White Americans Fail to Address Their Family Histories

[Wingus Dingus]

63. I can grasp how America's history, laws, culture, institutions have created injustice that

persists today particularly for African Americans and Native Americans. It's worthy of continued study and examination. But this post specifically calls on American white people to examine their ancestry to address... what? Their ancestors' blame in building, perpetrating, and profiting from the injustice? For what purpose? Dead people are dead. They might have done things that brought you pride, or shame...maybe they were heroes, or villains, or just regular people who were products of their time and culture. Or maybe you'll never know.

There is no link between whatever my fresh-off-the-boat great-grandparents thought and believed in the early 1900's, and my politics, actions and beliefs today, beyond my continued (loose) adherence to Catholic teachings. I don't feel ashamed of them, I don't judge them, I didn't know them, beyond some basic facts and family stories, and a photo of my great-grandfather holding me as an infant on his lap not long before he passed away. I have no idea what he thought about Black people, or Asians, or Native Americans, or Protestants, or Jews, and it doesn't matter now.