Am I a bitter Black man? Michelle's family history isn't remarkable if you PAID ATTENTION in . . .

[wndycty]

. . .history class or watched ROOTS.

I am touched by her story because its the same story that many African American shares and I am glad the story is being told because its importantm BUT I am kind of put off that folks find this to be so remarkable.

Am I overreacting?

[nc4bo]

1. How much AA history do they actually teach in school (public or charter)

Elementary or high school.

Probably not much and certainly not to the depth that it should. I think the same could be said for NA too.

[Solomon]

47. Funny thing. My wife and I went to segregated schools.

We had an inferiority complex because of that. We both were fortunate enough to get into an Ivy League University. It took a couple of years to get over the inferiority complex, but once we did, we became straight A students there as well. What I learned though, is that not only were we well taught in those segregated schools about black history, but taught well in other disciplines as well. There was so much pride in those schools 'cause that was all we had to hold on to. That pride extended to the teachers who taught us. I used to wonder what it must have been like to go to an integrated school where no emphasis was placed on making sure blacks were included in history. I found out from black classmates at the Ivy league School who went to integrated schools. They didn't know much about black history.

Years later, when our daughter came of school age, she attended integrated schools and because of the lack of any emphasis on black history or culture, we paid to send her to afro-centric schools during the summers so she could get what we got.

It was such an irony to be paying for something that we didn't think was worth anything when we were forced to go to segregated schools.

[nc4bo]

90. Thanks for sharing your very positive experiences.

I really mean that.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. The remarkable part is that although many blacks share the same story, only Michelle is the

first woman of that heritage to become the First Lady of the United States.

[wndycty]

6. Yup, but we didn't need an article in the New York Times to tell us it was remarkable. . .

...did we?

As I said in the OP I'm glad the story was told because it might give folks an understanding of the ancestry of those of us who are descendants of slaves, but I wish it didn't take this NY Times article to enlighten everyone.

[EmilyAnne]

64. I don't think many people are surprised. Its just interesting to read about the details of her

particular family tree. I've always known that I had family from Croatia that came to Mexico in the 1800s. When I did some research and discovered that they were actually three Italian brothers who sailed their own ship all the way down from Croatia to New Orleans, it made it much more real. The more research I did about why they left and who they left behind, the more interesting the story became.

I don't think the story about Michelle Obama's ancestry is enlightening in the way you are thinking.
Just my opinion.

[Sherman A1]

74. I agree that I wish it didn't take a NY Times article, but yet I am happy

that it was done because I too am working on my family history from time to time, which contains Rogues, Rascals, Dirt Farmers, Confederate Civil War Deserters, Revolutionary War Soldiers, Slave Owners, Union Civil War Veterans, various family intrigues and a very, very, very, very, very convoluted path back to Charlemagne which includes the family name Easley which was mentioned in the article, so perhaps there is an long shot, outside chance that there may be some link.

I find it all fascinating and perhaps the article may spur some more folks to do research on their own families.

[EFerrari]

3. Might consider that many people never had to think through,

in a concrete way, what this kind of story really means for the people involved.

[Ineeda]

4. not overreacting at all.

it would perhaps be more newsworthy if Mrs. Obama's ancestry was not linked to slavery.

[sandnsea]

5. Is tracing the ancestry common?

Do African-Americans all assume they descended from slaves and let it go at that. Do families know their heritage, passed through generations, like Roots. Do they do genealogy searches to find their slave ancestor. Don't know.

[wndycty]

7. Most African Americans know their family tree. . .

. . .additionally, African Americans, like Barack and Colin Powell, who are not descendants of slaves usually are able to trace their ancestry to its core roots.

Most African Americans who of slave descendants of slaves, like myself, don't know where in Africa our relatives come from.

[sandnsea]

13. So you know the name of the slave

from whom you descended? It's in your family history the way I know my first US ancestor was a French soldier named Francois?

