"Roots"

[MikeK]

What's wrong with living in mud huts and eating rat soup?

[...]

I notice you've subtracted the third element from my comment, which referred to the hypothetical neighbor stealing clothes from the washline. In case you might wonder where that thought came from, I read it in a Time magazine article's lament by a native African woman who does live in a hut with a dirt floor that becomes muddy when it rains, and there are days when the only food is a soup made from boiled rats and potatoes, and when her hand-laundered clothing is hung out to dry she must be vigilant to prevent their being stolen by a neighbor.

What is most interesting about this woman's complaint is she is fortunate compared to those who live in villages which are frequently raided by truckloads of armed men who loot, rape, kidnap, maim and kill the villagers at will.

Are you inclined to ask me what's wrong with that? Or are you inclined to suggest it isn't true?

 

[Two Thumbs]

watched the first one with my family. gave up tv years ago so won't see this one.

heard that it was racist somehow.

You heard it was racist somehow? Well yeah, it's about the days of freaking slavery

no moron, Snoop Dogg made the news claiming it was.

when I heard that, I changed the channel b/c I didn't want to hear him cry.

I dont think thats any better reason. Because Snoop said so? lol.

By the way, OF COURSE ITS RACIST ITS ABOUT SLAVERY!!

Its like saying trying to tell a story about a Serial Killer having an anti-life agenda

you are shocking ignorant and narrow minded.

Concession noted.

^^ can't prove his stance, declares himself the winner.

 

[Divine Wind]

Did you happen to watch a documentary on the topic of slavery (also on the History channel) called The Castles of Hell?

Link? I googled "The Castles of Hell" and only got this: NationStates | The Dictatorship of The Castles of Hell | Government

Nothing on slavery.

Too bad. It is a well-crafted documentary including footage of the actual slave castles along the West African coast, with the steel collars, hobbles and other restraints which were "hot-rivited" onto the slaves.

Reality, rather than such imaginative fiction as Roots.

Sorry I missed it. No doubt slavery is an abomination.

As for Roots, it's based on fact, but, yes, Haley took literary license to make a story out of it. "Faction" was the term others suggested.

 

[Asclepias]

What's wrong with living in mud huts and eating rat soup? At least it was their neighborhood, their culture, their lives. Jesus. Slavery was no favor to them.

That's true. But if you are an American Black, even if you're living off welfare in a depressed neighborhood, you are doing a lot better than many African Blacks are doing today -- especially those who are subjected to enslavement and torture by Boko Haram and other murderous terror organizations which are flourishing in Africa today.

The living standard of American Blacks at all economic levels is far higher than that of Blacks anywhere in Africa, and as perverse as the unfortunate circumstance may be, compared with the lot of most African Blacks contemporary American Blacks live far better as the direct result of their ancestors' ordeal.

i hate it when someone that appears to be intelligent makes ignorant comments like this. Have you ever been anywhere in Africa? I have. A lot of Africans live better lives than where I grew up here in the states and i am only speaking economically. They have vastly superior cultural lives, vastly superior spiritual lives, and love education.

 

[Asclepias]

Did you happen to watch a documentary on the topic of slavery (also on the History channel) called The Castles of Hell?

Link? I googled "The Castles of Hell" and only got this: NationStates | The Dictatorship of The Castles of Hell | Government

Nothing on slavery.

Too bad. It is a well-crafted documentary including footage of the actual slave castles along the West African coast, with the steel collars, hobbles and other restraints which were "hot-rivited" onto the slaves.

Reality, rather than such imaginative fiction as Roots.

Sorry I missed it. No doubt slavery is an abomination.

As for Roots, it's based on fact, but, yes, Haley took literary license to make a story out of it. "Faction" was the term others suggested.

I bet you cant name a movie that doesnt take literary license to make a story. I always wonder why people find they have to attempt to downgrade one movie when other movies are doing the same exact thing.

