Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Man Arrested for Imprisoning Woman and Forcing Her to Watch "Roots" to "Better Understand Her Racism"

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested yesterday and charged with First Degree Harassment and False Imprisonment. For reasons that weren't spelled out in the news, this 52-year-old man decided that a woman has harboring racist belief and needed some education. So he confined the woman to an apartment and forced her to watch "Roots" -- which is a mini-series adapting Alex Haley's novel by the same name. In it, his ancestor Kunta Kinte was captured and sold into slavery. "Roots" follows his life in the 18th century and continues to tell the story of his various descendants up until Alex Haley's own life.

The arrested man told the captive woman that he was going to force her to watch the entire nine hour mini-series "so that she could better understand her racism." He subsequently warned her to remain seated throughout the movie "or he would kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago."

Don't be surprised if that sounds familiar to you. It did to me as well. I've written before about my enjoyment of the various "American Horror Story" programs. It seems that the man derived inspiration from "American Horror Story: Coven." In it, an immortal slave owner (played by actress Kathy Bates) was captured by a witch named Queenie (played by actress Gabourey Sidibe) and forced to acquire a sense of racial empathy (or not) by watching "Roots" and various other programs.