vaudine
What's funny is that his parents likely had no idea where the name came from. They just decided it sounded like the other 'black culture' names which were attempts to mimic the 'royal family' names used in the movie ROOTS.
Oprah Winfrey started her climb to fame and fortune on that mini-series. It caused an extreme rise in 'white guilt' and was the crack that started the giant divide we see today. Suddenly , every Negro in America became an 'AFRICAN-American' (though most had no ancestors from Africa, nor had ever been there, and damn sure didn't want to visit. Every Negro was suddenly the descendent of a Zulu Warrior or Princess. (Oprah even got a DNA test that showed she was the direct descendant of a ZULU PRINCESS, even though there is no such 'test' or 'determination' that can be found in DNA to support that claim).
Just like most things about 'black culture', it was all a complete lie. The main concept for the book was a plagiarism of a book written about the treatment of Jews during Nazi Occupation.
Nobody 'called' Alex Haley on it because (1) he was 'black', and (2) it was making billions of dollars.