ThickStemz
Well-Known Member
It has been a decade or more since I saw the first one. It was a good story.
In case you didn't know, History and AMC have redone the series and it has been shown this week. I must admit, very well done. I like that they have some things more accurate. My memory of the first one seems like Kunta Kinte was walking through the bush one day and some greedy white men throw a net on him and drag him off. I like how the new one reflects the reality, Arab/Muslim slave traders caught Africans and sold them to Europeans.
I thought it was poetic justice how Kunta was taken as a slave when his father was someone who was in a position to stop them, but he was willing to look the other way as long as they were taking slaves from up river.
To me, the characters were better in this new version.
I have but one nagging criticism. It seemed throughout the series they took liberty to show historically inacurate scenes that didn't impact the story for the sole purpose of making white people look bad.
They showed a scene where 3 passing white men on horseback confront Kunta Kinte and Fiddler. Its unclear who the white men were, but they appear to have some sort of legal authority. By way of "nigger tax" they demand Kunta give up his baby. Would have never happend. That would have been stealing from their owner. Fiddler, an old house servant who played music instead of manual labor, and is elderly, goes on to kill two of the three mounted and armed men, him with no weapon.
Another time, two white men club a slave to death within feet of his owner, who didn't want him beaten but wasn't aware, just because he was on a wagon that might have had weapons in it. Again, killing another man's slave was a serious crime. This was added just to make white people look evil.
Did anyone else watch it? Notice the same thing? Facebook friends of mine who are black seem to regard this as a historical documentary, where the slaves were always a breath away from being murdered by some random white person who did not own them.
The evils of slavery did not exist in its physical violence, though there was violence and it made it worse. It wasn't because of the rape, though it did happen and was wrong. Slavery was evil because it dehumanized people. I've read enough history to know that although the threat of violence was always present, if a slave conducted himself within fairly clear boundries of acceptable behavior, he could expect to not be beaten. That isn't a defese of slavery, just reality.
In case you didn't know, History and AMC have redone the series and it has been shown this week. I must admit, very well done. I like that they have some things more accurate. My memory of the first one seems like Kunta Kinte was walking through the bush one day and some greedy white men throw a net on him and drag him off. I like how the new one reflects the reality, Arab/Muslim slave traders caught Africans and sold them to Europeans.
I thought it was poetic justice how Kunta was taken as a slave when his father was someone who was in a position to stop them, but he was willing to look the other way as long as they were taking slaves from up river.
To me, the characters were better in this new version.
I have but one nagging criticism. It seemed throughout the series they took liberty to show historically inacurate scenes that didn't impact the story for the sole purpose of making white people look bad.
They showed a scene where 3 passing white men on horseback confront Kunta Kinte and Fiddler. Its unclear who the white men were, but they appear to have some sort of legal authority. By way of "nigger tax" they demand Kunta give up his baby. Would have never happend. That would have been stealing from their owner. Fiddler, an old house servant who played music instead of manual labor, and is elderly, goes on to kill two of the three mounted and armed men, him with no weapon.
Another time, two white men club a slave to death within feet of his owner, who didn't want him beaten but wasn't aware, just because he was on a wagon that might have had weapons in it. Again, killing another man's slave was a serious crime. This was added just to make white people look evil.
Did anyone else watch it? Notice the same thing? Facebook friends of mine who are black seem to regard this as a historical documentary, where the slaves were always a breath away from being murdered by some random white person who did not own them.
The evils of slavery did not exist in its physical violence, though there was violence and it made it worse. It wasn't because of the rape, though it did happen and was wrong. Slavery was evil because it dehumanized people. I've read enough history to know that although the threat of violence was always present, if a slave conducted himself within fairly clear boundries of acceptable behavior, he could expect to not be beaten. That isn't a defese of slavery, just reality.
