Gosh -- I abandoned this thing, because the genealogy thing frankly has a lot of bad associations for me.... racism, elitism, cliques... and my basic belief is that we are all related somehow, and just having Joseph Smith for a "Second Cousin Thirteen Times Removed" is not likely to make me the prophetess of the next generation. And I'm not angling for that. Although, maybe there's something to it for the shock value....
But I have been getting into arguments with my spouse, because we seem to have different understandings about what is and what isn't possible for our backgrounds. I'm already flaunting my slightly less white-bread status to friends and casual acquaintances, now that I've found out I have a TINY sliver of African ancestry. Why is it so important to me that people think about this as a possibility, not only for me (of usually Very Pale Face except when Confronted with Utah Sun), but also that others with Mormon heritage contemplate it about themselves?
Conversation with husband yesterday was about whether or not The Mormons of the African Lining (Like a Silver-Edged Cloud) could actually KNOW they were secretly African. And thus bond and huddle together, finding strength in their numbers to FIGHT THE OPPRESSOR -- the Government who Knows about our One Drop. (Which sounded cool to me...)
Or whether it was just some coincidental fact because it's just an Early American Thing. If you have ancestors from this country that go way back, you may have African too. Wake Up! Smell your coffee! And Where it Came From, Ye of America.
Of course I think what steers away from cementing these ideas as firmly true is the sternly conservative nature of the Modern Mormon Majority. As if that would mean you couldn't have African ancestry. Sadly, we must still contemplate how a conservative might go about diversifying their genome, and it is not a pretty thought.....
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