Black History Series: Roots Remake 2016

Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers

I remember watching the original Roots series over a decade ago when I visited my uncle in the US. I was in his living room and saw the Roots DVD set which caught my eye. I had never heard of Roots before but looking at the cover I saw it was about slavery. I was very curious because I had never watched a film about slavery before so I decided to watch it. It was definitely an eye opener, though some scenes were difficult to watch it was something I needed to see and I'm glad I did watch it. This mini series was a journey which started in a small Gambian village ending generations later in America after slavery ended.

When I heard about Roots being remade I was quite excited. It was very controversial because many people were against it being remade. Primarily because the original was such a classic and usually a remake never does it any justice. Another reason why people were against it was because it was another slave narrative being shown in the media.When it comes to films about black history it tends to be about slavery or the civil rights movement i.e. 12 years a slave & Selma. Many people are sick of the media showing these types of films especially where black people are portrayed in subservient roles. We rarely see films where black people are rulers, successful or in high positions of power and this was a point raised by Snoop Dogg. I agree that the media do need to diversify the black narratives they show.

However, I can honestly say that after watching the 2016 version of Roots I think its even better then the original. The story telling was captivating. The whole production, the imagery and the cinematography was outstanding.  I liked the choice of cast and the way the main characters were developed during this story. This version of roots contained stories that were not included in the original 1977 version.

In the beginning the concept of slavery happening in Africa prior to the European involvement was adressed. Slavery in Africa was when people were made to be indentured servants which was very different from chattel slavery. It was not as brutal and most of these servants became free are a few years.

This version had more focus on Kunta Kinte's life in Africa. His journey into manhood, his love interest and even his dreams and aspirations of going to the University of Timbuktu to study. This made his character very relatable. I also felt like this version was more authentic when showing the scenes in Africa. The black actors in these scenes had Gambian accents unlike the original where they had polished american accents. Even when Kunta first came to America he was speaking Mandinka and slowly began to learn english which was very realistic. I think that Malachi Kirby did a very excellent job of playing Kunta Kinte.

There was a big focus on Mandinka traditions. One recurrent tradition was the naming of a baby, where the child is held up towards the sky in the middle of the night and the parent makes a declaration. This was very symbolic as it represented each new generation.

Roots is very emotive and there were many tough scenes to watch. One of these  scenes was  Kunta Kinte being whipped for trying to keep his name. He suffered and fought to keep his identity. It made me think of Africans now who change their given African names to a westernised name which is upsetting. This scene made me think how lucky I am to know my identity, which I do take for granted at times and how I should be proud of it. Another difficult scene to watch was when Kizzy was trying to resist being raped by her owner who then proceeds to say "this is MY right". The fact that as a female slave you had no control over your own body emphasised how much slaves did not have any rights.

I think one of the most powerful scenes for me was during the American Civil War where the Union soldiers (which had both black and white soldiers) surrendered against the confederacy soldiers. They lowered their weapons, put their hands up and said "don't shoot!" , the confederacy army then proceeds to shoot every black soldier in the union army while sparing the lives of the white soldiers. This immediately reminded me of the Michael Brown story and the police brutality that goes on in America today.

Overall I do recommend watching Roots. While watching this it made me think what could possess some of the white Europeans at the time to be so brutal towards Africans who had done nothing to them. These people were pure evil and had no type of empathy towards Africans. They felt no way mutilating, lynching and raping them as well as selling slaves away from their families. Despite all the brutality and evil that slaves had to endure they still stayed strong and still rebelled until they became free (I like the fact that this version mentioned the Nat Turner slave rebellion). Kunta was a Mandinka warrior and this warrior spirit has transcended through generations. Africans  overcoming slavery illustrates their strength and dignity which is something to be proud of. As much as the slavery narrative may be played out I think Roots 2016 was needed for the new generation who may lack knowledge about this part of history.

Beyonce Speaks Out!

I admit I have been a big Beyonce fan since I was a little girl in primary school listening to Destiny's Child. She is one of the most powerful black female musicians of our generation. However I did realise that Beyonce rarely spoke out about issues faced by African Americans. This confused me, but then I thought it was because she didn't want to tarnish her image since she has a huge non-black fan base. However when I saw the 'Formation' video I was very surprised but I loved the imagery  that was used throughout the video. She took it back to her southern black roots. She referenced hurricane Katrina, Mardi Gras which is part of New Orleans culture,  Martin Luther King, the black church etc.

