when it was originally aired

But I still think "Geordi" now when I see LeVar Burton.

I was only 10 when Roots aired and it did make an impression but as I say I was only 10 and those sorts of things stuck in my mind at the time but took a while to sink in and settle.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. What made the most lasting impression on me was when my teacher

read us the book. For the slave ship chapters, she shut the lights off and made us lay down on the floor while she read... I could almost feel the planks of wood biting into Kunta's flesh...and my stomache turned as his did. That made a lasting impression on me, of the misery one race can bring upon another. :(

[Roon]

20. The only thing I remember about Roots

Is the BOOBIES!!!

[yurbud]

24. all the black guys at my elementary school were freaking out

Could you imagine that many white breasts on network TV even now?

[Lars39]

21. It seemed like *everybody* in my little town was glued to the tv

for nights on end. Made a huge impact in that area.

[StellaBlue]

22. I remember it being on TV, but I was too young to "get" it

On my Netflix list.

When did it come on originally? Like 1983?

[yurbud]

23. 1977 I think

[bertha katzenengel]

25. Read the book. Really. Read the book.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

26. "Roots" premiered on TV before I was born

My sister had to study the book at school and she was very moved and intrigued by it. She even wanted to write to Alex Haley telling him how much she liked it (he passed away the following year so she never got the chance). I never studied it in school but I did read some of the book. It was very sad and interesting but I was only 10 at the time and never got round to finishing it. I will get round to reading all of it some day.

I saw part of the mini-series when they were screening it on afternoon TV in Australia.

[peacefreak]

27. I missed part of it, though.

My water broke half way through. Instead of watching the whole episode I ended up having my daughter! So yes, Roots made a lasting impression on me.

[fortyfeetunder]

28. Was already interested in genealogy

when I used to sit around hearing my relatives tell stories and look at old pictures of my relatives. So looking at and then reading Roots, made me appreciate the stories I was told.

I later got to meet Alex Haley and some of his relatives. What an awesome man and his family!