I first saw Roots as a child of 8 or 9 with little to no knowledge of race or slavery; the only Black people I knew were a few kids in elementary school who mainly associated with each other, and most of us were too afraid to make any serious attempt at friendship; we were a product of our time.

The mini-series, which aired in 1977, left an indelible image upon every fiber of my being. I was fascinated and although I was too young to understand all the implications of the story, I knew that something important and tragic was unfolding before my eyes; something big, something I should know about.

I was seeing for the first time that the world as I knew it was not always as it appeared. It was as though something strange and unexpected had disrupted our perception of the world and we were the better for it.

Somewhere in the depth of my being, I was reminded of Roots now, as a 36 year old married man with 4 kids of my own. My wife was one of the few of my generation who had not seen Roots, and she being from the South, who better to relive the story with than she whose roots also went back to such a time as this.

The one thing I took away after each episode was relief from my own challenges, fears, and problems and great thankfulness for how truly free I have been my entire life and will continue to, in all high probability, remain.  The other sensation that I left with each night, after each episode, was a deep, lingering sorrow in the pit of my soul. I cried countless times when children were taken away from their parents, imagining that those were my own children; when entire cultures were disrupted and freedoms taken away, I pictured how I would want to strike back, as Kunta Kinte, but could not.

Freedom is taken for granter in a land as great as ours now is; Roots gave me an inkling, a shadowy hint, of what that tremendous lack of freedom in America would be like, without having to live it myself.

Twenty Seven Years have passed since I first saw Roots on TV. And this time it has left a scar now on my soul that I cherish;  I would have it no other way for the verity of our history and the deeper understanding of our real-life tragedies.

Roots is one of the most important stories of our short, American history–and still extremely relevant over 30 years after its first release.

Whether you rent it on Netflix like we did or Buy It At Amazon.Com, your perception of America will forever be altered and aligned with the truth of who we are and how far we have truly come. Thank you, Kunta Kinte.

Also check out the original novel by Alex Haley: Roots: The Saga of an American Family