I think that a very interesting topic of this week was the formation of the black race

seen in both Roots and in Saltwater Slavery. It is a concept that when paired with the idea
of Pan-Africanism puts into perspective the idea of how race is constructed today. In
Roots there is a definite distinction seen between the different tribes from the African
perspective, but when looking through the white perspective they are all one of the same
with their primitive noises and lack of humanity. The scene where concept of the
formation of a pan-african race comes about it when Kunta Kinte is enslaved by the
European slavers and is in the bottom of the ship in shackles. Here he addresses the fact
that they cannot speak eachothers language and are not one of the same. Upon hearing
this the elder warrior from his tribe speaks out calling saying that they must all become
brothers and that they must teach each other a common tongue so they can unite against
the white man. This really marks the beginning of the African Diaspora as we know it.
There was a creation of one race from various different tribes and countries in Africa
through both the union of the various African tribes against the white man and the white
perspective. Thus giving birth to the black identity. This white perspective was
completely dictated by colorism. Essentially the white perspective renounced any sort of
heritage and history that the distinct tribes had because that would mean that the enslaved
were human. They took various identities and forced them into one ideal. This directly
supports the idea that race is a social construction that was created through a distinct
hierarchy. Similar to Roots the idea of the creation of a black social category was seen
in Saltwater Slavery. Smallwood describes how the new identities were formed through
the slave ships. She talks about how the slaves found kinship and created a
community in order to survive on the ships.
Saltwood also discusses how the slaves traded a commodity and treated like
cargo, which is seen in Roots as well. When the captain of the ship is talking to his crew
member the crew member says that 170 slaves is most efficient and profitable. They
are treated as inhumanely as possible with the rationale being that they are black and
this is the natural order of things.
The questions that I have would be dealing with the loss of identity of blacks
today. Because blacks have been wiped of their historical identity, what is their identity
that exists today based on? Although the social categorization of blacks by whites did
in fact create a loss of identity, what if the enslaved were separated based on tribe? How
would this affect history as we know it today?