One of my favourite lines in the song is "I like my baby hair with baby hair and afro's/ I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils" I loved those lines because she came back at those critics who always spoke negatively about Blue Ivy's hair and Jay Z's wide nose. Having afro hair and a wide nose are common features in people of African descent but due to our europeanised standard of beauty those features are seen as "ugly". I like the fact that she embraces these African features.




The most powerful imagery in the whole video was the scene of the boy in a hoodie dancing in front of policemen who hold their hands up and on the wall it says "Stop shooting us" in reference to the police brutality against african americans.

I was excited when I saw Beyonce's Super Bowl performance with her wearing a Michael Jackson style jacket and her back up dancers with their big beautiful afro hair and wearing berets similar to those worn by the Black Panthers. It has been 50 years since the formation of the Black Panther Party. It was refreshing to see so many beautiful black women because we do not often see that many black women with their natural hair in the media, only the odd few.

However there has been a lot of hate and criticism towards Beyonce in relation to her performance and there is an anti-Beyonce protest organised against her. I've seen a lot of critics say how Beyonce is anti-police and that she is racist and is wrong for paying homage to the Black Panther Party which is a terrorist organisation. Seeing this nonsense angers me. For an African American to speak out against police brutality which predominantly affects their race and for them to be perceived as if they are the villain disgusts me. Countless black people have been killed by the police, it is black people and their families that are the victims and the ones suffering. But asking to not be killed i.e. "Don't shoot" makes you a racist? police are supposed to protect and serve citizens not use excessive force by killing unarmed black people who do not pose a serious threat.

I am also sick of hearing about the Black Panther party being a black extremist/racist/terrorist group. The Black Panther Party was created in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in response to the violence and mistreatment suffered by African Americans by white americans. The party protected and helped black communities, it  provided free breakfast for children and even worked alongside white groups who wanted to help gain equality for black people. They fought against police brutality, fought for civil rights and equality in areas such as employment, housing and education. They believed in arming themselves as a means of protection and self defence, after all they were exercising their constitutional right of bearing arms. However their aim was not to harm or kill people like groups such as the KKK did.  Because of the growth of the party and its success, they were seen as a threat by the government. The FBI did all they could to destroy the party. Many members of the Black Panthers were killed by police, many were arrested and harassed, the group was infiltrated and eventually destroyed.

Its a shame that speaking out against racism makes you a "racist" and trying to fight for equality makes you a "terrorist" but the people that are giving these labels are the true racists who fear when blacks speak out against their ill treatment. I am proud of what Beyonce did, using her superstar status on a huge platform like the Super Bowl which was watched by a billion people worldwide to address an ongoing social and political issue. I believe in equality for all and support anybody regardless of race who tries to make a positive difference. Like Beyonce said at the end of Formation "You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation" 

Race and The Media

I am going to start off this post by saying R.I.P to Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and all those people who have been unlawfully killed at the hands of the police. Last year I blogged about the death of Michael Brown now the narrative of black people in America being killed by police is becoming a regular occurrence. I know that some people have an issue with the phrase 'black lives matter' because people of all races are killed by police however the rate of African Americans being killed by police exceeds that of other races.

One thing I dislike about the media is its portrayal of victims and perpetrators of crime depending on their skin colour. Any muslim person of asian/arab descent is a terrorist, a black person is a thug but if a white person commits a crime it is an "isolated" incident, or the person had a mental illness or was a loner. It's to say that a white person can only commit a crime if there is something wrong with them but this same principle does not apply to people of colour. Even with the Charleston shootings where Dylan Roof, a white man had shot 9 black people dead in a church; the media kept saying he was a "loner" when he was clearly a racist and this was a premeditated attack. Not once was he referred to as a terrorist though this was a blatant terrorist attack.

When a person of colour commits a crime people tend to stereotype the whole group that they belong to but this never happens to white people. For example when when a muslim commits a crime people stereotype all muslims as bad, "they are all terrorists" and a muslim leader has to speak out and condemn the attack. If a white person commits an act of terrorism it is not called terrorism and no white leader speaks out against the attacks on behalf of whites. This is unfair and implies that people of colour are naturally more prone to committing evil acts. The media are also quick to show when people of colour take part in negative behaviour rather than showing those who do something positive.

An example of this is the recent Million Man March 20th anniversary event where thousands of african americans and people of colour came together in Washington DC in order to demand Justice for all people.This was a such an inspirational, emotive and thought-provoking event. So many black people came together in solidarity for a great cause. There were many well educated, intelligent black people and those who have high accomplishments giving very passionate speeches. This was a positive and peaceful event. I tried to find media coverage on this event but no news stations were covering it. I only managed to find out more about this event through social media. At first I was surprised that no news outlets were covering this march then I remembered the media rarely shows black people in a positive light. Only when black people are taking part in negative behaviours such as rioting then it would have been plastered all over the media.