 

[guno]

The mass of ordinary Germans did know about the evolving terror of Hitler's Holocaust, according to a new research study. They knew concentration camps were full of Jewish people who were stigmatized as sub-human and race-defilers. They knew that these, like other groups and minorities, were being killed out of hand.

They knew that Adolf Hitler had repeatedly forecast the extermination of every Jew on German soil. They knew these details because they had read about them. They knew because the camps and the measures which led up to them had been prominently and proudly reported step by step in thousands of officially-inspired German media articles and posters according to the study, which is due to be published simultaneously in Britain and the US early next month and which was described as ground-breaking by Oxford University Press yesterday and already hailed by other historians.

Germans knew of Holocaust horror about death camps

 

[Divine Wind]

I bet you cant name a movie that doesnt take literary license to make a story. I always wonder why people find they have to attempt to downgrade one movie when other movies are doing the same exact thing.

Movies, yes. Documentaries, not so much. Are you saying Alex Haley never tried to pass off his book as factual history? That he was never successfully sued for plagiarism?

Are you saying Roots is factual history or do you admit "it's just a fictional portrayal of slavery based on historical events"?

Why are you having a conniption over this?

Roots isn't on this list:
50 Best Rated Documentaries - Documentary Addict

 

[Asclepias]

I bet you cant name a movie that doesnt take literary license to make a story. I always wonder why people find they have to attempt to downgrade one movie when other movies are doing the same exact thing.

Movies, yes. Documentaries, not so much. Are you saying Alex Haley never tried to pass off his book as factual history? That he was never successfully sued for plagiarism?

Are you saying Roots is factual history or do you admit "it's just a fictional portrayal of slavery based on historical events"?

Why are you having a conniption over this?

Roots isn't on this list:
50 Best Rated Documentaries - Documentary Addict

Documentaries do the same thing. No he was never successfully sued for plagiarism.
Of course there is a lot of factual history in Roots. The story is based on his family.
Who told you i was having a conniption?
Its not really my problem Roots is not on that list. Most likely it was compiled by white people. That pretty much renders it less than credible or relevant.

 

[Divine Wind]

Documentaries do the same thing. No he was never successfully sued for plagiarism.
Of course there is a lot of factual history in Roots. The story is based on his family.
Who told you i was having a conniption?
Its not really my problem Roots is not on that list. Most likely it was compiled by white people. That pretty much renders it less than credible or relevant.

Wrong again......and your racism explains why.

Alex Haley's "Roots" was plagiarized from a White author.
....But plagiarism is the least of the problems in "Roots." And they would likely have remained largely unknown, had journalist Philip Nobile not undertaken a remarkable study of Haley's private papers shortly before they were auctioned off.

The result was featured in a devastating 1993 cover piece in the Village Voice. It confirmed - from Haley's own notes - earlier claims that the alleged history of the book was a near-total invention.....

....The judge who presided over Haley's plagiarism case admitted that "I did not want to destroy him" and so allowed him to settle quietly - even though, he acknowledged, Haley had repeatedly perjured himself in court.


Harold Courlander - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
During a five-week trial in federal district court, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Ward stated, "Copying there is, period."[9] Passages from The African were found stapled to a manuscript page from Roots. However, Alex Haley maintained throughout the trial that he had not even heard of The African until the year after Roots was published, and speculated that someone else had given him the photocopied passages. After the trial, Joseph Bruchac, an instructor in black and African history at Skidmore College, stated that he had recommended Courlander's novel to Haley when he visited Skidmore in 1970. Bruchac remembered driving home three miles to fetch his own copy of The African and give it to Haley, who promised to read it "on the plane."[5]

Courlander and Haley settled the case out of court for $650,000 and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots." [5]

5 famous plagiarism and fraud scandals in the book world
The massive book "Roots" by Haley won a Pulitzer Prize for its account of several generations of an African-American family living in America, a family which Haley said was his own. The writer said he did years of research into his ancestors before writing the book, but doubt has been cast by historians onto the research and whether the man Haley claimed was his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, actually existed. In 1978, after the book was turned into a legendary miniseries, Haley was sued by author Harold Courlander, who said that passages of "Roots" were taken from his novel "The African." Haley said he did not plagiarize but admitted that some sections of "Roots" seemed to have originally appeared in "The African." "Alex Haley ... regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book Roots," said a statement by the author.

