LIke many Americans, I have used popular DNA and Ancestry companies to trace my heritage..In short it was somewhat revealing beyond what I already knew. Based on information from living relatives, I could trace back to my paternal great-grandfather Addison Cameron. Then, based on data from these companies . I discovered Silas Cameron, my great great-grandfather born about 1820, which would have made him a slave in Mississippi. Now his father appears to be a slave master born about 1800. Which makes him my great-great-great-grandfather. According to DNA family tree. I discovered an individual who is 95.3% White European female, shares the same 3rd-great-grandfather as myself, making us 4th cousins. This sounds distant but still places us in the same family tree. Once I reached this point the DNA tracking took me to Sub-Saharan Africa where I have 73.3% DNA matches and to Europe where I have 25.9% DMA matches. I discovered later that this has been published as the average DNA percentages for all African-Americans.
My research, however, was about discovering what happened during the 3rd and 4th generations in which my (multiple) great-grandparents were actually slaves. These findings were difficult to dig out even with sketchy public records. Since most Blacks slaves weren’t allowed to read or write, it made recording what was going on almost impossible. All of these things were orchestrated by the slave masters to cover up the widespread incidence of illegitimate offspring, making establishment of absolute paternity a difficult process even today. In spite of this, what could not be hidden was the massive families of mixed race children. Classifications such as Mulatto, Quadroon, and Octoroon were made based on their outward appearance of the skin color or presence of defining racial features. And how did these multi-varied skin tones and changing of features come about? The open market on sexual exploitation of female slaves came with no shame, no legal violation and was socially accepted in the South. On the other hand, if a Black man would look sideways at a White woman, a White lynch mob would hang him by sundown, which was the case for years after 1865 when slaves were supposed to be free.
Somehow, to better understand racism in America, we might have to visit why a White slave owner would kill, maim and emasculate a Black male that might even be his own son or grandson.Who at the same time used the Black female slave quarters as his personal brothel. Fast forwarding to the current race relations, White society continues to kill, assault, and incarcerated Black males who could be part of their family tree. Let that sink in. The wrath of racism runs so deep that what America is seeing now is a continuum of the slave master’s agenda to erase Black culture through denial of humanity, agency, and liberty to what could be their own progeny in order to secure his supremacy. It’s enough to be reminiscent of ancient Greek tragedies, like Zeus and Cronus, or Oedipus and his father, except this is real life and not so ancient.
Since they arrived in what is now America from Europe seeking freedom (!) and equity (!) from their mother country (in the name of religion!), the White power struture has been in control socially and economically. The Black American male wasn’t in the plan, other than as a slave, then and is currently not in the plan now (unless providing income as an inmate in the privatized prison complex). The White power structure over the last 400 years has taken control of land, capital and even who and where the labor is performed. By not allowing Black males resources and opportunities to protect and care for their women and families, Black males are stripped of manhood and forced to live a life of desperation.
The mass media blasts around the world about the monetary success and lavish lifestyles of a select number of Black entertainers and sports celebrities, while exterminating through exploitive reporting the vast majority of Black males across generations. This plan has almost been executed to perfection. We have witnessed America in an uproar about the killing of another black man, which is extremely significant but potentially performative. And if so, Black families in America will continue to spirale down to permanent underclass status.
We can’t stand back and allow racism to completely destroy a generation of Black families. By joining the “Black Moms Can “ Initiative, together we can use the power of $1.2 trillion dollars* that Black America spends annually, because these heads of households make spending decisions, influence the trends, and harness the data brands need to capture our population.
Community Advancement Initiatives INC, a 501(c)(3) non-profit and the Black Moms Can** book sponsor, will use proceeds from the book to reinvest in the economic welfare of Black families, which can be done with any product or service using digital engagement and marketing networks nationwide. Providing Black families with resources to recapture a share of the wealth that belonged to them is a major strategy to combat racism.
