Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.
Brown people wouldn't speak to someone who was black.
I wasn't going to be one of those people who died wondering what if? I would keep putting my dreams to the test - even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.
I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people.
I am really quite proud of most of the people I " know who have "made it," who do things to help people.
I think most people when you say slavery tend to see a group of anonymous people pulling cotton sacks in great plantation fields, and that is largely true.
There was a great deal of inbreeding between the Indians and the slaves. Genetically speaking, black people are some part black, some part European.