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I'm a pbs supporter. I don't want my money to go toward someone who is dragging along an old mantra which will make sure it never gets better. Some pretty awful things were done to other ethnic groups, including 'white people' and if detail is to be extended back that far, do it FAIRLY with everyone. The only people who get the lecture are his black guests.
On Who do you think you are, one guest descended from a child indentured by poor parents. They showed the town they lived in, and where in the common grave they might be buried, and how hard conditions were for children after his arrival. I'm sure most of this surprised people. That boy grew up and started a new life but they did point out that many didn't. Reba McIntyre did not know at all about her familiy's history.
This was education about something hardly known today. It was *opening* a window. I think if the story of the early ancestors of ALL Gates guests were showcased in the same detail he does black guests it would be a force for greater education about people's experiences most probably don't know. And I think pretty much everyone knows slaves shipping in didn't get a good deal, but many do not know that many others didn't either. Few or our first Americans came under happy circumstances and for many life wasn't easy or simple for a long time. Make that something Gates can do the lecture over, but for all.
You want to teach something, do it fairly and for everyone. Even if I don't watch it the deduction for my pbs station still gets made.
I like most any PBS documentary-related TV shows. It's taken me a few episodes to get into this show. I still wish they would focus on one person per episode or perhaps a rough time period. Maybe the 1st season was a little better as someone else here mentioned. I don't think I ever saw any of it.
As time permits, I plan to check it out. Overall, I really enjoyed the the recent Angela Bassett / Valerie Jarrett / Nas episode which looked at slavery. At times. for me anyway, Dr. Gates narrative comes across as rather dry academic style and yes, he clearly has obvious political leanings, but overall, I'd prefer this show to most of what else is on TV.
Dr. Gates narrative comes across as rather dry academic style and yes, he clearly has obvious political leanings, but overall, I'd prefer this show to most of what else is on TV.
You got that right, for sure! Everything else -- and I mean everything -- just doesn't interest me. I watch movies or documentaries instead.
Next week, he's doing Jewish history with three Jewish people. MAYBE we'll get across the ocean on this one at least! The slave/black narratives kind of bore me, because I want to get beyond the 1800s in America once in a while -- open up the world!
He seems to be leaning toward drawing the Black audience. Soon he'll abandon White subjects and will be seen exclusively on BET. I feel abandoned and violated.
With so few subjects that truly engage me, I find the show very interesting. But...neither myself nor my DH have direct line ancestors that actually fought in the civil war so all the information regarding the south and slave schedules is fascinating to me. My DH's ancestors did live in Kentucky and North Carolina, but were dirt poor so even with DNA testing, we just haven't gotten past a very large brick wall that many researchers before me were unable to break through.
I guess for me, I'm using this program as a learning guide so in that regard, this show has helped me to understand the value of that period of time, not only from a historical perspective, but from how records were kept and how families were not only split apart, but to what lengths some went to in order to keep families together. The guests reactions are sometimes less than what I would expect, but that is true even on WDYTYA.
I only wish history was half this interesting when I was in school. Maybe if it were, I would have paid more attention..sigh...
better. Some pretty awful things were done to other ethnic groups, including 'white people' and if detail is to be extended back that far, do it FAIRLY with everyone. The only people who get the lecture are his black guests..
When I read some of the criticism of the show, what comes across is "white guilt" and lets forget about the most despicable part of US history. Something like "Get Over It." Would anyone tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust? Of course not. And as far as I know Jewish poeple have a motto that no one should ever forget. Also, when you say that "white people" had awful things done to them too, it seems quite defensive. What happened in US history to "white people" that reaches even 50% of what the majority did to blacks?
Now I have no problem with those who want emphasis on other relevant parts of a person's ancestry but a lot of us are tied in some way to slavery and the treasonous population that tried to secede.
When I read some of the criticism of the show, what comes across is "white guilt" and lets forget about the most despicable part of US history. Something like "Get Over It." Would anyone tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust? Of course not. And as far as I know Jewish poeple have a motto that no one should ever forget. Also, when you say that "white people" had awful things done to them too, it seems quite defensive. What happened in US history to "white people" that reaches even 50% of what the majority did to blacks?
Now I have no problem with those who want emphasis on other relevant parts of a person's ancestry but a lot of us are tied in some way to slavery and the treasonous population that tried to secede.
But why shouldn't everyone's ancestry be treated the same? I'd like to see the origions of the first arrivals in the colonies closer detailed. If you ancestors go back that far, the likelyhood is they arrived poor and used. Isn't that part of the story too? It's the beginning of the rational that it was okay to buy and sell people (origionally poor English and Irish) that became its okay to have human beings as property. Everything comes from something else. Plantations full of black slaves did not magically appear;there had to be an origion of the practice for that to happen. So tell the WHOLE story.
