How racist am I?

 In honor of Black History Month, I want to ask the question. How racist am I ?

I took a class at the U for my English degree under professor Wilfred Samuels called African American Literature .  (He was very hep🙂).

One thing a theorist named bell hooks confronted me with was the idea that white folk were pretty much racist to some degree or another, but we just wouldn’t admit it to ourselves.  

Of course there are a lot of overt racists in the world and some have recently not been so shy to admit it. (😰)

In my household growing up, there was no N word used, my dad flat out loved blues and jazz (although I think he had a beef with the Dixieland style).  He bought me Fats Waller boogie sheet music for the piano which I still have but, perhaps not surprisingly, I never quite understood because of my bookish ways and lack of inherent rhythm  🎶 

There were only two families in our small town who were African American and my little sister was friendly with a little girl her age from one of them. I remember one of my sisters chastising my mom because she didn’t want that little girl in our house. My mom seemed sort of confused, and a little ashamed but said that that is just how she was raised. 

I think most thinking people don’t want to let on any hint of racist thoughts because it seems stupid- you seem undiscerning and ill-informed.  Plus it’s not good for business.

(That doesn’t mean I think all right wingers are morons.  I do think some of them are hypocrites and mercenaries, however. ) 

Anyhoo, when I told my dad he had a trace amount of African ancestry he didn’t have a story for me about why that might be.  I can’t say he was overjoyed but he didn’t seem to fight it or go into denial.  He did seem a little relieved when I pointed out that quite a few Americans have this recent trace ancestry. (Indicating quite a little bit about asshole slave owners, but we didn’t touch on that much.) What I felt from him was relief that he was not alone .

Some time in the eighties, the former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver was visiting our small town and sharing his story of conversion to Mormonism with the youth.  Eagerly, my dad invited him to stay with us but his offer was turned down.  My dad also introduced me to the book Malcolm X and voted for an obscure Black Republican presidential candidate whom I cannot seem to find but that had pretty old school ideas on patriarchy.

My dad also had a religious theory that all of the races were the result of God having multiple wives of every race.  Given the Mormon belief that men can become Gods, I think this qualifies as more of a personal sexual fantasy.  But of course he and I would never discuss it in those terms  

So on a scale of one to ten, I think my dad was maybe a 3.  His take on women’s rights is not as bad as it may seem, and a topic for another day  

My dad passed in 2017 and it was recently his birthday. I told my mom I listened to the Ink Spots on his birthday in his remembrance.  She made an insensitive comment along the lines of “Leave it to your dad to like the Inkspots.”  I give her about a 7.5, because at least she waited this long to say it.

Then again, maybe she had a beef with that religious theory I mentioned.

I think my husband struggles with racism a bit, even though he recently told our child that segregation is stupid and wrong.  We don’t talk about race a lot.

His family, I want to give about a 9.5.  They don’t talk about it either.  At least in front of us.  So perhaps it is my prejudice about those living beyond the Zion curtain.  Hubby has stated that his father told him his ancestors opposed slavery, so maybe I am being unfair.

It did dawn on me at Thanksgiving dinner, however, that one of the brothers-in-law may very well be a literal descendant of Nazis.

So, back to the original question.  How racist am I?

I don’t want to set the world on fire 🔥  by the Inkspots

https://open.spotify.com/track/777zXDJpBufzttU4AJ2dGO?si=5emgiCYPQFmxusZWkPfZkQ&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1DZ06evO33a3eg

Eldridge Cleaver https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_Cleaver

bell hooks - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks

Joseph Smith Locket

 So an update to this blog would be remiss without mentioning the new picture found with provenance suggesting it is the real deal. It came from a family member. 

It does take a little shine off the history we were provided as children. The paintings of the new great one true prophet are much more ephemeral than just a photo of a dude.

Source https://religionnews.com/2022/07/21/mormon-founder-joseph-smiths-photo-discovered-by-descendant-after-nearly-180-years/

Mitt Romney: King of the Gypsies

 So I found a blog once with the above title: Mitt Romney….King of the Gypsies?

It’s basic premise was that Mitt could be descended from “gypsies” based on his slightly darker complexion, the area of England he came from and the fact that his last name is “Romney” which sounds like Romani”.

It’s as off the cuff as this blog is… in other words, short on proof.  I’m looking for it and it’s buried in the googler somewhere.

In the meantime, I found this more studious and detailed article from the BBC, which probably has all kinds of implications and insinuations that only a true Brit would notice.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18422949

(I have to remind myself I am basically a CEU with a twist.)

If I ever dig up that funny blog, I will share. 

PS

Here’s a quote from the BBC article which is likely relevant to my own British ancestors and their reason for hopping on the boat.

Preston at the time was a desperately poor and dirty place, dominated by the cotton mills. 

"There were cholera epidemics. There was a lot of very bad housing - classic images of open sewers and pits running through the streets, so it was a pretty nasty place," says historian Aidan Turner-Bishop.

"Think of it a bit like the favelas on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, or places like the suburbs of Nairobi today. It was a pretty hard, pretty rough life, and there was a lot of infant mortality."

2024 Hello

So this is going to be a quick entry.  I have a lot of catching up to do with the wild speculation of the past.  

Personal genetic testing has come a long way from when I first started this.  When I started this blog, so much was a revelation to me.  I was learning that it was possible to be more than just a traditional WASP Mormon.  And I fantasized or hoped to draw conclusions that would prove some fantastic conspiracy.  And the DNA testing emboldened me that I could be all the people— Jew, Native American, African, etc. 

well new research shows I am still more diverse genetically than my neighbors but don’t really qualify as a minority or whatever I was going for. 

Long story short- the reason for my Middle Eastern DNA is not directly to my True Blue Mormon pioneer, cousin-of-Joseph-Smith dad.  It’s from my mother. 

In short, the mostly German man who admitted in a court of law to being my great grandfather was not. It appears the true sperm donor was most likely a man straight from Argos, Greece by the last name of Pullos. 

More later….😂