Roots and the Perils of African American Television Drama in a Global World
Roots and the Perils of African American Television Drama in a Global World
This chapter looks at the miniseries Roots (1977), which became a worldwide sensation. The show's portrayals of blackness, particularly black masculinity, draws on black nationalist and Black Power discourses circulating in American society at the time. The chapter reviews how these discourses served differing institutional needs of American, Western European, and Eastern European broadcasters, as well as how other features of the miniseries helped and hindered its export potential. Because miniseries addressing white American history were the main beneficiaries of the international popularity of Roots, the miniseries genre did not become a vehicle for African American stories in the early eighties. Instead, African American characters were relegated to integrated situation comedies involving an otherwise white cast and white cultural surroundings.
Keywords: Roots, African American television, blackness, black masculinity, Black Power, white American history, miniseries genre
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