Conversations 2013 #6: Roots is about Apartheid in America, right?
The following conversation took place with a Japanese private student at a café in Yokohama. When she arrived I was in the process of writing and didn’t even notice her til she sat down.
Student: What are you working on?
Me: Huh! oh man, didn’t even see you…how are you?
Student: I’m fine. You look so busy… Is that the ummm black history thing?
Me: Yeah, how’d you know?
Student: You were working on it last week too, deshou?
Me: Oh that’s right… Yeah I’m working on a post about how slavery has been covered in Hollywood.
Student: What is slavery?
Me: Ummm…when you are forced to work and receive no compensation…no money!
Student: No money? Eeeee…
Me: And you have no rights, no freedom.
Student: Eeee…?? nani sore??
(I whip out my iPad and open up the Japanese dictionary app, and show her the Japanese word for slavery…)
Student: Ohhhh! I understand. Black people are slaves.
Me: Were slaves, and yeah, in America in history most were slaves. So, this post was about how Hollywood portrayed slavery…I focus on two movies mostly, one was actually a television mini series called Roots…do you know it?
Student: Roots? No…
Me: Well, it was a pretty big event in my childhood…I think it is still one of the biggest events in American television history.
Students: I see…Roots, ne? Oh wait! Kunta? KUNTA, right??
Me: Yeah, that’s right! Kunta Kinte! Wow you know it?
Student: Oh yes! All Japanese know it…(She gestures at all the people of her generation sitting in the cafe). I remember when I was a kid everybody watched it. 1977 I think.
Me: That’s right! Wow! This is unbelievable…
(I google Roots and Japan and learn that it was shown here in October 1977, 10 months after it aired in America, dubbed in Japanese, over the course of 8 days just like in the states…with ratings through the roof for a program on Japanese TV. I sat there dumbfounded for a moment, digesting this intel…)
Student: It was about apartheid in America, right?
Me: Huh? Apartheid?
Student: Yes, apartheid…am I saying it right? (She whips out her dictionary and looks it up) oh wait…this is in South Africa, not the US.
Me: Uhhhh…yeah, South Africa. But, there are some similarities so it’s an easy mistake to make.
Loco
PS: If you haven’t read Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist yet, what are you waiting for? A personal invitation? Check it out! It’s available in paperback and E-book version here.
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Raw Like Sushi
At least your student had heard of it! This just goes to show the need for Loco in Japan! I really like Roots – I know there’s controversy surrounding whether Alex Haley committed plagiarism – the cort did sit on the issue and found “no actionable similarities exist between the works [Jubilee].”, but its such a good book and tv series.
I hope you told your student it us set in the UK, where whilst the slave trade was abolished by legislation set up in the 1807 Slave Trade act (not made illegal in all parts of the British Empire until 1833 and ownership of slaves was not made illegal until 6th April 2010. Since ‘slave’ did not exist in British law until it was made illegal an further act of Parliament was required. Not that there was a roaring slave-owning industry in the UK before that, though there was no law against it.
Sorry, meant to say part of it was set in the UK – George going to cock fights in England.
Maybe linking the similarities, past and present, is an easy mistake that I make.
“Uhhhh…yeah, South Africa. But, there are some similarities so it’s an easy mistake to make.”
Slavery in the US of North Ameri***a is now illegal, that’s for sure.
Although Hollyweird’s portrayal of just about anything tends to be kind of warped, Roots definitely got everyone’s attention. Now I’m wondering what’s next.