[wndycty]

18. Pappa Tyler and his sister Sara on my Dad's side--Selma Alabama

Pappa Tyler, was my great, great grandfather he traded a Black mule named Bill to acquire a plot of land in Sardis Alabama outside of Selma.

On my mom's side her grandfather was a slave until he was 7.

[sandnsea]

19. Cool

I think most white people don't realize you've kept your family history alive that way. That's why I think this story is interesting to many people, even though it's apparently common-place to you.

[wndycty]

24. But Michelle and I are not unique. . .talk to most Black folks, especially those. . .

. . .with large extended families they are connected to. I bet you most African American DUers who are descendants of slaves could tell you their family histories in the same manner.

[sandnsea]

43. That's terrific

That's why I asked the question. To get the answer.

[Matariki]

26. There are a lot of old records available

tracing the sale and transfer of people. It helps with genealogy.

[hfojvt]

72. in a way, it was not that long ago

the grandparents of my parents were born in 1875, 1874, 1860, 1867, 1840, 1848, 1861, 1860. So 5 out of 8 would be pre-civil war.

Of course, I was born before 1965 and my parents were born in the early 1930s and their parents were all fairly old when they were born. Clearly my mom born in 1935 remembers nothing of her grandfather born in 1840.

[Blue-Jay]

8. Not to speak out of turn (white guy here), BUT

if a Black person can trace their ancestors back to the slave-holding southern states, they can pretty much guarantee that they're descended from slaves. Genealogy searches are VERY sketchy prior to that, because nobody cared to keep records of their "property".

[wndycty]

10. And more importantly most of us cannot trace our roots to a specific African country. . .

. . .we just know that we are from the continent.

[eShirl]

17. Some people are now making use of DNA technology to augment their geneological research

Dna- the kind of written record that can never be erased.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/2006/science.html

[Kind of Blue]

34. Beat me to it. I remember a PBS mini series by

none other than Henry Louis Gates, featuring Oprah and Maya Angelou among others who had the DNA testing. I can't remember Oprah's ancestral African tribe - but do remember she wasn't really happy about it because she wanted to descend from the brave Zulus :rofl:
But fascinating story with Angelou who had visited African countries in the '60s. I think it was Sierra Leone where she was welcomed with great fanfare into this one tribe whose female soothsayer had previously predicted that one of their own would return after many, many years and that she, Angelou, was the person. Over 40 years later, she had the DNA test done and guess what? It placed her squarely within that tribe she visited years ago.

I'm hoping to have my DNA tested to do the opposite - find out if one of my ancestors taken as a 9-10year old boy lived through that awful journey and made it to the Americas. It's told in the family that my great-great-great-et cetera grandmother went crazy after that. I'd sure like to find his family one day.

[sandnsea]

11. And that's the difference in Michelle's story

They did trace her to a particular slave. Also, read some wills. Slaves were regularly mentioned in them.

[wndycty]

16. That is not a difference, many of us can trace it back to particular slaves. . .

. . .we are actually able to name names and we are not unique.

Didn't you see ROOTS?

[sandnsea]

20. Why was ROOTS so popular if it wasn't unique? n/t

[wndycty]

22. ROOTS was not unique, it was the first time the story was told. . .

. . .don't confuse the first time the story being told with being unique. It resonated so much with Black folks because many of us (at the time I was a kid) had similar stories. When was ROOTS was over I was shocked and that is when my parents and grandmothers told me our family history.

[sandnsea]

46. So you were shocked at ROOTS

But you don't think the story should be told again, when the first known descendant of slaves is in the White House, so that other families tell the next generation their heritage? I honestly don't get your outrage.

If you think most people don't know that African Americans have slaves as ancestors, that's not what the article is about. We know that. The unknown is that most African Americans have an oral history of that story. If you prefer, you can stay outraged and we can stay stupid. That's a brilliant idea.

