I like you. ![]() |
Ugh. Please STFU with your Stephen from Django ass. |
AA here who is also a history professor. I have no probelm with anyone being proud of their history and lineage. My ancestors were slaves (we were able to trace back 1837) but post-slavery my kinfolks did some pretty awesome things (including a legislator during Reconstruction).
I think some of the problem is that people claim the positive parts of their lineage ("My family was on the Mayflower, isn't that cool?") but, at the same time, disclaim any negative apsects of that same lineage ("You can't blame me for the bad stuff our ancestors did - it was not my fault.") I am just saying that history is a positive and a negative story. Both should be ackowledged and told. |
Me, too! But no one in my family speaks to each other, so let's not get to know each other. Carry on the family tradition! |
Please take your meds now. |
I have Native American ancestry. I win. |
Or on other ships like the Mayflower bound for America. My ancestors accommodations weren't so great though. |
O O O MG!! |
Yes. Father's side in MA since 1600s. |
+1 |
Thank you. I think this is essentially what pisses me off. If you want to acknowledge it, acknowledge it all, not just the fun stuff. |
My dad's side of the family is directly descended from William Bradford. Seriously.
I also have family members that came over later. I think a lot of people have ancestry to those on the Mayflower. |
We came on a plane through Dulles. And proud of it. |
When I was an AA student at the University of Chicago in the '70s, I had three Jewish roommates. One of my roommates' parents were sent to Auschwitz and showed me their tattooed identity numbers on their arms that were placed there at the camp. And when my roommate's mother put her arm around me and told me that 'contrary to popular belief, we Jews understand what your ancestors went through', I just broke down and cried. I ran my fingers across those numbers, and the next summer during a group excursion to Europe and while we were in Munich, I made it a point to detour to Dachau. This had (and still does) such an impact on me that 20 years later, I took my children to Africa to see the 'Door of No Return'. I speak only for me but I allow no one to approach me (or more directly, get up in my face) and denigrate anyone whose ancestors suffered so much during enslavement, African or Jewish. I have touched and felt pain, literally and figuratively. No one should ever forget. |
My have friend from New Mexico. She is Hispano (not Hispanic). Her family arrived in what is now the United States with the Spanish Conquistadors. That was is 1607. I bet there are Americans who came even earlier with the founding of St. Augustine, FL. And how do we count San Juan, PR? The Spanish settlements in the United States are older than the English. |