Really Jeopardy Teen Tournament Contestants?

[gpw]

I'm watching Jeopardy and it's the teen tournament. One of the categories was "Books with Subtitles". The answer was "This book by Alex Haley is subtitled 'The Saga of an American Family'". All three of the contestants just stared with an "uhhhh...." expression.



It kinda made me sad. Am I old? I mean, I know that I'm old because I remember watching "Roots" on TV when it was on, but....this book isn't something that is taught to kids?

[Vespasia]

The Jeopardy FB page posted this last week and a small piece of my soul died



Et tu, Trebek? 

[gpw]

The girl on Alex's left, the boy third from left on the front row, and the girl third from the right in the back row were the contestants today.

[Deleted]

I would be shocked as hell if there is a teenager around who knows about Roots. I didn't learn about in school actually. I was very young when the miniseries came on television. And in later years, Alex Haley was called out as a plagiarist. So yeah, that.

[gpw]

Jul 22, 2014 19:13:08 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

I would be shocked as hell if there is a teenager around who knows about Roots. I didn't learn about in school actually. I was very young when the miniseries came on television. And in later years, Alex Haley was called out as a plagiarist. So yeah, that.

Say what now?  How did I not know THAT?

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2014 19:15:45 GMT -5 gpw said:

Jul 22, 2014 19:13:08 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

I would be shocked as hell if there is a teenager around who knows about Roots. I didn't learn about in school actually. I was very young when the miniseries came on television. And in later years, Alex Haley was called out as a plagiarist. So yeah, that.

Say what now?  How did I not know THAT?

Yeah, apparently, Haley lied like a cheap rug, stole someone else's work, and fudged the genealogy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley#Plagiarism_dispute_and_other_criticism

[gpw]

I feel like I was just told there's no tooth fairy. I love that book so much. I've read other books like Cane River, but I really loved Roots.

.....I'm looking for something to read and even though I've already read it, I might pull out Cane River now. That was really a good book. I think you even rec'd it to me.

[freshhell]

Jul 22, 2014 19:21:58 GMT -5 gpw said:

I feel like I was just told there's no tooth fairy. I love that book so much. I've read other books like Cane River, but I really loved Roots.

.....I'm looking for something to read and even though I've already read it, I might pull out Cane River now. That was really a good book. I think you even rec'd it to me.

I'm sorry you are crushed, but I am thrilled! I'm apparently related to John Waller, who was billed by Alex Haley as Kunta Kinte's owner (sickening to write that). Our crazy cousin who is obsessed with genealogy and is writing a family book joked once that he is writing "the white version of Roots." You have no idea how happy it makes me that I can tell him he is wrong.


 from that link - 
"In addition to the charges of plagiarism, the accuracy of those aspects of Roots which Haley claimed to be true has also been challenged.[21] Although Haley acknowledged that the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he did claim that he had identified his actual ancestor in the person of Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Jufureh in what is now the Gambia. According to Haley, Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery, where he was given the name Toby, and, while in the service of a slavemaster named John Waller, went on to have a daughter named Kizzy, Haley's great-great-great-grandmother. Haley also claimed to have identified the specific slave ship and the actual voyage on which Kunta Kinte was transported from Africa to North America in 1767.

However, genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and historian Gary B. Mills, both specialists in African-American research, revisited Haley's research and concluded that those claims of Haley's were false.[22][23] According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They also reported, among other findings, that Toby died years prior to the supposed date of birth of his daughter Kizzy. There have also been suggestions that Kebba Kanji Fofana, the amateur griot in Jufureh, who, during Haley's visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte, had been coached to relate such a story.[24][25][26]"

[gpw]

Jul 22, 2014 20:03:33 GMT -5 freshhell said:

Jul 22, 2014 19:21:58 GMT -5 gpw said:

I feel like I was just told there's no tooth fairy. I love that book so much. I've read other books like Cane River, but I really loved Roots.

.....I'm looking for something to read and even though I've already read it, I might pull out Cane River now. That was really a good book. I think you even rec'd it to me.

I'm sorry you are crushed, but I am thrilled! I'm apparently related to John Waller, who was billed by Alex Haley as Kunta Kinte's owner (sickening to write that). Our crazy cousin who is obsessed with genealogy and is writing a family book joked once that he is writing "the white version of Roots." You have no idea how happy it makes me that I can tell him he is wrong.


 from that link - 
"In addition to the charges of plagiarism, the accuracy of those aspects of Roots which Haley claimed to be true has also been challenged.[21] Although Haley acknowledged that the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he did claim that he had identified his actual ancestor in the person of Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Jufureh in what is now the Gambia. According to Haley, Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery, where he was given the name Toby, and, while in the service of a slavemaster named John Waller, went on to have a daughter named Kizzy, Haley's great-great-great-grandmother. Haley also claimed to have identified the specific slave ship and the actual voyage on which Kunta Kinte was transported from Africa to North America in 1767.

However, genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and historian Gary B. Mills, both specialists in African-American research, revisited Haley's research and concluded that those claims of Haley's were false.[22][23] According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They also reported, among other findings, that Toby died years prior to the supposed date of birth of his daughter Kizzy. There have also been suggestions that Kebba Kanji Fofana, the amateur griot in Jufureh, who, during Haley's visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte, had been coached to relate such a story.[24][25][26]"

I'm afraid to ask what that means.     Like Roots from the slave owner's POV?

[freshhell]

Jul 22, 2014 20:16:55 GMT -5 gpw said:

Jul 22, 2014 20:03:33 GMT -5 freshhell said:

I'm sorry you are crushed, but I am thrilled! I'm apparently related to John Waller, who was billed by Alex Haley as Kunta Kinte's owner (sickening to write that). Our crazy cousin who is obsessed with genealogy and is writing a family book joked once that he is writing "the white version of Roots." You have no idea how happy it makes me that I can tell him he is wrong.


 from that link - 
"In addition to the charges of plagiarism, the accuracy of those aspects of Roots which Haley claimed to be true has also been challenged.[21] Although Haley acknowledged that the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he did claim that he had identified his actual ancestor in the person of Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Jufureh in what is now the Gambia. According to Haley, Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery, where he was given the name Toby, and, while in the service of a slavemaster named John Waller, went on to have a daughter named Kizzy, Haley's great-great-great-grandmother. Haley also claimed to have identified the specific slave ship and the actual voyage on which Kunta Kinte was transported from Africa to North America in 1767.

However, genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and historian Gary B. Mills, both specialists in African-American research, revisited Haley's research and concluded that those claims of Haley's were false.[22][23] According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They also reported, among other findings, that Toby died years prior to the supposed date of birth of his daughter Kizzy. There have also been suggestions that Kebba Kanji Fofana, the amateur griot in Jufureh, who, during Haley's visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte, had been coached to relate such a story.[24][25][26]"

I'm afraid to ask what that means.     Like Roots from the slave owner's POV?

I don't even know. I think (hope?) just a genealogy book that happens to be about Kunta Kinte's owner, but I don't even know. I told him "white version of Roots" is a terrible subtitle and he went on a diatribe about what "kids these days are being taught in school," meaning, no longer history from the white man's POV. So maybe he is writing White Man's Roots. Good Lord. Ugh.

[meggers5]

I would not have known the answer to this.

[gpw]

Jul 22, 2014 20:20:40 GMT -5 freshhell said:

Jul 22, 2014 20:16:55 GMT -5 gpw said:

I'm afraid to ask what that means.     Like Roots from the slave owner's POV?

I don't even know. I think (hope?) just a genealogy book that happens to be about Kunta Kinte's owner, but I don't even know. I told him "white version of Roots" is a terrible subtitle and he went on a diatribe about what "kids these days are being taught in school," meaning, no longer history from the white man's POV. So maybe he is writing White Man's Roots. Good Lord. Ugh.

So you're glad that Waller didn't own Kunte Kinte because of how he was portrayed in the story?  He still owned slaves, though, right?  (I promise that sounds way worse than I mean it, I just don't know how to else to ask).

[Deleted]

Yeah, I have the same questions as gpw. I'm not really sure what there is to gloat over, the fact that your ancestor didn't chop off Kunte Kinte's foot?

[freshhell]

No gloating - truthfully. It's horrifying to imagine slaveowning relatives. It sickened me even referring to a relative as an "owner," as noted above. The only part that makes me happy is that my asshole racist creepy relative can no longer brag that not only is he related to a slave owner, he is related to a FAMOUS slave owner, who owned one of Alex Haley's ancestors. He took despicable pride in it.

[gpw]

Jul 22, 2014 20:31:27 GMT -5 @soudesafinado said:

I have been willfully ignorant of the Alex Haley lied accusations because it was still impactful.

I think I'm going to pretend I didn't read the wiki and sit next to you.  

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2014 20:29:55 GMT -5 freshhell said:

No gloating - truthfully. It's horrifying to imagine slaveowning relatives. It sickened me even referring to a relative as an "owner," as noted above. The only part that makes me happy is that my asshole racist creepy relative can no longer brag that not only is he related to a slave owner, he is related to a FAMOUS slave owner, who owned one of Alex Haley's ancestors. He took despicable pride in it.

