Sorry Kids, But Alex Haley's "Roots" Was A Fraud

From TomPaine.com:

"Let's speak candidly," Gates explained to Alex Beam of the Boston Globe (November 3, 1998). "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village from which his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone's imagination." Translation from Gates's buttery diplomatese: Haley was a literary imposter who slicked the discovery of Kunta Kinte, and ripped off black history as well as other writers' words, and I'll be damned to stick him in the Norton just because Roots sold a zillion copies and the miniseries broke Neilsen records. Sometimes race solidarity demands too much.

From Stanley Crouch:

In the early 1980s, when Alex Haley, the author of "Roots," was speaking at Lincoln Center, investigative reporter Philip Nobile asked him a straightforward question. Since he had paid Harold Courlander $650,000 in a plagiarism suit, why shouldn't Haley be considered a criminal instead of a hero? Haley had no answer. Well, what would you expect from someone who had pulled off one of the biggest con jobs in U.S. literary history? Yet the "Roots" hoax has sustained itself. Every PBS station in America refused to show the 1997 BBC documentary inspired by Nobile's reporting on the book.

Since "Roots" has brought millions of black tourist dollars to Gambia, one Gambian said to me, "Yes, it is a lie but it is a good lie."

From Newsense.org:

Last month, The New York Times ran an article commemorating the “Roots” anniversary. After several paragraphs of ritual praise for “Roots” as “timeless,” “eye-opening,” “poetic,” “gripping,” “a great drama” and containing “visual elegance and emotional power,” the article stated that the sense of horror the show engendered in viewers was real, “even if Kunta Kinte’s story did not ‘really happen’ the way Haley depicted it.” After cataloging some of the discrepancies in Haley’s work, the article rescued the author with this telling statement: “None of those details mar the effectiveness of the drama or the essential reality beneath its story. When his facts were challenged, Haley, who died in 1992, began calling his work ‘symbolic history,’ and on the levels of emotional truth and broad historical strokes, ‘Roots’ remains immensely potent.”

This description encapsulates one of the fundamental problems with modern liberalism. Emotions take precedence over facts and the truth is dismissed as mere “details.” The story of “Roots” is false, but that cannot be allowed to hinder the drama’s “essential reality beneath the story.”

For The New York Times, a foundation of specific false claims and historical inaccuracies somehow helps create broad historical strokes of “emotional truth.” The story may not be true, but the emotions of the viewer are, and this fact supposedly negates the story’s falsified premise. Thus we are told that “Roots” ultimately deserves its iconic status because it “remains immensely potent.” Not true, but “potent.”

As it turns out, there is a word for stories that did not “really happen,” but may be emotionally “potent” anyway. That word is “fiction.” There is also a word for “reality beneath the story,” “emotional truth,” and “symbolic history.” That word is “lies.”

Comments

[KeithTolbert]

I have read a vast selection of books and (ROOTS) was one of them. Just like many other books of Africian Amarician Slavery it was appealling, heartwarming and sadning.We as people are starting to lose feeling. Slavery is and was devastating to all of us White, Black, Asian, Native etc...So when a book comes around that the inslaved can relate to and the young and eagar can learn from it let it be.This book has done more for some of or children than we give credit for. I pray that those in questions do not stop or children from Alex Haley's version of opression and ignorance.True or not events of such happen to so many of our people of "COLOR".So let he's vision be heard.

[T. Hicks]

