What is your ancestral heritage? How many of us know?
I remember back in college my professor of African American literature, Ntozake Shange, poet and playwright, author of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf", gave us a project, in which we had to ask our parents about our heritage, if we had any other racial ancestry aside from black or African. Most of us got the same answer: non-disclosure and reluctance to admit or talk about it. My father said, "Yes, I'm sure we do, look at me, I'm light complexioned, but my parents never discussed it or wanted to talk about it," which is a continued tradition evidently in so many black families.... which was Ms. Shange's case and point... it's hidden, no one wants to talk about it... Some students did get positive feedback and even found traces of Asian descendants in their family...
I'm conducting this poll to get feedback to see if anyone really does know or care to share...
I was adopted, so I may never know... but I did come across a very informative article that I recommend those interested to check out, entitled "How Black is Black America". It answered my questions since I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, have an accent and have features that can be traced to Senegalese roots. Here's the link: http://www.blackdemographics.com/geography...
And here's an excerpt:
"The Black/African American population is one of the most unique groups in the United States. Almost all descendants of American slaves are mixed with some European and Native American blood. Population researchers at Penn State University studied DNA samples from groups of African Americans throughout the US, West Africa, and Europe, to answer the question; How African are African Americans?
What they discovered contradicts some of the previous studies on the subject where it was thought that Blacks were about 30% white. They conclude that the average Black American is 17-18% white. But this is an average and it depends on the location. When geography is factored in we find that there is a wide range of mixed blood. The most African are those of the Gullah Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. This is also a logical conclusion based on the history of these Islands. Africans who were imported here were rice farmers who as slaves outnumbered whites by the thousands. Because of their large numbers and the absence of whites they were able to keep some of their African culture. This accounts for their “Caribbean” sounding accents and more prevalent West African features. The study concludes the Gullah are only 3-4% white. On the mainland in the South Carolina “Low Country” and near Charleston the percentages move up to about 12% which is still lower than average."
If you know your ancestry and care to share, please do in this poll...
