Black man allegedly kidnapped woman and forced her to watch ‘Roots’
Robert Lee Noye allegedly wanted the woman to better understand her racism
A Black man in Michigan has been arrested after he took Black History Month a bit too seriously this year and used the movie “Roots” to teach a lesson.
According to Cedar Rapids Gazette, Robert Lee Noye was arrested after it was alleged he kidnapped a woman in his area and forced her to watch the iconic 1977 miniseries “Roots.”
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While the race of the victim has yet to be confirmed, the criminal complaint alleges that Noye held her in captivity at a residence in the 700 block of Second Avenue SW, then made her watch the nine-hour ABC miniseries in its totality, “so she could better understand her racism.”
When the victim tried to move, she says Noye ordered her to “remain seated and watch the movie with him or he would kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago.”
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Monday, the 52-year-old was arrested. Noye now faces charges of first-degree harassment and false imprisonment.
The mini-series is a TV adaptation of Alex Haley’s acclaimed book “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” which chronicles the writer’s ancestry starting with Kunta Kinte, a young Gambian warrior in the 1700s who was kidnapped and sold into enslavement.
The landmark film had a cast of LeVar Burton as a young Kunta, Olivia Cole as Matilda, Louis Gossett Jr. as Fiddler, Ben Vereen as Chicken George, John Amos as the older Kunta and Leslie Uggams as Izzy. “Roots” went on to receive 27 primetime Emmy nominations and won a Golden Globe and Peabody Award. The mini-series still holds the record as the third highest episode for a T.V series despite having aired in 1977, 43 years ago.