As an African American in this country I do not find what Alex Hayley did to be neither strange nor unusual and is certainly not a crime! What people do not understand is why do we as African Americans still talk about slavery in the first place. Why don't we just accept that we are Americans a not African Americans and move on! Well, over the years I have read and seen countless instances of our people trying to find some truth and validity as to where we belong in our nations history.I have even pondered these thoughts myself! Trying to find answers to questions that we have in our minds that no one can give us. Questions that Hayley and countless others tried to define and address. Trying to seek explanations into where we came from as a people as to help us evolve as a people in the future despite our sufferings in the past! I think what people don't realize is that we as a race of people have to rely on more so speculation as to the events of our past, as far as slavery is concerned! We have to rely on more oral traditions, though some written, as to dramatize the events of our existence. Wheher Hayley relied on oral traditions of his family members to borrowing content from other authors, there is a desperate attempt to seek to explain and any many instances Like The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "Dramatize a horrifying conditon in to which we must all fall heir". We want to know how we got to America in the first place and what our life was life like before slavery, were we ever happy? Perhaps no one can really tell us these exact truths! But If you want to be historically accurate we do know that Africans were not indigenous to North America and we did not make exploarations to find new land here. We were brought here against our will to shape mold and cultivate this country, and the very treament that we underwent was horrifying. Those are the hardcore facts! The Europeans that came to America did so own their own free will, they were neither forced nor encaptured to do so! And it was the whole encapsulation, domination and forced endoctrination into a nation, culture and society in which we knew nothing about and had no interest in, that several stories in this nation are built upon! It matters not whether Alex Hayley plagarized or even dramatized events of the past. What we must look at is his intent and what was his desired effect of writing such matter to begin with. That I believe as I stated earlier was to seek to explain the very origins of our existence here in America, provide a link to where my people fit into our nations past, motivate the youth to strive from excellence knowing that they came from such a noble class of people and to make since of it all. Slavery of any kind ,whether it be a mere social caste system as seen in many cultures around the world to invlountary serivitude, follwed by the brutality to force upon others that very notion of one race thinking they are more superior than others is plain wrong! The bottom line is that this nation was created from the blood, sweat and tears from several races of people, we must empathasize and apologize for our past and make ammends to solidify our future because slavery is no longer the enemy foreign terrorism is and terrorism matters not a "black and white" thing but an American thing!

[Joan Millard]

FYI. Many Europeans were actually brought to the colonies against their will during the same time as African slaves. Many Irish and others who were conquered by the Brits who shipped them to the colonies rather than killing them. My ancestors most likely came to America of their own free will, but it is possible they did not. Do I care? Not really. What difference does it make what your ancestors went through? If my grandmother was raped, does it mean that I consider myself a victim of rape? Of course not. Why do "African Americans" keep focusing on what their ancestors went through? Why do you need to know where you came from? I don't nor do most of my friends. It does not matter. What matters is that a majority of the people living in poverty are black, that a majority of crimes are committed by black men, and that a majority of children are at risk everyday are black. We need to focus on what is ahead of us, not what is behind us. If black people do not want to be treated as criminals, then the black community needs to come up with a plan to lessen the number of black criminals. They need to stop complaining about living in poverty and do something about it.

[T Hicks]

Let me be the first to say that I am one to believe that being a crminal or uneducated individual in today's society despite your race is a choice!

These kids today of all races in America have equal and every opportunity to make something of themselves and they choose not to!!!!!!

First when is the last time that you have been in a poverty stricken neighborhood, or talked with people living in poverty or have had dinner in their homes? How do you know that these individuals complain?

What you think that you know about blacks blaming others is some mess that you here on t.v. This is not 1965, we have come along way since Brown vs.the Board and Plessey vs. Ferguson! Things have gotten better for alot of people!

Well, I teach and have taught in a poverty stricken area for 11 years. My students didn't choose poverty they were born into it, just as some of those slaves. Ofcourse this is not an excuse!But the decisions that they make today are their own!

So Don't you dare lecture me about doing something for my race because it do it everyday of my life as well as many others. As a teacher in these disadvantaged communties one of our motivating strategies is to teach them about their past and to teach them to care and remember and not to complain but do something about their lives! We teach them that despite where they live and how their parents are that they can do well! Many of my students have gone on to be successful and some have not! Some of my students are more overwhelmed by what their environment is and not believing that they can make it because they don't have anyone to motivate them at home!This feeling has existed in our comunities for years! They cant see past the everyday.
I cannot change the poverty status nor the crimal element in any race and no one can! I can only use the past as a means to guide the future!
But on the otherhand, if you have not lived not one day in these kids shoes, whose parents are crack addicts, drug abusers,and living in these filthy conditions then you don't know what you are talking about! I t is very hard to look past this!

Knowing where you come from is important to a child who when they trace their immediate family tree all that they see are loosers!
Unfortuately, my role as a teacher is to be their motivators because they have none!

People kill me making generalizations about blacks today! You don't think that these individuals know that what they are doing is wrong? They make their own decisions! They don't blame the government at all! Most of these blacks that are in poverty don't complain but deal with it because they know they have not made smart decisions. Yes some choose a life of crime and some don't! But the most amazing thing that I find is that being a teacher talking to these criminals and crack heads not one wants their children to make the same mistakes as they did!

You sound pretty well educated what are you doing about the poor whites,and latinos and other minorities and their crime ridden lives?
Exactly! Do they compalin as well because I wouldn't know!

