[goodnesswins]

I knew there was a reason I never watched ROOTS. (Did a search and didn't find this)

[MudPuppy]

wow. I'd never heard about any of this before.

Thanks for the info!

[uvular]

I remember when this was first aired on network tv. The thing that was touted most was that it was the first time there would be frontal nudity of a (black) woman. Had to do with the 'truth' and 'importance' of the story, don't 'cha know.

[Jefferson Adams]

Don'tcha just love it? But it makes us feeeeeeel good about diverrrrrrrsity, so who cares if it's truth or not?

[Portnoy]

I am an avid reader and this is the first I have heard about this. Shocking to say the least.

I remember watching Roots as a youngster. Its still a powerful story at the very least.

Going to have to add this to my list of "Things to read up on" for the year....(right after I finish re-reading the Dune series and C.S. Lewis)

[Dawntreader]

Very interesting. I hadn't realized that the story was supposed to have been an autobiography. I thought it was a piece of fiction...guess I wasn't wrong after all!

[yarddog]

I read an article shortly after Roots came out in which two professional genealogists wrote that the book was a total fraud.

I recall one statement of theirs in which they lamented the fact that the book had been praised by other professional genealogists who had not studied it at all.

Another thing which they said was considered beyond the pale for genealogists, was that Haley knowingly and falsely claimed descent from a real White family in Virginia.

[Psycho_Bunny]

But as the late John Henrik Clarke, dean of Afrocentrist scholars - who admitted that he "cried real tears when I realized that Haley was less than authentic" - argued: "We don't need no more fakers. We don't need no more phonies. We can take our tea with or without sugar."

"We don't need no more"?....is this what's passing for proper use of the English language amongst 'scholars' nowadays?

 

[denydenydeny]

Tea with or without sugar bump.

[TroutStalker]

Then-Vice President Al Gore said at the time, "George Haley is the direct descendant of Kunta Kinte."

Well, there's the final authority on it.