"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"
Posted on 09/02/2014 8:02:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
From 1948 to 1961, there was a show called "This Is Your Life," hosted by Ralph Edwards. In it, an unsuspecting celebrity was lured to a place by a friend or family member where Edwards would surprise them. People from the celebrity's past would then come out one by one and tell stories of the celebrity's early life.
A modern-day version of that program is "Finding Your Roots," the latest in a brilliant series about race, identity and heritage hosted by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Scheduled to air September 23 through November 25 on PBS. Check your local listings.)
In the aftermath of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and renewed calls for a serious "conversation" about race, which always seems to end up with the races talking over one another, Gates' program travels a different road. It is exceptional television and again demonstrates what can be when the medium lives up to its full potential.
While his earlier series dealt mainly with the roots of famous African-Americans, in some cases tracing them back to slave ancestors, this latest series is more of a potpourri.
In the first episode we meet horror novelist Stephen King, actor Courtney B. Vance and Canadian actress-singer Gloria Reuben.
King's father walked out on his family when Stephen was two and never returned. Courtney Vance's father committed suicide and Courtney was brought up in a foster home. Gloria Reuben's father was 78 years old when she was born. When he died he took the secret of his ancestry with him, but not for good. Using genealogy and in some cases DNA, Gates helps each of them to discover family history they never knew.
In the second episode (September 30), Gates features three highly successful athletes: tennis great Billie Jean King, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and women's basketball hall of famer Rebecca Lobo. Jeter, who is the son of an African-American father and Irish mother, is astonished to learn that his ancestors included slaves who were "owned" by a white man named James Jeter.
"The story of America," notes Gates, "is a patchwork of stories like these." This is why racism is so incredibly stupid. To hate someone because of race -- or any other attribute for that matter -- is to hate, if not one's self, then one's ancestors. We are all "mixed." There are no "pure-bred humans." Like wildflowers, we can be seen in many different hues, shapes and origins.
Gates says some scientists believe that great athletes like King, Jeter and Lobo inherit certain traits in their DNA, giving them advantages others don't have. While he doesn't deny the role of DNA, he concludes with something more profound: "The source of their greatness was not simply in their DNA, but also in the values that their ancestors passed down to them, even in ways they had never known."
Isn't the passing down of immutable values something that has been lost in our "tolerant" culture? Doesn't their loss explain the cause of so much social turmoil?
"Finding Your Roots" should be assigned homework for every child. It should also be watched by adults because it contains the essence of a healing balm that could, if we let it, repair some of the damage caused by the way we look at ourselves and other people. We aren't -- or shouldn't be -- defined by race, gender, class, politics, or anything else.
A common humanity is what separates us from plants and animals. It should not separate us from each other.
Is Professor Gates still belligerent and antagonistic towards police? How about a beer summit to talk it all over??
My prediction is that this show will not have much interest.
It looks like a very boring show. I certainly will not watch it
"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"
You are probably correct.
Conservatives probably won't watch it because they are not too happy with Mr. Gates' whining when the neighborhood police were just trying to do their jobs - and were accused of being racists (with the Golfer-In-Chief then piling on by accusing them of 'acting stupidly' - before he knew any of the facts of the case).
And if the description of the show is accurate, liberals won't like it because it does not feed into the racism is rampant in America meme.
I researched my ancestry. I come from a family of poor but extremely good looking people. The royalty of many nations slept with my ancestors. All the males in my family have the chromosome for being able to run from the palace guards while putting on their pants. My ancestors laid more queens than Gus the poker dealer at the casino. Fat lot of good it did us. Still poor as can be. Oh, those queens will promise you gold and land and a Letterman’s jacket when they are in the throes of passion, but the next morning it’s “Be a good fellow and crawl out the window.”
There are the police acting stupidly.
Gates sees racism in everyone else but himself.
That said, it's unfortunate that he only focuses on celebrities. As interesting as it may be, it's still celebrity glorification, as far as I'm concerned. Finding out one's true heritage won't change a celebrity's activism after they discover that their "people" are not what they thought they were.
-PJ
I agree with Gates on very little. But, his programs on ancestors have been very well done and presented without many agenda overtones. His series on Blacks pointed out facts that some white person would have a hard time getting on television. He acknowledges that Blacks were slave owners in their own right and not just as a means of freeing family members. He points out that the white factors in West Africa that provided slaves to the slave ship captains did not capture the slaves themselves, they bought them from other Blacks who recognized an economic opportunity when they saw it. These shows are very popular right now, with several networks running their own version. It’s sort of an Antiques Roadshow or American Pickers with Great Grandad instead of the Grandfather Clock.
Sorry, Gates, but a lot of people can trace their ancestry back eight generations or more - from people who came from remote villages in northern Norway, or such, and who are unlikely to have migrated their from, say, Cameroon or Sambia.
Having said that, race is indeed a poor reason to hate some one - but I'll reserve judgement about those "other attributes."
Regards,
True, but those people did not come from Norway, they migrated there from Eastern Europe, and then traded with people in what is now Russia all the way down to the Black Sea. That trading involved young females. The also brought back female slaves from the Normandy coast, Ireland, and Britain. Those folks came from Central Asia, Spain, and Central Europe.
St. Maurice, head of the Theban Legion from Egypt, who were transferred to Gaul to put down revolts in the 3d Century. Maurice was a Black man as were many of his Legionnaires. They were not celebate during their time in France, although they were faithful to Christianity.
They need to do one on Barack Obama. Could be very revealing.
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