[wndycty]

49. Yeah an 8 year old would be shocked by ROOTS

:kick:

[sandnsea]

51. And many won't realize the First Lady

is the descendant of slaves. That's why people write books and news articles, to make other people think.

[Ms. Toad]

25. Yes. My daughter is taking a class on white privilege

One of her assignments was to explore her personal family history for white privilege.

As part of that we talked to my parents, and I learned for the first time that we know that an ancestor on my mother's side of the family owned slaves because two are mentioned in the will. (I have always assumed that my ancestors owned slaves, since both sides of the family were in the US during that shameful period, but I wasn't aware that my family had concrete knowledge. Now I do, thanks to my daughter's inquiry.)

[wndycty]

27. A class on white privilege? Really?

Wow I bet if that class does exist it is controversial.

[Ms. Toad]

31. It's at Oberlin College

Not controversial there :)

Edited to add:

Here's a brief description from an earlier version of the course (third paragraph down):

http://www.oberlin.edu/mrc/resources/studentled.html

[wndycty]

33. LOL I know a thing or two about Oberlin. . .

. . .very good school.

[Ms. Toad]

41. Yep.

But then, I'm kinda biased.

A tad overly dramatic, at times, and no shortage of white privilege for the students to wrestle with - but at least the majority are wrestling on some level with the issue rather than pretending they (we) aren't its beneficiaries.

Not bad academically, either ;)

[Captain Hilts]

54. A class on 'white privilege'????

[Ms. Toad]

61. Here's a description from a prior year.

I couldn't find this year's description easily - but I doubt it has changed much - third paragraph down:

http://www.oberlin.edu/mrc/resources/studentled.html

I'm a bit surprised at the reaction to the course. :shrug:

[NOLALady]

59. Well, actually the enslaved are mentioned in many wills.

The wills have been quite helpful with our genealogy research. It's not very hard to trace our enslaved ancestors to a particular slave. It wasn't that many generations ago.

I have been able to trace 8 GGGParents who were enslaved at the time of Melvina.

[sandnsea]

60. That's why Michelle's story is important

Up above someone said there wasn't any records and I specifically said slaves were often mentioned in wills, especially when there were only a few slaves owned. That's how Michelle's ancestor was found, which is important to dispel the myth that African Americans can't trace their slave ancestors. They can.

My question was, how many actually do. And/Or, how many have the oral history back to a name of a slave. If all African American families do, then that fact should be out there more. If not, then youngsters, especially, need to be told it's quite possible to have that history if they want it.

[NOLALady]

67. You are definitely after my heart.

I am obsessed with telling "our story" to our youth. I never pass an opportunity to pass information along at family gatherings, funerals, etc. I always go armed with the 'puter, documents, books, photos, anything to get and keep their attention.

I can't tell you how many AAs research. Possibly the same percentage wise as white people, but I couldn't say. I know there's quite a bit more than when I started. It seems to be a fast growing hobby among AAs. But, even those who do not research has knowledge of their enslaved ancestors through oral history. My stepmother was a child when both of her ex enslaved grandfathers were still alive. They discussed the slaveowners, slave conditions, the war, and emancipation.

Tracing the enslaved is doable and so rewarding.

[sandnsea]

80. That should be a traveling series

Much better than some dumb puppet show. I think one's history helps to give a person a sense of self and a sense of ownership. I have a scenic and historic travel web site and one of the things I noticed early on was the lack of attention to black historic locations and the lack of acknowledgement of the contribution of slaves, in particular. Yes there are slave quarters on those plantations, but the focus is still on the great white man who didn't do anything except exploit labor. Same is true of canals and roads in the north, the White House, etc etc etc.

My first ancestors on my Dad's side were French & French-Canadian. My mother's people came through NYC, the traditional American story. But my dad's people settled the St Louis area and stayed so that history has always been a bit more vibrant. I relate in the way that the British Revolutionary War history really isn't "my" history. My people were in what Daniel Boone referred to as "wilderness" when he arrived in 1804 or so. I carved out a little place in my "self" for that little piece of American history so I can only imagine how much more important it might be for slave descendents to do something similar.

