If I could give this episode zero stars, I would. I was nauseated by this episode featuring Angela Davis. For me, it's personal, so I won't comment on the merits of Professor Gates's research, except to point out the obvious and cynical omission of why Ms. Davis enjoys her notoriety.
Briefly, on August 7, 1970, Judge Harold Haley was kidnapped from his courtroom and all but decapitated by the kidnapper's shotgun. The shotgun was Ms. Davis' which she had purchased two days earlier. My boss was Judge Haley's court stenographer. He survived that horrific day by rolling under a bench and playing dead. Like I said, it's personal.
The tragic and inexcusable past of enslavement and brutality toward Ms. Davis's ancestors (and the other kidnapped, enslaved, and murdered) does not provide her with a get-out-of-jail-free pass nor a magical cloak of innocence for her own culpability in Judge Haley's kidnapping and brutal murder; nor the kidnapping and paralysis of the Deputy DA Thomas; nor the kidnapping and terrorizing of three jurors, one of whom was also shot.
No, Davis is simply following in a long line of criminals trying to excuse their wrongdoing by blaming society's wrongdoing. No doubt slave owners used society's prevailing norms to excuse their own vicious acts.
Professor Gates called Davis' subsequent trial for these brutal crimes "a travesty." No, her acquittal was the travesty, as is any attempt to portray her as the victim, instead of the actual victims that terrible day. As for ignoring her actions, or normalizing her behavior, or lionizing her as some sort of hero? Shame on Professor Gates and PBS for tainting this otherwise excellent program. I'm very disappointed.