 

[Asclepias]

Documentaries do the same thing. No he was never successfully sued for plagiarism.
Of course there is a lot of factual history in Roots. The story is based on his family.
Who told you i was having a conniption?
Its not really my problem Roots is not on that list. Most likely it was compiled by white people. That pretty much renders it less than credible or relevant.

Wrong again......and your racism explains why.

Alex Haley's "Roots" was plagiarized from a White author.
....But plagiarism is the least of the problems in "Roots." And they would likely have remained largely unknown, had journalist Philip Nobile not undertaken a remarkable study of Haley's private papers shortly before they were auctioned off.

The result was featured in a devastating 1993 cover piece in the Village Voice. It confirmed - from Haley's own notes - earlier claims that the alleged history of the book was a near-total invention.....

....The judge who presided over Haley's plagiarism case admitted that "I did not want to destroy him" and so allowed him to settle quietly - even though, he acknowledged, Haley had repeatedly perjured himself in court.


Harold Courlander - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
During a five-week trial in federal district court, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Ward stated, "Copying there is, period."[9] Passages from The African were found stapled to a manuscript page from Roots. However, Alex Haley maintained throughout the trial that he had not even heard of The African until the year after Roots was published, and speculated that someone else had given him the photocopied passages. After the trial, Joseph Bruchac, an instructor in black and African history at Skidmore College, stated that he had recommended Courlander's novel to Haley when he visited Skidmore in 1970. Bruchac remembered driving home three miles to fetch his own copy of The African and give it to Haley, who promised to read it "on the plane."[5]

Courlander and Haley settled the case out of court for $650,000 and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots." [5]

5 famous plagiarism and fraud scandals in the book world
The massive book "Roots" by Haley won a Pulitzer Prize for its account of several generations of an African-American family living in America, a family which Haley said was his own. The writer said he did years of research into his ancestors before writing the book, but doubt has been cast by historians onto the research and whether the man Haley claimed was his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, actually existed. In 1978, after the book was turned into a legendary miniseries, Haley was sued by author Harold Courlander, who said that passages of "Roots" were taken from his novel "The African." Haley said he did not plagiarize but admitted that some sections of "Roots" seemed to have originally appeared in "The African." "Alex Haley ... regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book Roots," said a statement by the author.

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

 

[Divine Wind]

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

Wow! Innocent people just give away money? Who knew!

Feel free to ignore the fact he actually plagiarized "The African" in pursuit of your racist agenda.

 

[Asclepias]

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

Wow! Innocent people just give away money? Who knew!

Feel free to ignore the fact he actually plagiarized "The African" in pursuit of your racist agenda.

Dont deflect from the fact that you claimed he was successfully sued for plagiarism. It only lets people know you feel like you have egg on your face.

 

[Divine Wind]

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

Wow! Innocent people just give away money? Who knew!

Feel free to ignore the fact he actually plagiarized "The African" in pursuit of your racist agenda.

Dont deflect from the fact that you claimed he was successfully sued for plagiarism. It only lets people know you feel like you have egg on your face.

He was successfully sued. He was sued and paid damages to Harold Courlander. While you are free to waffle and play semantic games, I'm certain Courlander considers it a successful lawsuit.

Courlander and Haley settled the case out of court for $650,000 and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots."


As for your racist agenda:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I'm judging Haley by the content of his character, yet you are judging me and those who compiled the list of documentaries by the color of a person's skin. MLK would be sad, I'm sure.

 

[Asclepias]

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

Wow! Innocent people just give away money? Who knew!

Feel free to ignore the fact he actually plagiarized "The African" in pursuit of your racist agenda.