You sound like an indivual who was raised with some motivation in your life to be educated. You see your ancestry didn't have to go back a thousand years. Like teaching kids about slavery but I bet that you can atleast go back 2 or 3 generations and see that someone in your life has done well! But guess what? You didn't choose the family that you were born into it chose you! Your parents probably stressed education and success and you complied! It is what you do now with your education that you have,that makes you the indivual that you are. When and if you have kids because you sound like you don't I hope that you teach them to care about all individuals because obviously you do not! I hope you give them your wisdom and the wisdom of your ancestors because contrare to your popular belief if you don't educate them they will grow up to be the same criminals that you speak of!

You see I am educated as well and I have a daughter. If she grows up to be poor, uneducated and a damn fool then it will not be because she wasn't taught, but because she chose to!And I promise you that she won't complain!

Furthermore we can debate this issue all day but there really is a seperation of black versus white culture in America. I don't claim to know anything about white culture. And you won't hear me making generalizations about them. Any race of people are more than just statistics, numbers and theory. I can quote numbers all day long but what I advise to you is don't make generalizations and quote facts about something that you don't know anything about! These are real people!
Maybe if you talk to some of the disenfranchised of all races because they are real people and not just statistics, perhaps you would open up your little narrow mind to understand them a little better!

[t hicks]

Some Real life Alex Haley in 2005-2006
Check out this site:

African American Lives
Thursdays, February 2 and 9, 8-10 PM;
encores Saturday, February 25, 8-10 PM;
and Saturday, February 25, 10 PM – Midnight

Decatur’s Chris Tucker is just one of the eight highly accomplished African Americans whose family history is traced in this unprecedented and fascinating four-part series takes Alex Haley's Roots saga to a whole new level through moving stories of personal discovery. Using genealogy, oral history, family stories, and DNA analysis to trace lineages through American history and back to Africa, the series provides a life-changing journey for Tucker, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, and others, and climaxes Gates’ and Tucker’s journey to Africa for a moving visit to the village of Tucker’s ancestors.

Visit the show website at pbs.org >

America Beyond the Color Line with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Thursdays, February 2 and 9, 10 PM to Midnight

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard’s chair of Afro-American Studies, travels the length and breadth of the United States to take the temperature of black America at the start of the new century. In four programs, Gates travels to four different parts of America — the East Coast, the deep South, inner-city Chicago and Hollywood. He explores this rich and diverse landscape, social as well as geographic, and meets the people who are defining black America, from the most famous and influential to those at the grassroots.

Visit the show website at pbs.org >

[Jeff]

I spent considerable time in West Africa, especially Nigeria, and I can assure you that Africans with power and wealth have at least one or two slaves.

Slavery is not openly discussed but it certainly goes on as does the beating of your wife if she disobeys you.

As a White man doing business in Lagos, Nigeria, I found that Africans of lowly status would refer to me as "master" and would do anything that I request if this "slave" had been assigned to me.

I found the experience disturbing but that's the way it is there and its' been like that for many centuries.

Alex Haley did a disservice in the way he portrayed slavery and a disclaimer should be added to any media in which "Roots" is shown or discussed.

People have to understand that while some slaves were beaten for disobedience, that was not common. Why? Because you don't beat your property and quite possibly damage it and ruin it. I know that sounds cold but I don't mean to be. Nobody kicks their computer because they have a problem with running Windows (at least not someone sane). Keep in mind that slaves were not cheap. They were very expensive and a slaveowner spent alot of money for their slave. They wouldn't do stupid things to throw away their investment. I hope that's clear. Please understand this explanation in the context in which it was meant.

[Aaron Hall]

I really do not see the problem with the book 'Roots' if it is a dramatised account of his family's ancestry or the truth. This is highly unlikely, however as a black male born and brought up in London England from Jamaican and very proud parents. I can say happily that Jamaican's and many of the Caribbean blacks are more at peace with who they are as although poor and crime ridden, we have 'our' own land!

OK, we went through slavery just like the black Americans, however I feel we have kept a far closer link to our African ancestry and very much like the European whites in America, we have just adapted our culture. However we are still Africans.

"How say you" I here you say?

We still use African terms within our daily chat like "namn" which is Ghanaian for eat. "Duppie" again West African for ghost and so many more like this.

We still eat Yams, Ackees, Breadfruit.

We have African drum patterns in our blood and we present it in the form of Reggae and Calypso but most potently 'Nya Bingi' Rasta drum patterns that have been passed down from the slaves.

