African-American Is a Racist Label

 Whoopi Goldberg and Raven-Symoné   have  rejected the extremely racist term "African-American". 

“You know what uh uh! This is my country,” Goldberg said. “My mother, my grandmother, my great-grand folks, we busted ass to be here. I’m sorry. I’m an American. I’m not an African-American, I’m not a chick American, I’m an American!”

In October, 2014, Raven told Oprah Winfrey' "I'm tired of being labeled. I'm an American. I'm not an African American; I'm an American."

The time has come to eliminate this term "African-American" which perpetuates the old Southern racist concept that dark complexioned Americans are a separate race from light complexioned Americans.     Those using the term essentially rely on the racist concept of "part black all black" [the one drop rule] rather than looking at all of a person's ancestors.

For example, journalists routinely label Asian ancestry golfer Tiger Woods "African-American" even though  he has an Asian mother and a father with Asian and North American ancestry as well as some ancestors from sub-Sahara Africa.     Raven-Symoné obviously has more skin complexion genes from ancestors outside of Africa than from sub-Saharan Africa ancestors.  A century ago someone with her complexion might  have decided to leave her family and pass for white.  

Those who use the term "African-American" don't seem to understand that Africa refers to a continent, not a group of people.  The Sahara Desert divides the continent into two genetically and culturally different populations.   North American slaves came from the area south of the Sahara.  In this post I will use "African" to designate persons from south of the Sahara.

Southern racism treated dark complexioned individuals as if their only ancestors came from Africa.    The term "Africa-American" perpetuates this false claim.   The fact is that African DNA began mixing with British DNA at Jamestown in the early 17th Century.  The first Africans arrived at Jamestown in1619 and were treated like the white indentured servants.   Indentured servants were temporary slaves who used their labor to pay off a debt.  In the North American colonies the  debt was likely the cost of travel to the colony.  Many of the Irish indentured servants, like the Africans, were  forced to move to North America.     For the Africans, the debt was the purchase price from the slave traders.   Many of those with African ancestry who were brought to North America came from the West Indies rather than directly from Africa.   Some of these may have had some European or western hemisphere ancestry. 

Marriages across the color line began occurring even before African indentured servant  John Punch married a white woman, who was probably also an indentured servant,  in 1636.  Four years later Punch was sentenced by a judge to be the first permanent slave in the British North American colonies after he and two other indentured servants ran away.  Punch's marriage deserves special attention because it is the earliest marriage to produce traceable descendants.  Nobel Prize winner Ralph Bunch is one of his black descendants.   One of his white descendants is Stanley Ann Dunham the mother of President Barack Obama.

In the early years of the Virginia colony people sometimes had to marry across the black, white and red color lines because the small population reduced the number of potential mates.    A similar situation existed in Spanish and French North American settlements.  The earliest connection between an African and North Americans occurred in Spanish Florida in 1526 when a slave escaped and was accepted by a North American village.    The practice of accepting escaped slaves would continue in the British colonies and later in the United States. 

The process of British and African genetic integration accelerated briefly after the British government authorized permanent slavery.   The law said that a child's status [slave or free] would be determined by the status of the mother.  A white child of a slave mother would become an indentured servant. A black child would become a permanent slave.  Slave owners knew that a child with a black parent and a white parent would be black so they forced their white female indentured servants to mate with their African male slaves.   White male indentured servants  had little choice but to mate with African female slaves.

Only about 500,000 Africans were imported to North America during the  nearly 200 years the slave trade was legal with most of them arriving before America won its independence.  The first U.S. census showed a population in 1790 of  3,172,000 whites and 757,000 blacks.    Thus it is likely that most descendants of slaves had multiple  ancestors living in North America before the Revolution.    The descendants of slaves could have a hundred  different ancestors who were living in North America before the American Revolution.  At seven generations back a person can have 128 different ancestors.

In slave societies it is common for males in the owner class to have sex with female members of the slave class especially unmarried females.  Unmarried female slaves may even encourage such attention to gain better treatment.   White male - black female relationships were common in New Orleans during the Spanish and French because men from these countries often arrived without wives.  The introduction of European DNA into the black population continued during the Jim Crow era when southern white men were able to rape black women without fear of punishment.

