Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Lyric

(12,675 posts)
Sat May 30, 2015, 09:09 PM May 2015

Family and Race

To look at me, I am the whitest white girl you could imagine. But while doing genealogy this week, I found that my great-great grandmother and her children (but not her husband) were registered as "mulatto" in the census at the time. The same was true of my great-grandmother and her children--but when my grandfather (her son) married my Slovakian grandmother and moved to another town, they were suddenly registered as white.

I'm not sure what this means, precisely, except that something a nurse said when my son was born suddenly makes sense. She said he had some sort of dark spot on his lower back and asked if his father was black. It confused me at the time because his father was a white Jew from New York. Now, I wonder. We certainly don't look black--but are we?

Anyway...I know this has nothing to do with Bernie or Hillary, but it has me seriously wondering just who I really am, and what it all means. I can't talk to my elderly aunts about it, because telling them that they might not really be "white" would start WWIII in my rural West Virginia family. I suspect that they already know. My Mom alluded to some huge family secret that my Dad had told her before he died, and even on her deathbed she refused to reveal it. I wonder if this was it?

It hurts to think that it was. It hurts to think that these people I loved could have ever been ashamed of such a thing. I feel really weird right now...

2 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Family and Race (Original Post) Lyric May 2015 OP
Show your aunts what you found in your geneology research. KMOD May 2015 #1
There were "single drop of blood" laws in the old South. eom MohRokTah May 2015 #2
 

KMOD

(7,906 posts)
1. Show your aunts what you found in your geneology research.
Sat May 30, 2015, 09:40 PM
May 2015

Chances are that yes, they do know, and can help you fill in some information.

Keep in mind that they may not be ashamed, but had concerns with how others would view them at the time.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Family and Race