If you are not familiar with “Roots”, then I don’t know what to say about you. Your black card is in serious jeopardy in many circles. The book and film are two very important pieces of African American film and literature history.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States and together are considered one of the most important works of the twentieth century.

Watching the multi-part series of “Roots” was a right of passage for all black people at one time in this country. It seems like the tradition has fallen to the wayside a bit over the past decade or so as the black community settles in to full assimilation and wanting to put the reminders of their tortured past behind them (unfortunately).

However, with the wild success of slavery based movies by Hollywood lately, the History Channel is leaping at the opportunity to cash in on the trend. Movies like Django, The Butler, and 12 Years A Slave have seem to usher in the era of black, slave movies that are being eaten up by both black and white audiences across the country.

Alex Haley, the original writer and owner of Roots, or his estate no longer owns the “Roots” rights. They were attained by David L. Wolper at one point in time, but once he died was passed on to his son Mark Wooper.

Wooper sold the rights to the History Channel and gave them the opportunity to remake the classic. Apparently, the new version will be 8 hours long, but the writer and actors have not been announced just yet.

How do you feel about the History Channel remaking Roots?

Personally, i’m disgusted the History Channel will be remaking this classic. Some things should not be touched, but when there are no black hands involved in our classics, our history and our stories it worries me that much more. And with the History Channel’s history for their revisionist history, I expect there to be great problems with this story and somehow even further justification for the horrific actions taken by the people of this country.

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/roots-ramake-history-channel-miniseries/