I was barely in grade school when Roots aired for the first time, and I absolutely understood what I was watching and how that history informed my experience as a Black kid in 1977. (Kindergarten was a tough playground for a Black kid in Kissimmeee, Florida.)

That said, I have no right to question how you or anyone else processes a movie. That's personal. But, I must point out, Django was about so much more than pure entertainment and the awesomeness of Django. It explored a lot of critical themes in Black culture. It was a Black revenge fantasy that also explored Black status in White society and the ways Black then (and now) can undermine and oppress their own people. I think a lot of White viewers may have missed some of the subtext and classified (and/or dismissed) it as just another violent Tarantino romp. It did away with the slavery trope of Blacks suffering righteously and invented a Black hero or antihero (depending on how you want to look at it) that may have made Black kids feel empowered in much the same way Shaft must have done for Black kids in the early ’70s.