The media is probably the most powerful tool out there, it can shape the perceptions and influence the opinions of the masses. It can make you believe anything including having a negative view on particular groups of people. This includes immigrants, ethnic minorities, those who are on benefits etc. The media will have you hating the wrong group of people who are of the least threat to society. That is why I do not solely get news from mainstream media but certain pages where they report things that never make it onto the news. The good thing with modern technology and social media is that stories of events that happen can be put out there for the world to see therefore we no longer need to depend on the news. I wish the media could portray people from all races equally because we are all human. It is sad that it is used to divide people. Here is quote said by Malcolm X which couldn't be any more real.

Unpretty

Hi guys!

Sorry its been a while since I've last posted. This blog is going to probably be my most personal blog. I want to write this in order to help other females (maybe males too) who are going through what I'm going to discuss.

Low self-esteem. Something which most (if not all) women go through at some point in their lives. Even females who are deemed as attractive by societies standards suffer from low self esteem. We live in a society where us females are constantly being judged by how we look. We are also bombarded by the media about what an attractive woman is. Because many of us do not fit society's standards of what being attractive is, we do what we can to appear more attractive. Look at the beauty industry, it is worth BILLIONS, we spend so much on products to make us look more attractive. It is like we are striving to look "perfect" like these fake models. If you look at magazine covers you see women who are blemish free, stretch mark free, perfect skin, flat abs, toned body. You never see any flaws because they have all been removed by photoshop. We see that as the standard of beauty but this standard of beauty is unobtainable because this "perfect looking woman" does not exist. ALL women have flaws because we are human beings not dolls.

Recently I saw that TMZ posted pictures of Amber Rose with cellulite on her butt. Amber hit back on her Instagram account saying that she loves her butt dimples. I'm glad she did that because I'm sick of the media trying to body shame women for looking like women. Amber has a beautiful body (especially after having a child) and I see nothing wrong with having cellulite. Even when looking at my own body I have stretch marks on my butt which I used to be insecure about but I've accepted that I'm a real woman. Why should we hate the things on our body that are natural to us? I hate that we live in a world where women are always judged, criticised and scrutinised about their appearance.

I'm going to tell you my story which I've never spoken to anyone about, not even my closest friends of family. I never had self esteem issues until I was about 12/13 years old. Prior to that I didn't see anything wrong with how I looked. It is when I got to secondary school I had experienced negative comments about how I look. My self esteem got so bad that I didn't like taking pictures and I hated looking in the mirror. I used to get very nervous walking past groups of boys because I thought they will look at me with disgust. When out with my friends they used to get far more attention from boys than I did. I believed I was ugly and I used to ask God why he didn't make me beautiful like he did for other females. I would get upset and think about the plastic surgery I would want to get. Being of west African origin with typical sub-saharan African features I used to wish that I had some white or even indian mix in me so my features would look less African. When I got older I started wearing make-up and it got to a point I wouldn't leave my house without it because I thought I didn't look attractive without it on.

I took my insecurities into my relationships and believed that no guy would seriously want me and that they would only want my body. I found it difficult to accept that a guy would find me attractive. Even when I received compliments from females saying that they wished they looked as good as me I couldn't understand why anybody would want to look anything like me. Funny enough when I used to pretend I was confident with high self-esteem I started attracting a lot of guys, this shows that guys are also attracted to a woman that is confident. The downside of that is that I started to base my worth on the attention I got from guys. Unfortunately I see girls who think like this especially on social media with girls who always post half naked or provocative pictures in order to get likes and attention from men. Looking back, it is so upsetting that I once thought so negatively about myself. Now I'm in my mid 20s and I'm in a much better place, though I still get insecure occasionally.

We have to accept that we are not going to be attractive to everybody, that is not our purpose on earth. The only person that needs to find you attractive is your future spouse not these shallow men. F**k societies standards!! if no one has told you this before you are beautiful the way God created you. One day somebody is going to love you the way you are. Never let the media, any man or negative remarks make you think bad about yourself. As females we shouldn't tear each other down because words are powerful and can seriously damage someone emotionally and psychologically. We should rather uplift each other. Having better self esteem won't happen overnight, its a process. Start by looking at yourself in the mirror and say "I am beautifully and wonderfully made" do this consistently until you start to believe it.



Written by Dinah