I never owned slaves. Neither did my parents. As far as I can tell no one in my family ever owned slaves but I guess if you go back far enough everyone has some slave owners in their family tree. But all the ancestors I have been able to trace came to the United States after the Civil War.
That includes my great-great-grandfather who settled in Missouri when he arrived from England in 1894. He married a woman from Indiana. Their second child (my great-grandfather) was born in Missouri but moved to Oklahoma as a boy.
My mom’s side traces back to England via Kansas. To be honest there are a lot of blank spots on my genealogical chart and it doesn’t go back very far. Poor white dirt farmers generally don’t keep a lot of records so I guess there could be some Confederate blood in there somewhere.
To the best of my knowledge none of my relatives or ancestors were members of the Klan. I grew up in California which wasn’t exactly on the front-lines of the Civil Rights Movement. Our regular mailman was also a city councilman and later became elected mayor. He was black.
Since my mom was secretary to the city manager she was well acquainted with Sam Pipes. He was a family friend. He was a deeply religious man and a helluva gospel singer. He performed at my first wedding. I miss Sam.
All my life I have lived around “people of color”. Most of them around here were brown but there are lots of different shades of skin. I have gone to school with, worked with, worked for, and shared housing with people of color.
I believe everyone is equal but that people are different. Some are bigger, smaller, faster, smarter and/or stronger than others. We all have different gifts, and some people have more gifts than others. That is just the way it is.
Equality is a legal concept. Under the law we all have equal rights, equal opportunity and equal duty. But the law cannot make us identical.
We are all products of nature and nurture. As humans we all share some genes. According to the science classes I took we are all the same in more ways than we are different. But DNA is not destiny.
Not all cultures are created equal. I am the product of the American branch of Western Civilization. That is my cultural history. It traces back to the Fertile Crescent via Europe. It includes Greek and Roman philosophy, Christianity (which includes Judaism and Zoroastrianism) as well as principles of science, industrial capitalism and something called “democracy”.
I like my culture. It’s not perfect but it has been more successful than any other culture in history. Maybe some day someone will come up with a better one but until then I’ll keep this one.
I believe in the “melting pot” rather than multiculturalism. What made this country the exceptional place it is is the idea of people from all over the world becoming fused into a single new nation. E pluribus unum – “out of many, one”.
That’s why I feel a connection to the men who stood at Concord, Lexington and Gettysburg. That’s why George Washington is the father of my country. That’s why we are called the United States.
There are some dark chapters in our nation’s history, but there were some pretty good ones as well. Yes, slavery was one of the dark chapters. But we also fought a bloody war to close that chapter.
All over the world we see people hating each other over ancient grievances. When you come to America you need to leave those grievances at the door. We live in the present, not the past.
I didn’t inherit any grievances. I’m sure some of my ancestors got a raw deal but I don’t care. On the other hand I didn’t inherit any guilt either.
That includes white guilt.
I want to live in a country where jobs, promotions and college admissions go to the best qualified person regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. No special privileges for anyone. I’ll take my chances on a level playing field.
I want to live in a country where people are judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. A place where each one of us is obligated to do the best we can with what we have. A place that rewards effort and accepts no excuses.
I want to live in that exceptional country called the United States of America.
If you think that’s racist then you’re fucked in the head.
The Crawdad Hole 
What a sweet child.
my people came over here rt the turn of the 20th century from Russia and England. All Jewish. It’s odd that I have “English Jewish” in my background, but there it is. Their name was Siller. I’m sure they were from somewhere else and became anglicized somewhere along the way, and I’m sure that their sojourn in England was probably brief.
My husband of 40 years (40 years last week!!) is off the boat Italian. He came here to go to college. One of his roommates in school was African American and one day he threw an absolute fit at his racist roommates. He came into hubby’s room and told him that since he wasn’t from the U.S. he wasn’t mad at him, just all of the others.
I’m sorry, but this trial is racist and a lynching. i am ashamed of my country in a whole new way. After 2008, didn’t think that could sink any lower….
When I was a kid my grandma’s best friend and next-door neighbor was a lady named Olive (Ollie) Siller. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t Jewish though.
ya never know….
