About 2 years ago, I saw most of "Roots." It was on one of my local sub-channels. There were moments I wept. And not necessarily at the obvious injustices. Mr. LeVar Burton played Kunta Kinte in that film. Fans of the blog note that he is even more famous for playing Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise, on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He has also inspired multiple generations of kids as the host of the educational program, "Reading Rainbow."
I don't know if LeVar Burton took that role on "Roots" because he was a struggling actor short on cash, but I get the sense from reading interviews with him that in fact, he is well aware of his own blackness, and his part in the story of the African-American experience here in the United States.
What I can tell you is that the sins of systemic racism, and the social impact of racial bigotry, are better explained by that film than by mountains of academic papers. A lot of progressives today run to the social science, but there is an art to political persuasion, that certain special interpersonal bond that can cause someone to change a deeply-held belief. I don't suppose anyone is doing a wonderful job reaching out interpersonally in the political sphere. But I understood systemic racism and the trauma it causes because of Roots.
I consider LeVar Burton and Oprah Winfrey "friends" of a sort. As I watched what was happening, and what was being said to the characters--and all the indignities--I internalized that these injustices were happening to my friends. If you want to move a man to anger, and to action, hurt his friends.
We're insensitive to so much bigotry, precisely because its victims are not yet our friends.
I don't know if LeVar Burton took that role on "Roots" because he was a struggling actor short on cash, but I get the sense from reading interviews with him that in fact, he is well aware of his own blackness, and his part in the story of the African-American experience here in the United States.
What I can tell you is that the sins of systemic racism, and the social impact of racial bigotry, are better explained by that film than by mountains of academic papers. A lot of progressives today run to the social science, but there is an art to political persuasion, that certain special interpersonal bond that can cause someone to change a deeply-held belief. I don't suppose anyone is doing a wonderful job reaching out interpersonally in the political sphere. But I understood systemic racism and the trauma it causes because of Roots.
I consider LeVar Burton and Oprah Winfrey "friends" of a sort. As I watched what was happening, and what was being said to the characters--and all the indignities--I internalized that these injustices were happening to my friends. If you want to move a man to anger, and to action, hurt his friends.
We're insensitive to so much bigotry, precisely because its victims are not yet our friends.
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