[NOLALady]

83. My first European ancestors

on my Dad's side were also French & French Canadian.

They went to Kaskaskia then settled in Ste Genevieve, MO. One wife wasn't enough for one of my ancestors. He needed two. One was French, the other was a half French FWC. Both of them had ten children for him. I'm a descendant of the feisty FWC. After he died, she sued his wife and won. This was in 1798.

[sandnsea]

84. Nuhuh. Mine too!

Family history has it that the direct ancestor came up from New Orleans, but since everybody else came down from Canada, I kind of think he did too. I haven't found him outside of their marriage at Fort des Chartres in 1740, iirc. Let me try to remember some names off the top of my head. Dorlac, Philipeaux, Barada, Damise, Perthuis, LaLande, and Tebeau. Small world.

[NOLALady]

86. There's a Dorlac,

several LaLandes and Tebeaus who married into my Aubuchon line.

[HamdenRice]

50. There are some regional differences to answer that question, though

The South, on the eve of the civil war, was very diverse. The deep south, which was really a frontier, was much more chaotic than the upper south, like Virginia.

In fact, much of Virginia had worn out its soil. The big planters had moved to the frontier states of Alabama and Mississippi. The big plantations of inland Virginia were broken up and sold off to small scale white farmers who only owned a few slaves.

Virginia was doing so badly with its crops that on the eve of the Civil War, one of its main "exports" was young slaves. Basically, just as Kentucky bred horses and mules, Virginia bred slaves. There was a demand for these exports because the life expectancy of a slave on the frontier was only a few years. Despite the historical mythology we often hear about slaves being valuable, most slaves were worked to death within a few years, and the only parts of the South that had a self-sustaining slave population were the Upper South states. Everywhere else needed constant importation from the Upper South to replace the rapidly dying slave population.

This had an odd effect on family history. If your family managed to stay in Virginia, you had this tremendous stability and time depth, although various young members went missing as they were sold to the frontier (literally "sold down the river" to a miserable existence in Mississippi, Louisiana or Alabama).

My father was descended from the upper south. His last name was taken from one of the big rich families of the late 1700s, early 1800s, but at the time of emancipation, they were owned by a small scale white farmer with a different name.

This meant that because they managed to stay in Virginia as "breeding stock" they had a tremendous time depth in their recited oral history going back to the first Africans imported into the country -- "Africa Jones" and "Mama Suki" (who was actually from the West Indies), both of them going back four or five generations before the Civil War.

On the other hand, if your family is from Mississippi, you may very well trace your family tree back to some poor, scared teenager, ripped from his family in Virginia or Tennessee or North Carolina who ended up on a big gang slave plantation in the Delta, and who had little oral history of his ancestors.

[2Design]

9. is their a link to article ? n/t

[wndycty]

12. Here is the link

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. imo. No. You are not overreacting. K&R

[Flubadubya]

15. I can't help but think of this when reflecting on the story...

Still I Rise


You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou

[XemaSab]

21. I posted it yesterday because I found it interesting and inspiring

not because I found it remarkable.

It put a real human face on some of the horrors of slavery that are easily forgotten when reading dry history textbooks.

[JohnnyLib2]

23. Definitely not overreacting.

I notice examples of not knowing, understanding, or caring about others' history and heritage all the time.

[BlooInBloo]

28. Eh? Guess there's a news story out there somewhere that I'm missing.

[wndycty]

30. The NY TIMES ran a story on Michelle Obama's family roots. . .

. . .the story was good, but the cable talkers are freaking out calling the story "remarkable."

I may be overreacting, but I feel that since we all knew Michelle was the descendant of slaves the family tree should not be a surprised.

