Pedro here. As my first post I decided to introduce a cool show which i came upon by luck on saturday afternoon. I found it interesting and coincidential that it aired just as we were hitting the
whiteness and race topic. Just to wet your beaks a little it is hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., if i recall correctly is a harvard professor, who is on the journey to find his ancestry. He is joined by a cast raging from comedians, actors, athletes and bussiness elites, who also want to track their African roots.The show goes on to demonstrate many genealogical techniques used to find African ancestry before the civil war, where there was no detailed record of African-Americans. Also it goes to show the circumstances and standards of life a slave would be held to. It also goes to debunk many myths and assumptions about the period.
I posted up the link which goes straight to the thirteen section of the show. I tried to embed some videos from youtube but they are too short to embrace the content of the show, plus the
quality of picture is incomparable and even jolting for thirteen. Thanks guys, hope you enjoy the videos.Click the title of this post and also check out the Chris Rock segment
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3 comments:
The video with Henry Gates was really interesting. In class we often talk about how people and how society build walls, various social constructs that dictate our lives, the choices we make, and the opportunities we have or choose to take advantage of (as well as those we don't). Chris Rock mentions that, had he known about his heritage previously, it would have taken away the "inevitability that he was to become nothing." This comment just further shows how beliefs about our pasts and cultures and the social constructs that come with them can limit our thinking and limit our choices. When we understand that culture is so global, so integrated in ways we could never even imagine, we begin to pull apart the social constructs and change the way we think. I think that Maya Angelou put it very well in the video; She said, "Heritage is very complex and we have to consider ourselves global, and no human being can be more human than another." Similarly, Tom Joyner realized that his story was "a typical American story," not just a typical African-American story. Understanding his heritage allowed him, and really all of the guests, to become part of the world culture, to understand that everyone has a story and a history and that they are all related.
-Veronica K
Hey Pedro. I really enjoyed watching Chris rock in African American Lives 2. I could tell he was really moved to find out he had an ancestor that fought in the civil war. I have never seen this side of Chris rock and i found it very touching. I also liked the last thing he said in the clip.. " if i had known this, it would have taken away the inevitability that i was gonna be nothing."
This is great, the ability to track your past, your ancestors, to learn about the past, to try to make a sense of your own through others accomplishment life is very touching. My husband's grandfather was a holocaust survivor, the only one in his family who survived, so for my husband there is some history that has been vanished. His grandfather didn't want to talk about his life, i mean his own past, but if he did i am sure that my husband would learn more about who he is today. Because i happened to think that our own thoughts and actions are linked some how with each generations action that we weren't a part of.
Nina Dekel
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