I don't understand the distinction.

Like what are you gonna say at Thanksgiving? Guess what, fucker! You aren't related to a man who whipped a slave for refusing to change his name. You're just related to a non infamous slave owner who probably whipped men, women, and children for a whole lot less? 

[lilibet]

I wouldn't have gotten that either.

[lasagnasshole]

I have never heard of Alex Haley.

I am not a teenager.

[gpw]

I mean, I just don't get people not knowing who Alex Haley is. But then, when I think about it, I don't think it was mentioned at all in my schooling. I think the only reason I knew about him and Roots was from watching it with my parents.

@soudesafinado we are in the same age range...did you watch it when it was on TV originally?  I don't even remember how many nights it was on, just that we watched it as a family, which was unusual because I don't think we watched much as a family....except The Muppet Show. 

[gpw]

Jul 22, 2014 20:36:48 GMT -5 lasagnasshole said:

I have never heard of Alex Haley.

I am not a teenager.

What?  Are you serious?  

[ttt]

Jul 22, 2014 20:36:48 GMT -5 lasagnasshole said:

I have never heard of Alex Haley.

I am not a teenager.

Whaaaaaat?

its just such a cultural reference point to me, even if you didn't learn about it in school, it blows my mind that people haven't heard of Roots. 

[Deleted]

That's it. Roots is required viewing/reading for you people. FOR SERIOUS!

I mean what the ever living fuck? Did you guys even get the jokes in Diary of a Mad Black woman??

You don't know who Chicken George is?

[lasagnasshole]

Jul 22, 2014 20:39:34 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 22, 2014 20:36:48 GMT -5 lasagnasshole said:

I have never heard of Alex Haley.

I am not a teenager.

Whaaaaaat?

its just such a cultural reference point to me, even if you didn't learn about it in school, it blows my mind that people haven't heard of Roots. 

I take it you're not talking about THE Roots, with Questlove?

[lasagnasshole]

Jul 22, 2014 20:40:28 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

That's it. Roots is required viewing/reading for you people. FOR SERIOUS!

I mean what the ever living fuck? Did you guys even get the jokes in Diary of a Mad Black woman??

You don't know who Chicken George is?

I have no idea what these things are and/or mean.

[kadams767]

Jul 22, 2014 20:37:22 GMT -5 gpw said:

I mean, I just don't get people not knowing who Alex Haley is. But then, when I think about it, I don't think it was mentioned at all in my schooling. I think the only reason I knew about him and Roots was from watching it with my parents.

@soudesafinado we are in the same age range...did you watch it when it was on TV originally?  I don't even remember how many nights it was on, just that we watched it as a family, which was unusual because I don't think we watched much as a family....except The Muppet Show. 

How old are you? I'm 33 and we learned about and watched Roots in high school. I too was shocked that those kids didn't know the answer to that question tonight.

As an aside, Erin! Was totally freaking me out with her nervousness and screaming the answers.

[freshhell]

Jul 22, 2014 20:36:26 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

Jul 22, 2014 20:29:55 GMT -5 freshhell said:

No gloating - truthfully. It's horrifying to imagine slaveowning relatives. It sickened me even referring to a relative as an "owner," as noted above. The only part that makes me happy is that my asshole racist creepy relative can no longer brag that not only is he related to a slave owner, he is related to a FAMOUS slave owner, who owned one of Alex Haley's ancestors. He took despicable pride in it.

I don't understand the distinction.

Like what are you gonna say at Thanksgiving? Guess what, fucker! You aren't related to a man who whipped a slave for refusing to change his name. You're just related to a non infamous slave owner who probably whipped men, women, and children for a whole lot less? 

I guess I'm grasping at straws for anything to say to shut up a fucker who is proud of being related to a slave owner. I'm not trying to make a distinction that famous slave owners were any better or worse than non-famous slave owners. I was just trying to say that for some reason, my one relative takes weird pride in being related to that particular slave owner. I had a moment of happiness that I get to tell him that not only is he heinous, but he is also wrong.

[lilibet]

I've heard of Roots. I just don't really know anything about it. It was never mentioned in school.

[gpw]

Jul 22, 2014 20:39:34 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 22, 2014 20:36:48 GMT -5 lasagnasshole said:

I have never heard of Alex Haley.

I am not a teenager.

Whaaaaaat?

its just such a cultural reference point to me, even if you didn't learn about it in school, it blows my mind that people haven't heard of Roots. 

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is all


This is really shocking to me.

[KB]

I've played the Teen Tournament at home the last two nights. Alex Trebek owes me $87,000.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't have known that answer. And I don't know the author either.

I promise I'm no teen!