Dont deflect from the fact that you claimed he was successfully sued for plagiarism. It only lets people know you feel like you have egg on your face.

He was successfully sued. He was sued and paid damages to Harold Courlander. While you are free to waffle and play semantic games, I'm certain Courlander considers it a successful lawsuit.

Courlander and Haley settled the case out of court for $650,000 and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots."


As for your racist agenda:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I'm judging Haley by the content of his character, yet you are judging me and those who compiled the list of documentaries by the color of a person's skin. MLK would be sad, I'm sure.

"settled the case out of court "

 

[Divine Wind]

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

Wow! Innocent people just give away money? Who knew!

Feel free to ignore the fact he actually plagiarized "The African" in pursuit of your racist agenda.

Dont deflect from the fact that you claimed he was successfully sued for plagiarism. It only lets people know you feel like you have egg on your face.

He was successfully sued. He was sued and paid damages to Harold Courlander. While you are free to waffle and play semantic games, I'm certain Courlander considers it a successful lawsuit.

Courlander and Haley settled the case out of court for $650,000 and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots."


As for your racist agenda:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I'm judging Haley by the content of his character, yet you are judging me and those who compiled the list of documentaries by the color of a person's skin. MLK would be sad, I'm sure.

"settled the case out of court "

$650,000 is a successful lawsuit.

If Airbnb settles out of court with Mr. Seldon, would you consider it a successful lawsuit? I sure as hell would.

Airbnb being sued for racial discrimination by black Virginia man
A Virginia man is suing Airbnb after he claims that he was racially discriminated against by the popular house sharing website.

Gregory Selden, 25, attempted to rent a place to stay in Philadelphia for a few days since often times the prices on the site for accommodations are cheaper than hotels.

 

[Divine Wind]

Remember all the Germans Americans complaining about how they were portrayed in Schindlers list? And how they demanded they show all the good Germans in Hitlers Germany?

No? Me neither, what could be the difference?

I am American of German descent. Schindler's List was the first movie based on the Jewish genocide to finally acknowledge that all Germans were not intent on eliminating Jews and that at least one was willing to risk his personal safety to protect some of them. There needs to be more movies that will concede there were far more Germans than Oskar Schindler during that era who protected Jews in a number of ways, many of whom lost their lives for doing it.

The pianist was another such example. It revealed the long disregarded existence of organized groups of Germans, and there were quite a few, which managed to hide Jews and provide many with fake identities. But for decades after the early 1940s the word German became synonymous with Nazi where most Jews are concerned.

Likewise, for a substantial percentage of Black Americans, mainly the lesser-educated, the word White is synonymous with the words slavery and Jim Crow.

Schindler's List was a very good movie.

If you watch shows like "Underground" on WGN, you'll see the type of characters you're looking for, good white folk that ended up risking life and limb for the plight of negro slaves.

Not an easy task when the entire society is against it.

What you seem to fail to grasp is that what blacks are angry about is the fact that society was so against blacks for practically no reason. We were considered less than dogs. Hence they could enslave us, mistreat us, breed us, hang us, all while going to their "Christian" church claiming to follow God, many of which actually justified slavery through the Bible, clearly perverting the Word, but that is what was common. In more modern times, the white society felt that segregation was just fine, that blacks shouldn't vote, that blacks could be watered down with hoses, hunted with dogs, hung, etc. These things occurred up to modern times, as a result of the slave trade. It's no wonder that up to today, black lives are considered not worthy, hence an unarmed black child can be gunned down by a rabid gun nut, and nobody bats an eye, and even lets the bastard off the hook by a almost all-white jury.

However, I bet you won't see the connection and will find some reason to dismissed the facts I just presented to you.

Good statement "Not an easy task when the entire society is against it" and agreed.

It's why I respect Muhammad Ali for facing prison for his convictions and Pastor Martin Niemöller for actually going to a Nazi concentration camp for his convictions.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

[Asclepias]

Thanks. That proves he was never successfully sued. It says he settled. How dumb do you feel knowing you proved yourself wrong with your own post?

