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Books by Henry Louis
Gates
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man /
Africana: The Encyclopedia
/
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley
In Search of Our Roots
/
The African-American Century
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African
American Lives 2
Black Luminaries Find Roots in 4-Part PBS Series
Review
by Kam Williams
A
year ago, Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates
hosted a groundbreaking series on which he and eight
other African-American icons explored their roots via a
combination of genealogical and DNA research. The show
was so successful, that PBS has brought Skip back along
with eleven new recruits curious about their roots.
This
go-round, the group of luminaries includes actors Don
Cheadle and Morgan Freeman, poet Maya Angelou, Olympian
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, DJ Tom Joyner, singer Tina Turner.
Ebony/Jet publisher Linda Johnson Rice, fellow Harvard
Professor Reverend Peter Gomes and belatedly-black
author Bliss Broyard. Plus, there’s Kathleen Henderson,
the contest winner picked from among over 2,000 entrants
to have her history researched for the program.
If
you remember the original show, then you are already
well familiar with the format. Broken down into four
episodes, the first focuses on each person’s 20th
Century relatives. Episode Two traces Civil War era
ancestors, while the third goes all the way back to the
Colonial Period. DNA testing is introduced during the
final episode, which is when the participants learn what
per cent African, Asian, European and Native American
they are. Some then venture to their respective
homelands.
Highlights include Tom Joyner’s learning of the legal
lynching of two of his grandmother’s brothers for the
murder of a white man, the reading from a slave ship’s
log about captives’ deaths from sickness and suicide,
and Ms. Angelou’s heartfelt insights about her strong
connection to the Motherland, even in absentia when she
wistfully reflects, “I don’t think you can ever leave
home.”
Ironically, the most compelling moments revolve around
Ms. Broyard, daughter of the late New York Times
literary critic, Anatole Broyard. For, her light-skinned
father passed for white from the time he moved to New
York City in 1938 at the age of 17 until his death in
1990. So, growing up, she never knew she was part
African-American.
Here, she is clearly uncomfortable as she struggles to
grasp the meaning of her new identity, while wondering
whether her father ran from his out of self-hatred or
self-preservation. There is nothing culturally black
about Bliss, making her inclusion a bit strange, except
that it reminds us that there are undoubtedly millions
of others like her, except they are either ashamed or
unaware of their African ancestry.
The
show’s only low moments come courtesy of host Gates who
is given to drawing baffling and bizarre conclusions
such when he inappropriately sums up a situation with:
“Being black in America has never been about one’s color
or facial features. It’s more a state of mind.” What?
Or
how about another occasion where he fliply suggests that
the damage slavery has wreaked upon the black family can
be easily undone, saying: “DNA can begin to reverse the
Middle Passage. Ain’t that something?” Otherwise,
African American Lives 2 is as moving, informative and
fascinating four hours as you can hope to find anywhere
on the TV dial.
Excellent (4 stars) / Unrated / Running
time: 224 minutes / Studio: PBS
Kam Williams
is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for
100+ publications around the country. He is a member of
both the African-American Film Critics Association and
The New York Film Critics Online. In addition to a BA in
Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from
Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from
Boston University. Mr. Williams lives in
Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.
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posted 30 January 2008 |