[BlooInBloo]

37. Oh. lol! We white folks are ALWAYS surprised, and then condescendingly supportive...

And then we rail against any correction of the massive weight of historical inequity, calling it "reverse racism".

Nothing new there.

[wndycty]

38. LOL

:kick:

[XemaSab]

39. Oh, OK

I thought you were talking about people on DU, and I was all like huh? :P

[TxRider]

55. Anyone's roots will trace back to something similar if you back far enough

Almost all peoples have been enslaved or had genocides or atrocities visited on them in history.

[Ms. Toad]

29. No. You're not overreacting.

But just like the horrors of the holocaust begins to fade as its survivors dwindle, the true history of this country - and the disgraceful melting pot we don't like to talk about so much - fades as each new generation adds more distance. We need to be reminded, occasionally.

[aikoaiko]

32. I think for a lot of people US slavery happened in a distant time and place.

I grew up in NJ and learned the basic history and saw Roots. I understood slavery intellectually, but it wasn't until I moved to The South and I lived among descendants of slaves that intellectual understanding was supplemented with the reality of such a legacy.

Perhaps the story of Michelle Obama is remarkable in that way -- people are connecting history with current reality.

[Captain Hilts]

57. BINGO. nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

63. I htink you may be right. Dates make things sound long ago, but counting generations makes

it feel much closer. (Which, in actuality, it is.)

[TheDebbieDee]

35. No, you are NOT over-reacting............

I'm 47 and most people my age know next to nothing about anything that happened in the world prior to 1970. To them, history is a big old bowl of DUH!

I blame the fact that so many history textbooks have been so "cleaned up" by conservatives that they don't tell the reader the facts about significant events in history, or even state that all history is told from a particular point of view and that it may be biased.

[Barack_America]

36. They are surprised to hear she has white ancestors.

That's what is driving this story, imo.

That Michelle Obama's lineage contains both white and black ancestors is not remarkable, of course, rather to be expected. So no, you are not overreacting.

[Igel]

77. I'm surprised that people would find that remarkable.

Most African-Americans have at least one white ancestor: Most often by rape, sometimes not by rape--in extreme differences of power, the distinction is sometimes moot or both sides use the other.

It would be interesting to check the DNA of a lot of Kenyans and Ghanaians--I'd be surprised if most Kenyans didn't have at least one Arab ancestor and Ghanaians at least a bit of Berber/Moor in them. (Oddly, the amount of sub-Saharan African DNA in N. Africa and the Middle East is much smaller than you'd think, given the history of the area.)

More than a few whites have a non-European lurking in their genealogy, as well.

[Beaverhausen]

40. what I think is great is that we finally have a descendant of slaves in the White House

Of course her story isn't remarkable on it's face, but it is remarkable that we have finally put her family in the White House.

[GirlAfire]

42. +1,000,000

...and who the hell unrec'd this thread? :eyes:

[wndycty]

44. LOL we knew that the night Obama was elected, or at least for that was one of the. . .

. . .many things that had me breaking out in weeping spells between election night and Black history month.

[Beaverhausen]

56. I didn't know Michelle's family background - Obama is in fact not the descendant of slaves

[wndycty]

62. No one said Obama was the descendant of slaves. . .

. . .anyone who knows his father's would know that.

[Tesha]

45. no, you're not overreacting

you're just seeing this through your own life, through your own experiences.


I watched Charlie Gibson do this story last night, and I was struck by the tenderness he showed while speaking. It was almost like he was holding something precious in his hands - holding it out to show us. First time I liked his show - ever...

[stray cat]

48. What is remarkable is she is spouse to the president

[Captain Hilts]

52. Intersting how this article and the summary at www.irishcentral.com don't

use 'rape'. The NYT says 'impregnated'.

But I love articles like this for making history real for a lot of people.