The introduction of African DNA into the white population was more indirect because those babies who received dark complexion genes would be born with dark complexions.  African DNA involving other than skin color genes entered the white  population when persons with African ancestry were born without  the dark complexion genes and passed for white.  Some descendants of the early unions between Africans and Europeans had "lost" enough dark complexion genes to pass for white by the American Revolution.   This process would continue.  By 1800 some slaves qualified as white such as Thomas Jefferson's concubine Sally Hemings. No paintings of her are available, but she was described as white with long straight hair.  

It seems likely that many who passed for white didn't tell their children.   .President Warren G. Harding was aware he had recent  black ancestry but Ann Dunham apparently did not know she had African ancestry. If she had known she likely would have told her son Barack.  Some people believe as many as five other presidents could have African ancestors.

The dark skinned descendants of slaves should be allowed to claim all their ancestors, not just the ones who came from Africa.  Their ancestors came here and became a new people who are a blend of peoples from three, and in some cases four, continents.  They only have some genes in common with the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.  The Americans who have some African ancestors made their own culture after they got here.    They helped make this country what it is and deserve to be recognized as full fledged Americans -- not quasi Americans.

It's time we Americans recognize that America is not the home of a black race and a white race, but instead is the home of a single race  whose ancestors were red and yellow, black and white.

The Impressions lamented in their song "This is My Country"  --
"Some people think we don't have the right
To say its my country
Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight
Than say its my country"

It's time we started encouraged the descendants of slaves to call America, rather than Africa their country.  If light skinned Americans whose ancestors all arrived after the Civil War can call themselves 100% Americans, why must dark skinned Americans whose ancestors may have arrived before the American Revolution be treated as part American and part something else.   Many slaves earned their freedom by helping to defeat the British during the Revolution.    
 

Are Women Today Weaker than Women Fifty Years Ago?

Abortion supporters claim that making a baby is too much for many women today.   The poor little things purportedly need abortions  because they cannot handle such a difficult and demanding task.  Abortion supporters tell working class women they can only be empowered by working for someone else.

I don't know what percentage of modern women really lack the strength to make babies, but I know that some modern women are as strong or even stronger than women 50 years ago.   A woman I worked with before I retired was mopping floors and emptying trash a couple of weeks before giving birth to a baby who was over ten pounds.  One of the local judges successfully ran against an incumbent judge while pregnant.  My niece, the  aeronautical engineer, has had two children.  Tarter farm equipment executive vice president Ann Tarter recently had a daughter.   A young woman in Wichita who became pregnant after being raped at 14, decided to go ahead and have her baby  After completing high school she got a bachelor's degree and is now teaching special education while working on a master's degree in special education while raising her daughter.

The facts are today's women are just as capable of handling the rigors of making a baby as their mothers and grandmothers.   The ability to make new human beings makes women the superior sex.  Nothing empowers a woman more than having a baby.  Mothers have the power to influence what their children become. Those who have a strong influence may also impact additional generations.

Women who work for the man from 9 to 5 have no power.  They are just cogs in some corporation.  The relative handful of women who have creative jobs like teachers, engineers  and journalists may have some power but those who work on assembly lines or wait on tables have no power.  

The rich women who are pushing abortion want to exploit women- not empower them.   They want women to help corporations make money instead of building their own families.  Women who build families have a lasting impact on society.  Women who are corporate cogs do not. 

Powerful women make babies.  Powerless women get abortions. 

Put Immigrants in Democratic Districts

If President Donald Trump can't keep the caravan from entering the country, he should try to transport the participants to congressional districts whose  voters elected a Democrat to Congress.  Many Democrats want to encourage immigration so we should expect voters in those districts to welcome immigrants and be willing to share local resources including jobs with immigrants.

  Voters who don't want more immigrants in their districts shouldn't elect politicians who want to increase immigration..  Voters in higher income districts shouldn't vote to encourage immigration unless they are  willing to have new immigrants for neighbors

Millennials Should Break the Cycle of Alternating Political Parties

For the last century control of the United States has cycled between the 19th Century Democratic and Republican parties.  Voters choose between the old ideas of the Democratic Party and the old ideas of the Republican Party.    The two parties are mired in the same old partisan conflicts election after election. The Democrats in particular seem more interested in playing partisan political games than in dealing seriously with the nation's problems.  Republicans are increasingly following their example.