Jewish is a weird category because it is considered to be both a race and a religion.
then you get into the debate about whether it is a religion or an ethnicigty. The Jews argue about it among themselves all of the time.
Assuming that Zimmerman gets manslaughter, what does he do next? The prosecution will likely count it as a win, and they could offer him as little as 2-5 years if he admits guilty. They would almost have to, since this case is such a dog.
If Zimmerman takes a deal like that, the Martin family will have “justice” and may move on to political activism. Otherwise, O’Mara will appeal, with a boatload of reversible errors. At some point, the case will go to an Appellate Court. If their heads are not up their asses, they will vacate the verdict. In that case, the state may actually try to charge him with child abuse or some other trumped up charge, and he loses another year of his life.
Of course, Zimmerman could take a reduced sentence with time served. What he doesn’t know is how abusive the media and race baiters will be afterward. The Martin family could sue in Civil court even though Zimmerman has no money, just to extend their 15 minutes of fame. He could be harassed and threatened with death with either outcome.
Whatever happens, I doubt it will end with a verdict.
one thing you can count on is that whatever happens, people have such a short attention span these days. They’ll go on to the next cause celebre and l’affaire Zimmerman will be relegated to the dust heap soon enough. After all, all of the racist outrage will have been wrung out of it and they will be on to the next big thing….
For George Zimmerman’s sake, I hope so.
If he gets convicted of manslaughter under Florida law he could get 30 years.
If he gets 30 years, I’m pretty sure they’ll appeal.
Nice, Myiq. Thank you. I want that USA (back) too.
I’m heading out to an art gig in St. Pete. With hope, all will be quiet. See ya later.
BTW – I categorically reject the notion that I have to prove that I am NOT a racist.
The burden of proof is on the accuser.
AMEN to that!!!!
Obama is working on an Executive Order to fix that.
😆
Honk!
One parent and another parent’s family came through New York long after the Civil war and stayed in that state and New Jersey. Black people are rare in this part of the state and racial crime is virtually non-existent. My family has been anywhere from dirt poor to middle class and none of us owned slaves, even though some worked like slaves.
I did not pick my parents. I refuse to accept any guilt on their behalf. And so forth up the family tree.
sometimes I really like to believe that piece of reincarnation which says that we DID pick our parents to work on our karma for this lifetime. Sometimes to me, looking at it from that lens makes it all make sense….
Interesting …
Amen me too. 🙂
Just a thought: If we’re going to use Martin Luther King as a model, I think it’s time we actually DO judge on content of character and not color of skin. Most of us already do.
In comparing content of character between Zimmerman and young Martin, from what I already know, I choose to admire Zimmerman.
I’m not sure the “race hustlers” understand what MLK actually meant, with all due respect.
Can’t have it both ways.
“I wish that the jury ladys was all on there period because if they whore he would have been in prison . ”
tweet on #Zimmermantrial
Nice.
Wow, completely not getting the point of that comment (iow, WTF??).
Translation, anyone?
I believe he is confusing the idea that PMS makes women angry and spiteful toward men.
And he can’t type “were” correctly.
That helped. I hear women called whores so much I didn’t even consider a misspelling.
And the thugs, or at least the thug-minded, wonder why the rest of us give them no respect… 🙄
My father’s family came to North America in 1635 from Wales. They kept being put in jail mostly because various factions wanted their land. They were yeomen farmers and dissenters. They came over with Puritans and were hired to tend their cows. But they fucked them over too by refusing to give them the pasturage or paying what they were promised. So they spent a winter building a raft and floated off with all the cows. That was in Massachusetts. They were very good with cows, ferries, rafts and disappearing. I have read the majority of the probate records from 1715 to 1971 and I didn’t see a single slave although the records were in Massachusetts, Virginia, Carolina (pre-revolutionary war), Georgia, Alabama and Texas. A lot of cows, horses, wagons, pots and pans and kids but no slaves. The rest of my ancestors came from France (orphans with nothing) and England (social non conformists who married out of their social class) after 1865 so no slaves there either. The assumption that all whites descended from landed gentry types oppressing other people is bullshit.
interesting story!!!
My dad’s family has been in the USA since before it was the USA. They fought in the Civil War – all in union blue. Debt paid on time and in full.
