This just in

[weaktwos]

A researcher claims that Obama's Ancestors may have owned slaves.

Doesn't that make him even more qualified to be president? After all, some of our Founding Fathers owned slaves.

All kidding aside, though. Given the practices of certain slave owners, aren't some "authentically black" Americans related to people who owned slaves?

I mean, can you control who your great great grandfather was? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, people. Should it matter where you come from in America? I thought it mattered what you do and where you're going, here.

Comments

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. That's a fascinating story.

It seems to me that slavery is erroneously treated as a race issue, though it happened to be predominantly functioning along race lines over here. Considering there's still forms of slavery going on in Africa today, complete with gang-rape and genital mutilation, it seems unproductive to live in the past unless you can learn and grow from it. If people are making a big deal about who your great-granddaddy was versus focussing on who you are today, then I don't think people are learning the right lessons.

That we're still suffering over the dark part of our past sheds light on how other cultures like the Jews, Palestinians, and the like can hold grudges for a thousand years.