Millennials need to decide whether they want to continue the politics of their grandparents' generation or replace the 19th Century parties with 21st Century parties. 

President Donald Trump has compared Washington to a swamp.  One of the most unpleasant aspects of swamps is stagnant water due to a lack of fresh water flowing into the swamp to  push the stagnant water out.   Washington is a swamp because of a lack of new ideas.  New parties could bring new ideas to Washington and the rest of country like fresh water entering a swamp.

Replacing a political party can take a couple of elections.  Thus, Congressional candidates, as well as candidates for other offices, need to remind voters that even if the third party candidate doesn't win this year, voters will be telling the "outdated parties" that voters want new options.   A strong finish will make it easier for the candidate to run again or encourage a  replacement    In districts in which there  is no third party candidate, Millenials might get together and agree to support one of their number to run as a write in candidate.

At the national level the party out of power is easiest to replace because it has fewer entrenched incumbents.   Thus, third party candidates running for Congress should say they are THE alternative to the Republicans regardless of which party the incumbent in that district belongs to. 

Voters a century ago had negative attitudes toward the major parties.   Voters began voting for third party candidates.   The effort didn't replace either party, but the third parties did force changes in the actions of the parties.   Major changes included direct election of Senators and giving women the right to vote

FBI Incapable of Investigating Christine Ford Allegation

It would be impossible for the FBI to determine what, if anything, happened at the time Christine Blasey Ford claimed to have been attacked.  

The FBI cannot examine the scene of the alleged attack for evidence because even if the building is still there it likely has been cleaned many times since that evening.  The building might even have been remodeled and the furniture replaced. 

Ford is the only apparent witness who remembers the incident and she had been drinking.  It wouldn't have taken very much alcohol to impair the perception of a 15 year old girl.  Her description could also fit a situation in which she briefly passed out and was placed on the bed by some boy other than Brett  Kavanaugh who fell on top of her because he was drunk.   She might just have guessed at who the boy was later when she tried to remember what happened.  She might been having a dream while she was passed out and remembered the dream as being part of what actually happened.   

Incidentally, it would have been unlikely for her to have told her parents  for fear of being punished for getting into such a situation.

There is no way for the FBI or anyone else to determine with any degree of certainty what actually happened that day.  The Senate has wasted too much time on a matter that cannot be resolved. 

Those who are attempting to make a major issue out of this are ignoring the fact that states today prohibit teenagers from drinking because teens have even more trouble than adults controlling their actions when they are drinking.  If Kavanaugh was there and did anything wrong it was because,  according to Ford,  he was drunk and thus not in control of his behavior.

What Was Ford Doing at a Party with 4 Boys?

Has anyone asked  Christine Blasey Ford   why she attended a party with four boys -- if there was a party?  

Most of us would suspect that a girl  at a party with four boys  was the "entertainment".  Considering the way teenage peer pressure works, it is likely she would have been drinking along with the boys, if there was a party.  If  she had been drinking, then her memory of the event would be  unreliable.  She might not remember exactly what happened or even who was at the party. 

I say "if there was a party" because  of how she supposedly "remembered" the alleged attack in a therapy session.  "Remembering" alleged childhood sexual incidents in therapy sessions is a characteristic of "false memories".

 There is no good reason to delay the confirmation process for  Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh .   If Ford wanted her allegation investigated she should have come forward at the start of the process. 

Did Barack Obama Help Donald Trump Defeat Hillary Clinton?

If  the Russian hacking operation helped Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, as many Democrats believe, then President Barack Obama obviously helped Trump defeat Clinton by allowing the Russians to hack the Democrats' emails.  Although I doubt that the Russian hacking had any impact on the election, I recognize  that if Obama believed the Russians would help Trump win he obviously wanted Trump to defeat Clinton. 

Why would Obama want fellow Democrat Clinton to lose to a Republican?  I don't have any inside information, but there is a persistent rumor that Obama has been plotting to return to the White House.   If Clinton had won he would not have been able to run again until 2024.  With Republican Trump in the White House, Obama can run again in 2020.   The media have blamed Trump for the hacking operation and ignored reports that Obama was aware of it and didn't stop it.  Obviously, if Obama had wanted Clinton to win he would have tried to stop any Russian effort that could have kept her from winning.