I teared up over that EM. 🙂
https://twitter.com/votermom/status/356159438475886592
I come from a long line of people who were always getting themselves into trouble, both sides of the family. Those who weren’t slaves, were indentured servants, or pressed into service on ships, or captured by Indians. One side of my family fled fascism in Italy…. and somehow landed right in Hiltler’s arms. If you met my relatives, you’d understand why 🙂 Those who survived WW11 Germany, escaped to Chicago and got tangled up with an entirely new set of problems. With genes like this, I’m just grateful to still be alive.
LOL!!!!
If Europe had trailer parks my ancestors would have lived in them.
Thinking about the “white guilt” thing, it occurs to me many blacks, and whites, too, for that matter, have traded slavery to the plantation owner for subservience to the government. And while it might be true they no longer need to work the fields as of yore, they are still required to give up most expectations of freedom for the temporary promise of bread, beans and blankets. And I submit in the long term that’s a poor bargain.
In the low information voter crowd I count as members few blacks who actually enjoy true economic freedom, excepting than the vanity crowd involved in entertainment. Individuals who succeed on their own tend to recognize the realities of living and seem reluctant the throw away their livelihoods and success to support obviously lying, race-baiting loser politicians more interested in pushing agendas than the welfare of their citizens.
The shame of it is too many non-critical thinkers see racism in every possible social and economic interaction. IMO, racism is somewhat analogous to blue trash bins. When traveling, once one starts looking for blue bins, they might be seen everywhere. Unless, of course, the local trash company favors another color. But the blue means nothing nefarious. Neither does the mere notice an individual might be a member of a certain race. It’s what’s DONE with that information that can be good or bad.
That’s funny you mention blue bins. My town has recycling every other week – half the town has blue bins and half gray. The center piece of our town is an old woolen mill. During the civil war they made blankets – one week blue and the other week gray. I guess it was OK to shoot the rebels, but not for them to die from the cold.
something to think about
My ancestors are from Ireland. The Irish had more than their share of discrimination both in the old country and when they came here.
they worked , and learned and became Americans.
In school I learned that in most cases when two groups become equal in size and strength that is when the rivalry breaks out. Competition for jobs and power.
In my lifetime it was economics not color that caused the most strife.
the poor of all colors are looked down on. Until backtrack in America people worked hard to make their lives and their families lives better.
backtrack and his racebaiting bunch have fostered a victim mentality. that has hurt the black community more than the white community.
The dumbing down of education has hurt all colors and made it harder for people to get ahead.
I’m pretty sure there are some Scots/Irish in my lineage. There is a lot of red hair and freckles in my family. Alcoholism too.
mine too.
alcoholism from generation to generation in both my and my husband’s families
Indeed Helen Smart Adults start with the child getting a good education. 🙂
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/07/13/msnbcs-race-baiting-scumbag-toure-blames-slavery-for-predictions-of-zimmerman-riots-this-is-racism/
another race baiter making money off other’s misery
That’s so fucking insane, I don’t even know where to begin. So maybe she means if they’re not allowed to beat you up or kill you, it’s not fair.
What a racist. The only way stand your ground laws are bad for black people is if they are making a habit of attacking others. Is this what she believes? That black people are inherently violent?
Funny how it’s always the vile progs who assume the worst of black folks.
media asked to return to courtroom
jury wants clarification on manslaughter.
that does not sound good
I’m still hoping for one holdout. May she stay strong.
Ruh-roh!
My husband always says that he comes from lineage that enslaved everyone (Roman.) Then again, his people were poor paesanos, so most of them were likely indentured as well at some point, since southern Italy and Sicily was always getting overrun by whatever major power was warring at the time. Some of my family were upstart Protestants at a time when protestants got burned alive or sent to dungeons in Europe. Where’s my reparation and special consideration for my ancestors that got persecuted? *eyeroll*
Mankind has been enslaving and persecuting each other all over the globe, every race, every continent, ever since history began. It’s not something uniquely evil that the USA alone did. We actually did less of it, and ended it faster than most.
Get over it? OMG HOW CRUEL AND AWFUL!!! Yeah, get over it. Everyone else had to. Life isn’t fair. Neither is history. So?
New thread up