The modern day society has become an arena that portrays different social inequalities and social class themes such as racism and sexism. One of the outlets in today’s society that portrays these social class themes and inequalities are television programs. This Stratification Media Analysis will analyse a television program called Roots. The social class themes that have been portrayed are racism and slavery. The paper will analyse the scenes that amount to slavery and racism in the four parts of Roots.
Roots is a 2016 American television program which originated from a 1977 miniseries that was produced and aired with a similar name and was based on a novel written by Alex Haley in 1976 (Armstrong, 2016). The 2016 show was directed by Bruce Beresford, Thomas Carter, Mario Van Peebles and Philip Noyce. This program was about a Gambian man named Kunta Kinte who was sold to slavery to the American settlers. The program then explains the history of his descendants in the foreign land. The social themes that are portrayed are slavery and racism.
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Racism is the belief that a specific race is greater or inferior to another race and that an individual’s moral and social qualities are predetermined by the biological characteristics that the individual is born with (Newman, 2013) . Racism results into racial separatism that entails people of different races should, at all times, remain segregated (Newman, 2013). Slavery refers to the act of owning slaves, whereby people are seen as property (Brace, 2004). The principles of property were applied to human beings, such that people were allowed to purchase, own and sell other human beings. Slavery can also refer to the instance when an individual is forced to work against his/her will. An individual qualified to be a slave when he/she was born into slavery, was captured or was purchased.
In part one, a portrayal of the 1770s in Gambia where Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka Warrior from Juffure, which is a sub kingdom that is loyal to the Mandinka King, is shown. The Mandinka King and the Kinte family are resistant to the Europeans who are practising slave trade. The Kinte family have rivals who are the Koro family. Their rivals are slave traders who take young Mandinka warriors and sell them off to the Europeans as slaves for ammunition. This presents a threat towards Juffure and the Kinte Family. Eventually Kunta Kinte is captured by the Koro family and is sold to slave traders in exchange for English ammunitions. These actions define slavery whereby individuals (Koro Family) treat others (Kunta Kinte) as property by selling them for personal gain (firearms and ammunition).
While being transported across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship crew, consisting solely of white people, treated the newly acquired African slaves as items. They separated themselves from the African slaves; they ordered the Africans to sleep on the floor and did not give them food. These inhumane actions promoted the view that the white shipping crew were superior to the African slaves, thereby amounting to racism. Once the ship arrives at the Colony of Virginia, Kunta is sold to John Waller who owns a Tobacco plantation. At the plantation, the residences of the Africans and the residences of the whites are separated. The Africans were segregated. The food, the water and the treatment was terrible. It was as if the family of John Waller who were whites was superior to the Africans. This amounts to racism.
In part two, Kunta escapes during the American Revolutionary War, which occurred ten years later. However, this was not all rosy as Kunta was captured and as a result of his attempt at escape, his right foot was cut off as punishment. Kunta is then handed over to another master for free so as to settle the debts of his former owner. These actions illustrate that a human being was like an item one possesses that could be dealt with in any way that the owner deems fit. This qualifies to be slavery. Kunta later on marries Belle; Belle is a slave woman who took care of Kunta after sustaining the foot injury. The slaves in this new farm are also treated as if they were inferior to the Americans who lived in the farm. This is because the slaves wore tattered clothes. They lived in houses that were in very poor conditions. Moreover, the Americans believed that the black slaves were inferior because they did not qualify to be taught to read and write. This is seen when the master’s daughter secretly teaches Kizzy to read and write. All these actions constitute of racist actions. Kunta gets a baby girl called Kizzy with Belle. When Kizzy grows up, she is sold to Tom Lea who sexually abuses her on the night she arrived.
In part three, Kizzy got pregnant with Tom Lea’s child. The child is born and is called George. George is given a job by Lea to breed chicken and to teach them to fight; however even though he gains the favour of Tom Lea, Lea assures George that he can never be in the same class as an American as he is Black and a slave. The statement that Lea makes depicts that Americans are better than Africans – this amounts to racism. George later on gets married to Matilda, who is the daughter of a Black pastor. Tom Lea, during one of his cockfights, made a wager with a British Businessman, which he could not win and as a result sold George to the Englishman. This depicts that slaves did not have a say on matters that concern their lives.
In part four, before the civil war, George returns from England to America after the Englishman who was his master gave him his freedom. He returned to Tom Lea’s farm where he learned that his mother Kizzy died and that the rest of his family were sold to Frederick Murray. George had left behind many kids with Tom being the first-born. The friends of Frederick Murray sexually abused Tom’s wife. This action of treating Tom’s wife as an object qualifies as slavery. George stayed with the family but left to fight in the Battle of Fort Pillow. He returned when the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution declared all slaves free.
The interpretations provided above depict that the plot of Roots has very many scenes that outline racism and slavery. These interpretations have enabled one to clearly understand that the society portrays inequality when racism and slavery is practiced. The analysis carried out above tries to explain that racism occurs when an individual from a specific race thinks that another race is inferior or superior. This was the case when the Americans treated the African slaves as if they were nothing. It is also evident that slavery is a type of inequality in the society that occurs when human beings are treated as property as seen when Kunta was sold to slave traders. The television program Roots has tried to explain the history of slave trade and how racism affected life in the past.
References
Armstrong, J. K. (2016, June 2). Roots: The Most Important TV Show Ever . Retrieved May 6, 2017, from BBC Culture: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160602-roots-the-most-important-tv-show-ever
Brace, L. (2004). The politics of property: Labour, freedom and belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Newman, D. M. (2013). Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