Our islands are run by us, we are the dominant race and our culture flourishes. Ok Recently the 'black American' culture has stepped in with it's fake 'bling bling' ideaology, however I was in Sweden last week and the kids there have bought into this superficial garbage also.

The main point here is that I have watched Roots several times and love the books (Queen also). I have read the African and love it. I must ask though that you read ' the Black Jacobins'. This is a historical and indepth account of Toussaint L Overture who led the slave revolt that made Haiti the first slave free nation in the west. Yes, the Carib boys do it again.

Peace and one love...

[Garrett VanAtten]

First of all it's a good story. Second of all i think that who ever made this site and said that the story is fake is just jeales that a black man sold more copys of any of your books

[d. sizzle]

how dare you diss alex haley. he a pimp. yadaddamean!

[d. sizzle]

how dare you diss alex haley. he a pimp. yadaddamean!

[Garrett VanAtten]

I'm with d. sizzle yeah you might think that i'm black you're wrong i am white but still tom you are just a jealous jerk who probably tryed to sell a book or two and did'ent go so if you think it's a fraud well bring up some pysical evidents then we will know if alex was a fraud untill then you are the fraud

[clarence king]

Just like a white man always tring to take credit away from a black man tring to achive at something. What kills me is that white people are always tring to go through Black Historians works with a fine tooth comb just looking for anything to argue about. Just face it some black people can be educated. I bet Tom is the type of guy who sterotypes the way African Americans are suppose to act. Tom let me ask you a question do we ask, what is real or fake about European History. No we let you all live in the make believe worlds were all these so called great men like George Washington (P.S. by the way do your history research he was a horrible General who basically had a loosing record and also was known for begging for his life when he was surround by native americans but thats another story) but anyway do we bring this up we go along with the other version of his life he was a great man who is the father of our country, etc. Dude in short stop hatin on Alex H.

[Garrett VanAtten]

Once again i find myself agreeing with someone who likes or loves this story ya know yer probably thinking to you're self you southern/raceest A** holes and tom well it just another black man of course he gonna agree nope i'm white so bite that.

[Garrett VanAtten]

Once again i find myself agreeing with someone who likes or loves this story ya know yer probably thinking to you're self you southern/raceest A** holes and tom well it just another black man of course he gonna agree nope i'm white so bite that.

[Garrett VanAtten]

Once again i find myself agreeing with someone who likes or loves this story ya know yer probably thinking to you're self you southern/raceest A** holes and tom well it just another black man of course he gonna agree nope i'm white so bite that.

[T.S.C.]

To Joan Millard,to you and other people that I hear saying blacks should get over slavery, I ask you do you have the balls to say that to Jewish people who still embrace the hardship of the Holocaust. Most likely you don't. Because you would be labeled an anti-semite.To speak out against the Jewish victims of WWII is a no no in this country, so have the same respect for people who suffered through slavery.I know they are not here anymore. But there desendent are.It is not about blame,it is about pride and culture.Sadly for many blacks that culture starts with slavery. That is why my dear we will not get over slavery. We try to raise above it.

[Raina]

it seems funny to me that white people are always denying the validity of african american struggles. it is very convenient for anglo saxons to state that our suffering and past history is truth...it is simply removing the guilt of those who decended from the white oppressors. alex haley spoke with family members who were still alive at that time and had passed on the history of kunta and his decendents...he may not have been able to give account for each and every word kunta said, but who can unless they lived back then....but to call his past a fraud is just another way for white people to deny thier horrific actions to african americans of that time...why don't you just admit what your ancestors did and move on? our history isn't built on "his-story"....

[raina]

it seems funny to me that white people are always denying the validity of african american struggles. it is very convenient for anglo saxons to state that our suffering and past history is untruth...it is simply removing the guilt of those who decended from the white oppressors. alex haley spoke with family members who were still alive at that time and had passed on the history of kunta and his decendents...he may not have been able to give account for each and every word kunta said, but who can unless they lived back then....but to call his past a fraud is just another way for white people to deny thier horrific actions to african americans of that time...why don't you just admit what your ancestors did and move on? our history isn't built on "his-story"....

[lailaye]

To think that all african americans have fraudulent history because you claim someone commited a great fraud while sharing thiers is ridiculas dont you think! if you knew any better you would know that all african americans share the same story when it comes to our heritage and our history, we all share the painful memories of slavery passed down apon us from our own grandparents and from thier grandparents! only you white folk wouldnt know that would you?

