Michelle Obama's Not So Unique Genealogy

In a recent New York Times article, First Lady Michelle Obama's suspicions of a white ancestor were confirmed, when it was revealed one of her great-great-great-grandparents was a white man.

This doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I would wager a good chunk of the Black Diaspora is made up of people who carry Hispanic, Native, or White (and in some Caribbean Islands, Asian) ancestry.

It reminds me of the day I came to realize that my own genealogy was probably a little more "complicated" than I initially surmised.

Right before I left Panama at ten years old, my Grandmother found a picture of her mother, my great-grandmother, a Jamaican woman. I had always found my grandmother's lighter skin, in comparison to mine, my mom's and grandfather's, to be odd, but not in a bad way. I figured she was somewhat Hispanic. We were in Panama after all. It turns out that it most likely had nothing to do with being Hispanic. My grandmother was pretty light-skinned from the picture, and most my grandmother's brothers and sisters, are lighter skinned. The pieces in the puzzle started to fall into place.

At least that made sense. We are still trying to figure out my grandaddy's blue as the ocean eyes, the only indication that he has family line may have an interesting story itself.

A couple years ago, my mom told me that her cousin indicated that a great-great grandfather, may have been white. As in, perhaps my great-grandmother's father was a white man. I'm not surprised given the history behind slavery. I guess I was surprised at the realization then, that my family tree was a mix, but one wouldn't know it unless they were in on the family history.

I remember they would mention that my nose wasn't as pointy, and that I had inherited my father's flatter nose. When Mr. Slim first met Ma Dukes, he remarked that her nose was kind of "white." He was truly surprised at her nose, because it wasn't "characteristically" afrocentric.

What does this mean? Well, life has gone on and it will continue to. For me, it adds some mysticism to our heritage, and I would love to know more. When I think about this caveat in my gene pool, or what I wonder about rather, are the circumstances behind such a caveat. Was my ancestor raped? Historical odds are against it being consensual indeed. However, I've read enough to know that not every interracial coupling back then was not forced, although most of them were.

I wonder about my ancestor, and what she must have thought about carrying this mixed child? I wonder about her life. I wonder if the person who impregnated her gave a damn, or if he was an abusive bastard? In the grand scheme of the universe and things, I wonder about these two bloodlines, and wonder about these people that came before me. Where am I in this tangled family tree? Who are these people?

On my grandfather's side, I recall being told that my grandfather was left a nice piece of land in Jamaica, but he refused. He was never born there. His life was elsewhere. How does one pack up and go live in a foreign land, even if it's an ancestral home? I see why he never took up the land, but I always asked who left it to him.

When I do research on one side of the family, it is a complex mix of varying hues. In that research, I discover that said ancestor is most likely British. Apparently, we have a history of interracial relationships (Whoa!) and my distant cousins cover pretty much every shade in the human spectrum, from fair to dark. People I would never think could be related to me, just going off of features alone, share a bloodline with me. We're all over the Islands and Latin America, as well as the States. The family tree gets bigger before my eyes.

If we all realized just how closely we are intertwined, would it change the way we see each other as people? Would it help us to open up to each other, and reach an understanding and acknowledgment?

In the end, it's an interesting piece of trivia, and I may never learn the answers to my questions until I meet those who came before me in a past life.

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