Quote:
Originally posted by carnation
Scottish-Hispanic-Japanese-Irish-Dutch-Filipina-German-Vietnamese. Really.
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So I wrote this post some time ago and things have changed.
I always knew that my mother's side had some kind of non-white background but nobody ever talked about it. This being the South, I figured they had a strong amount of Native American, probably Cherokee. To picture my mother and aunts, think Ava Gardner or Joan Crawford--dark and exotic-looking. Then I finally saw a picture of my grandmother (who died way before I was born) and her mom and sisters and said, "Oh wow. They're part African American."
Suddenly a lot of things made sense. My sister and 1 brother look like a lot of the multiracial news anchors in Atlanta. My parents went to the wedding of 2 lightskinned AA friends and people kept asking my mother if she was the mother of the bride. I did see 1 great aunt once when I was little and thought she was our AA housekeeper's aunt.
When I asked my mother and aunts why no one ever told me about our heritage, they thought I'd lost my mind and told me that the family was just "Creole"--kind of a catchall word in Louisiana that means French to some and randomly mixed to others. I finally had my DNA done a few months ago and it turned out that 1 great great grandparent was AA and another one was NA. The older folks in my family were really surprised!
I've gone to many pow-wows over the years I've lived here. Will I do anything to celebrate my AA heritage? I don't know...I think the black people here would laugh if I showed up at, say, an MLK celebration or a Kwanzaa party because I don't look it; I look like my dad's side and the only hint is that I tan extremely fast.
Guess I'll just wait and think about it some more!