[Tammie]

Roots may not have been a true fact. Even so, it still is a wonderful story. It transcends many cultures because we all know that slavery happened. It doesn't matter who sold who or who bought who, it happened. It is an ugly spot on American History. I find it sad and I mean very sad that it would be mainly white people who would try and discredit the book entirely. It isn't easy to see yourself as the bad guy and to realize that your white ancestors logged black people's names in a slave book like they were cattle. I would be embarassed too. Instead of following in your ancestors footsteps by attacking a man who made history with a book and a television series that brought a nation together to realize that racism is real and it is ugly no matter what race is involved. Repent for attacking Alex Haley and go in peace. Stop attacking someone that helped black people all over the world to realize that they have a history and it is a beautiful one and that they should be proud of where they came from. We did not come to America willingly but have always been told to go back to Africa. You should have left us where we were. We weren't bothering you, you came looking for us. We all need one another. We all have something to bring to the table no matter what race. America is what it is because we are diverse. So you get over that. Tammie

[Tom McMahon]

My white ancestors were over in Ireland eating potatoes while all that was going on.

[a bit of both]

Well, firstly I would like to acknowledge Tom MacMahon's brief one line of his own ancestry, my grandfather and his parents suffered terribly in conditions in nineteenth century Ireland for which their alternative 'better' life was the mills of Manchester in the UK. Anyway, I find the points of view on this page intersting albeit lacking in variety. Not that mine should be any different. I find Haley's book a very good read. Of course it is stated as his own true lineage trace, which it seems now is not altogether true. But this should not lead onto its historical dismissal. For me the points he makes (and what the television series covered so well)what historians and indeed non-historians have been debating for the past 100 years. The past 50 years argumants increased over the state of mind of the slave, their living and working conditions, the relationships between master and slave, communities formed, and of course the most frantic and messy of them all, how slavery lies in the psyche and social aspect of modern America (most notably black America). Haley covers these points tremendously, and in relation to contemporary literature, slave narrative and original document sources found then and now, Roots offers a fine base and argument for what slavery was. American slavery as many people will know covers lots of ground. Its veriety was vast and endless, and Haley covered it as best he could. For me he he gave humanity, strength and life to the people who suffered in the terrible institution of American slavery. Communities were formed, despite oppression. Families created, despite seperation. It touched on the internal working seperations of slave communities, the importance of women slaves as leaders. Of course it cannot be ignored that the varying degrees in relations (good and bad) that slaves and masters had was well portrayed in Roots. So much to read and digest. Roots is such a credible book to read (and series to watch), irrelevant of Haley's original misleading. The real truths are between the lines, and whether or not the people actually existed is now not the point. Much can be discussed and understood of the process of slavery in America that Haley writes about. In books like this the aim to explain a period and topic of such importance, controversy and historical relevance, the characters factual or not merely help to guide us along with as much humane understanding as possible. American slavery can be a very delicate subject with many to insult by debating it. Roots was almost exempt from this for a time but unfortunatley is creeping high on the list when slavery discussions commence and not in the positive sense. I only hope it does not get dismissed by too many people, especially African Americans.

(Uncle Tom's Cabin gets much criticism in the discussion of American slavery and Black America, and most notably the role of the slave. This book of course dates back to the nineteenth century and I feel suffers greatly. A writer for a British newspaper offers a decent argument for Uncle Tom (the man) be remembered with a bit more respect: http://www.issues-views.com/index.php/sect/1006/article/1088 )

[Tom McMahon]

I recently saw the DVD set of Roots referred to as a novel. If that becomes the norm (and it seems like its slowly getting there) then I'll take down or revise this post.

I've come to the conclusion that this is really a generational, not a racial divide. Young African-Americans come here and beat me up on this subject because they weren't yet born when Roots was being overhyped as a true story. The odd thing is, if Roots were written today they'd just use some typical weasel words like "based on historical events" or "inspired by a true story" and everybody, including myself, would be just fine with it.

[bit of both]

Not sure what your point is though, Tom. Kindly further your view.

[Tom McMahon]

Simply this: Roots was hyped in the late 70s as being a true story, which it wasn't. In that sense, it's a fraud.

As for the story itself, that is, judging the story as one might judge any other novel for its historical accuracy, I don't really have a strong opinion.

And I don't think it's necessarily being inconsistent to have a high opinion of the story itself, while having a very low opinion of Alex Haley's behavior in lying about the story behind the story.