[Igel]

81. I read the NYT article carefully for precisely that point.

At the end, it wasn't clear to me what happened. Everybody seems to be playing the odds, and assuming that the most likely scenario--rape--was the only possible scenario. Granted, it's a difficult judgment to make in such situations. (Is it rape if you agree because it gets you some privilege? To avoid being whipped? Because you simply have resigned yourself to your circumstances?)

Three mulatto kids. By different men or by one man? Were they all the result of rape? If not, was it the result of some quid-pro-quo, in which she got something tangible out of it other than kids?

Without checking the DNA of the various lines, the first question can't be answered--and even then, if they were by different brothers or by a father and son it may not have a clear answer. If the answer were to come back that they were by one man--then the second question would be much more interesting. At least for me.

[Captain Hilts]

82. It's a tough call, but I'm surprised more uncertainty wasn't used to

describe the union/unions.

And I'm Irish!

[Prism]

53. I think putting names and faces to it "brings it home"

I think it's been common knowledge Michelle was descended from slaves. But as many people of all ethnicities know only vaguely about how or why their ancestors came to this country, holding the names and specific circumstances in your hands tends to make it more "real". To concretely be able to say "Right here is where I came from" can have a very profound effect. It gives vivid realization to something that was only a fuzzy, half-known concept.

With this story, I think it's remarkable that we now have the specific road from slavery to the White House. People can look at the names and faces, trace that journey tangibly. They can look at this story and see for themselves exactly how all the gears and joints of history moved to bring one family from one of the harshest, bloodiest oppressions ever known to the pinnacle of American power.

Honestly, I think this story, with all the names and descendants, should be in textbooks.

[Stinky The Clown]

58. I kinda thought the same thing .....

.... I'm a white guy who was always aware that this kind of story is actually very common.

[NOLALady]

65. You are not overreacting.

The remarkable part is that a descendant of slaves made it to the WH.

But her family history is not unique. I've been researching nearly 20 years. The AA family histories of struggle and triumph never cease to amaze me.

I was telling a family history story to a young relative some time ago. At first he thought I was telling him about a story I'd read. I told him this was indeed our family and it was all verifiable in the news reports of the time. He got tears in his eyes and said, "Wow I feel so important". This came from a kid who graduated with honors from Xavier U. His family stories lifted his self esteem more than the alphabets behind his name.

[Pirate Smile]

66. General history which everyone knows is always more poignant when narrowed down

to the specifics of individual cases with individual people or families.

When things are personalized they have more resonance. They just do.

[xultar]

68. No, u are not. Almost all of us can be linked directly back to slavery. We have

relatives that have worked hard and helped us to become wonderful people and American Citizens.
We're doctors, bus drivers, teachers, firemen, astronauts, judges...

so no you are not overreacting all of our stories are full of strength and character. But we aren't famous.

[kwassa]

69. I'll bet most younger generation whites have never seen "Roots"

and even in history classes I'll bet there is very little time spent on miscegenation, if any is spent at all.

The problem with tracing geneology back before the Civil War is that most slaves had no family names. They were simply listed in the census by a single name, so relationships are impossible to figure out without additional information.

I think Michelle's story is a good educational tool for people who don't know about this piece of history, and there are many that don't.

[Bucky]

89. My students will this year.

I'm integrating two and half shows--Roots, Roots II, and Centennial--into my high school US history curriculum. We can't see the whole thing, but they've all got some amazing stories in them.

[kjackson227]

70. No, you're not overreacting. We have American Indian, and white bloodlines

in my family, and I'm willing to bet that most AA's are descendents of slaves and have differing bloodlines. We had AA history at my high school, but for the most part we had to learn a lot of history on our own. Sad isn't it?

[Chulanowa]

71. Nah, you're not overreacting

I get the same reaction whenever I stumble across an article talking about a "new" and "remarkable" fact about Native Americans, that any idiot should have known. Like the "remarkable find" that there "may have been" more than six million indians between both continents. Because one person per three square miles makes so much sense.