Nobody is saying deny that bad things happened. Black slavery was one of them. It came to exist because poor children and adults were hauled across the seas under debt to work in the fields first, and that eventually became slavery as we think of it. But all the practices and laws and methods of controls were developed before slavery became offically black. Virtual slavery of poor people in other industries also existed for some time, especially mining. The railroads used Irish to build railroads with so little care that often names were never kept, and for the men who died they buried them under the tracks and hired some more. Disregard and lack of respect for people happened to a lot of people. If you are portraying representatives of american society, look at all the ways people got used and frequently used up, not just one sort. Put things in prospective of the time too, when the poor and powerless were only worth something if they could be of use.
I'd like to see all the guests ancesty traced back to that first ancestor, and their reasons and lives enumerated. Maybe they had money and paid on their own, maybe not, maybe they didn't even want to come. Make it fair and real and honest. Don't lecture in moral tones, just factual ones. Define the society. Don't moralize because in three hundred years we be condmened for out decisions. Make ones personal story about individuals, not about an agenda.
As for guilt, why should anyone today feel guilty for what their ancestor's chose to do? They made their choices as we make ours. We need not feel guilty over theirs. All we are responsible for is for our OWN choices and behavior. Nobody around today did any of the things 'guilt' would suggest we should be obliged to feel. We are responsible for our OWN choices and behavior. 'Guilt' would be a choice but personally I don't feel any. My ancecstors did what they did. I'm not responsible. Don't tell me I should be. Save ourtage for what can be fixed today.
Today we feel we must pidgen hole everyone in a box, old or new. But there are many more dimensions a box can't define. We should understand the past but not hang onto it like an emotional crutch. Let the past BE past. This does not mean that anything be forgotten, but comes a time when you have to let it be what happened two, three hundred years ago in a different world.
An excellent way to begin is to look at ancestors and define their lives is genology, but not so it can feed an agenda, but define the past. And we need to learn to not repeat it. But those who did things today we would not approve are dead and gone. History, and that is what this is, is a lesson, not an agenda. We should not forget but we should not use it to keep the flames burning either.
Events like the Holocaust won't be forgotten, but there are still survivors alive today. It is an example of what happens when all sense of humanity is lost. It will be very long remembered. But do you blame the grandchildren of the Germans who did these things?
I still say this show needs to stop being black history hour every single week and dump the guilt trip and prechy tones. I did find the last show interesting precisely because he didn't turn to the preachy stuff, but was very academic and detached, as he should be. It would have been better if they'd done one guest entirely and then another as I was confused about who's ancestorys were who's at the end.
Crying 'white guilt' will just make sure nothing gets better. I'm not responsible for what decisions my ancestors made. I didn't live in their world anyway. I'm not going to feel guilt over something I had no part in. But when the flag is waved enough times its begins to sound like the flag wavers have only the manta of 'guilt' to wave. Make an example of yourself instead. Don't blame someone else for your own wrong turns.
Last edited by nightbird47; 10-31-2014 at 03:29 AM..
If I'm not mistaken, it was America that put an end to what was an inherited institution. From the time this country was founded there was a movement to eliminate slavery. Granted it didn't happen overnight, say from 1789 when a real government was established to 1865. And why is that never spoken of? Because theres nothing to be gained by it.
The British parliament abolished slavery in 1833. One of my favorite movies is Amistad. It's the story of a captured ship that held Africans and how some Americans tried to make slaves out of them. The British and certain Americans helped the Africans to return to their home--they had to prove that they were not escaped slaves, that they truly had never set foot in America and they were Africans. The movie is supposed to be based on a true story.
This country was late in abolishing slavery and it's one of the most shameful eras in our history. But apparently it started in an era when, for some reason, slavery was acceptable. In ancient Rome, it was common for the Romans to enslave Greeks. Throughout medieval times in Europe many of our European ancestors were mere serfs, more or less slaves to the nobility. They worked the land and turned over most of the fruit of their labors to their masters and they lived in poverty. In times of war, they had the grim task of fighting on the behalf of the nobility.
There have always been people who were just plain treated rotten. Maybe there is an innate flaw in human nature that makes some people feel superior and treat other people that way. Anyway, I don't see any basis for "white guilt" over what someone's ancestor did long ago.
Mr. Gates has an agenda and that's his interest and his right. It will probably cause fewer people to take an interest in the show and that may be the end of the show. I, too, would like to see something that would relate to me and my ancestors, maybe we will and maybe we won't.
Hmmm...all this discussion makes me think I'm watching a different show....
I guess I just don't find the "preachy" tone some have talked about even though I'm pretty particular about the shows I devote time to watching. I'm certain that if I didn't like the content or the format or the host, I sure wouldn't be watching...regardless of the premise.
I look forward to every episode and am quite anxious to see the next one with an emphasis on Jewish ancestry...another area that I know little about .
RVcook
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