Wow! Innocent people just give away money? Who knew!

Feel free to ignore the fact he actually plagiarized "The African" in pursuit of your racist agenda.

Dont deflect from the fact that you claimed he was successfully sued for plagiarism. It only lets people know you feel like you have egg on your face.

He was successfully sued. He was sued and paid damages to Harold Courlander. While you are free to waffle and play semantic games, I'm certain Courlander considers it a successful lawsuit.

Courlander and Haley settled the case out of court for $650,000 and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots."


As for your racist agenda:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I'm judging Haley by the content of his character, yet you are judging me and those who compiled the list of documentaries by the color of a person's skin. MLK would be sad, I'm sure.

"settled the case out of court "

$650,000 is a successful lawsuit.

If Airbnb settles out of court with Mr. Seldon, would you consider it a successful lawsuit? I sure as hell would.

Airbnb being sued for racial discrimination by black Virginia man
A Virginia man is suing Airbnb after he claims that he was racially discriminated against by the popular house sharing website.

Gregory Selden, 25, attempted to rent a place to stay in Philadelphia for a few days since often times the prices on the site for accommodations are cheaper than hotels.

Doesnt really matter what you consider it to be. The point is that its not a successful lawsuit.

 

[MikeK]

Germans knew of Holocaust horror about death camps

The analogy to be contemplated in this regard is the atrocity which was watched by all Americans on live television during the initial stage of the Iraq invasion, when the bombing of Baghdad lit up the sky like a fireworks display and thousands of innocent Iraqis, including babies in their cribs, were blown to bits or incinerated. The invasion went on day after day and a civilized nation, whose people did absolutely nothing to provoke us, was reduced to rubble.

You knew it was happening. So did I. But what did we do about it? We did the same thing as the German population did about the Third Reich's purge of the Jews. Most Americans did nothing about the Iraq invasion because they believed what the Bush Administration's propagandists were telling them.

So don't blame the brainwashed German people, because we are no different.

 

[MikeK]

i hate it when someone that appears to be intelligent makes ignorant comments like this. Have you ever been anywhere in Africa? I have. A lot of Africans live better lives than where I grew up here in the states and i am only speaking economically. They have vastly superior cultural lives, vastly superior spiritual lives, and love education.

I didn't say there is not a small percentage of financially successful Africans. What I said is Black Americans at all economic levels live better than Black Africans -- presumably from the richest to the poorest. I.e., ". . . standard of living" = all economic levels.

Do you deny that? Do you deny there are parts of Africa in which the practice of slavery continues to this day? Do you deny there are parts of Africa in which the villagers live in constant fear of being raided by warlords whose gangs pillage, rape and murder them?

Please don't cleverly distort my comments.

 

[Asclepias]

i hate it when someone that appears to be intelligent makes ignorant comments like this. Have you ever been anywhere in Africa? I have. A lot of Africans live better lives than where I grew up here in the states and i am only speaking economically. They have vastly superior cultural lives, vastly superior spiritual lives, and love education.

I didn't say there is not a small percentage of financially successful Africans. What I said is Black Americans at all economic levels live better than Black Africans -- presumably from the richest to the poorest. I.e., ". . . standard of living" = all economic levels.

Do you deny that? Do you deny there are parts of Africa in which the practice of slavery continues to this day? Do you deny there are parts of Africa in which the villagers live in constant fear of being raided by warlords whose gangs pillage, rape and murder them?

Please don't cleverly distort my comments.

I know what you said. I just said it wasnt true. Black Americans at all economic levels do not live better than Black Africans. How could that be possible if there are millionaire/billionaire Black Africans? You totally avoided my question. Have you even been to Africa?

No Black Americans lives are not far better for having been enslaved. Thats probably the most retarded thing I have ever saw you post. Thats like Shootspeeders level.