But these things are remarkable, because most white people are kind of clueless about the history and facts of the people sharing the country with them. I don't mean offense to any white folks by that, and I know that DU is kind of a nexus of exceptions to that rule, but, really? History classes I took tended to skip over the "brown" chapters in the book. Given that most people end up with the impression that history is boring, I don't imagine too many have sat down to learn history that doesn't directly pertain to them.

Plus you have to remember just how much pro-Confederate propaganda is still being tossed around. I just had to educate some dumbass who maintained that the slaveowners did most of the work in the fields, and would never hurt a hair on a slave's head. :puke:

[FrenchieCat]

73. Here's the thing......

Many White People don't know their history, so from their standpoint it is a remarkable story....

but what makes it most remarkable is that no other First Lady has had that story as her own...

[wndycty]

78. Thanks Frenchie, the significance of Michelle's being the first First Lady to have this story. . .

. . . is not lost on me, but I just hate that so many people are reacting as if it is shocking and unique as it relates to the African American experience.

[CatWoman]

75. of course!!

all of you high yella black folks tend to overreact!! :P

[wndycty]

76. I am so flattered you remembered that I was high yella!

I often joke that in college I was a male stripper and my stage name was the High Yella Fella!

[CatWoman]

87. LOLOL!!

You should sooooooooo change your user name!! :rofl:

[Critters2]

79. I agree. I remember actually feeling uneasy sitting in HS history class

learning about things like the Dred Scott Decision, and slavery in general, in a room which included my AA classmates. I think it was an odd mix of guilt or responsibility, and well, I don't know exactly. But I remember thinking that this was the history of the families of my very good friends Katherine and Renee and Aura and Tony. We sat there learning of how people like me tried to keep people like them from being recognized as fully human. It still breaks my heart. It's a deeply sad history. But it is not a remarkable story in this nation...which is part of the sadness.

[wndycty]

85. LOL I remember having everyone turn around and look at me and the other Black kids. . .

. . .when we talked about slavery and civil rights movement.

[Bucky]

88. You might be over reacting a bit. Americans are always rediscovering our history.

We're a nation of novelties--one of our greatest traditions is sloughing off the past and moving onto new & better paradigms. In that process, we often need to be reminded how extraordinary we are--how extraordinary all of us are. The Obamas aren't better than us, but they represent us and it's fitting that we find a strong American family to hold up as a shining example of the best of our nation. They're great examples--descendants of farmers, slaves, immigrants, educators, bankers, and war heroes... They're walking success stories of the best our country has to offer. They're Kansas and Chicago; he's Hawaii and Kenya and a bit of Horatio Alger. She's a stunning success story on her own, just three generations down from the Great Migration. The presidency--including the president's family--is about pomp and about finding the symbolic in ordinary citizens. Their story is our story.

One thing that makes them remarkable is just how typically American they are. I think that's something worth celebrating.

[AlinPA]

91. I haven't heard about Fox "News" coverage of this; are they bashing her about it yet?

[Kind of Blue]

92. I for one think that it IS a remarkable story, whether

it's of our First Lady or any other African-American with a history of slavery in their family, and every one of them if given a chance should be oohed and awed and lauded and proclaimed as a triumph - millions of triumphs around the world, honoring the faceless identity-stripped ancestors who could only dream, as Maya Angelou once wrote, of us. I, from Africa with stories of those abducted and still missed to this day, love that we honor each story as a great find even just to say that their anguish was not in vain and to look back at what a strong people we are to come through utter brutal bullshit alive and still kicking!

Excuse my enthusiasm but I come from a culture of ancestor worship and take great joy in recognizing and thanking the brothers and sisters who aren't here.

[malaise]

93. No

You're not over-reacting.

[pitohui]

94. i don't think you're over reacting

i think it's something that has to spring to a lot of minds

unfortunately there are so many fuckwits out there that the same stories need to be told over and over