Thoughts on Roots - The more things stay the same

Actually, let me start with some thoughts on Jackie Robinson too, because that felt very familiar. The protesters marching with signs staying "Stop Police Brutality" and the way people initially were jerks, and then grew to love him, and then got mad at him as he became more outspoken, and even Robinson dying so young, with his body wearing out faster than it should have, all of that felt really familiar. So, let's look at that in the context of "Roots".

There was a lot of good acting, most of it by people I had never seen before. One of the familiar faces was Forest Whitaker, who broke my heart in multiple scenes as Fiddler. The last time was his death, when as Kunta Kinte and Fiddler go out to name the new baby, they are stopped by a patrol looking for runaways who threaten to take the baby. Fiddler sacrifices himself to save the father and child.

They were on their owner's property after the work day was over - there was no reason for them to be harassed, except that it was allowed. These were white men of no status, but they could still abuse slaves, even without being the "owners".

Many people have noted the influence of antebellum slave patrols on modern law enforcement, which has taken a different form in the United States than in Europe, but what it reminds me of most is an abusive, self-loathing man appointing himself neighborhood watch captain and stalking and shooting an unarmed teenage boy. The language that was used to defend Zimmerman has been used to defend other racists over and over again, tearing away the humanity of Black people to turn them into brute beasts.

When George is preparing to take his newly free family out of the South, the older Murray hopes that an extra chicken can make them want to stay, but his son tells them they can't go, he won't let them, and they are going to be slaves again. That would seem like empty "the South will rise again" posturing, but knowing that Jim Crow and debt peonage is on the way - with due process being a joke - and that it will be followed by mass incarceration in a land of economic inequality, it is a foreboding prophecy.

Most of all, the thing that doesn't change is the "good" owners. Doctor Waller might be less about beatings and greed than his brother, but he will still hit you when he misunderstands something you say as disrespect, and he will still sell your daughter away for learning how to read, despite it being his niece who taught her. The older Mister Murray will apologize for selling your three children downriver when times are hard. And Missy loved Kizzy so much that she was going to buy her, but she still is gravely offended that Kizzy helped with a slave escape.

That is the most amazing thing - the offence taken. Tom Lea is not one of the "better" masters, but he is still offended that Kizzy would want to leave. "I don't beat you or work you that hard!" In that case the real offence may be that she doesn't consider the raping to be love, but there is no way he would get that. He's the one who sold George moments after freeing him. "Do you know what it's like to be rich for one day?" Probably something like being free for one day.

And maybe you think that it's not like that anymore, but when you see people in conferences today who think slaves should have been grateful for being fed and sheltered, no, that hasn't changed. And when you see, as I recently have, people adding a person of color because diversity is important, and then becoming angry and paranoid when that person does not do the same thing they would in a situation, no, that has not changed. There's still a long way to go.

Today's post is kind of a bummer. Tomorrow's should be more uplifting, but if we will honestly look at that long way to go, and make progress on it, then posts like today are uplifting too.