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Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
The Sad, Sad Life of the Celebrity Sibling

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Elektra
10/09/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
And after your truly brainless posting about BHO's Nobel, I utterly take it back. Jesuseffingchrist.
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Seeräuber Jenny
10/09/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
Apart from its terrible smug tone, the story was reasonably interesting, but I'm still a whole lot more concerned about what Hubby is going to do about this country's multitudinous problems.
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Edited by Seeräuber Jenny at 10/09/09 4:14 AM Seeräuber Jenny was starred Seeräuber Jenny was unstarred

elinorwhyme
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
I had the same thought reading this article as I did watching Gates' program "African American Lives" on PBS (which I loved--I'm a huge fan of the UK's Who Do You Think You Are)--that loads of African Americans can trace their families back centuries further than many other Americans, racists included. When you can go back to 1785 and see that your ancestor was a free black man or 1820 and a slave--either way, your roots In America go back way further than mine and other whites, but aren't given the same credence. I was shocked it hadn't occurred to me before, not in the same way, of looking at the present from the past, as opposed looking at the past from the present.
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Claire Buoyant
10/08/09

@elinorwhyme: And Gates himself has something to say about this:
[www.theroot.com]
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elinorwhyme
10/09/09

@Claire Buoyant: His background is interesting too. I'm really looking forward to his Faces of America show, which features at black, white, Hispanic, Asian Americans.
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raincoaster
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
Belonsky is no longer on the masthead, although I must say I don't remember if he was ever on it. They don't seem to last long enough for someone to add them to the Author's Widget lately.
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@raincoaster: I don't think he was on it in the first place.
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RollsRoyceRevenge
10/08/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: As I recall, he was. Can't say for sure. Hard to read the little type through the fog of rage/tears of unbelieving laughter.
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raincoaster
10/09/09

@RollsRoyceRevenge: Well, he's posting right now, so he's still around.
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Spirit Fingers
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
Appropriately done with the gravitas the story deserves, Mr. Cook
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gawkimo
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
We were one of the last countries in the entire Western Hemisphere not only to ban slavery but to to have a leader coming from anything other than a member of the whitey male ruling class. Mexico had a 100% Native American president while Michelle Obama's great-great-great whatever was being bought and sold like property. Even poor little Haiti defeated a major European power in a slave revolt while Americans had yet to consider black folks as worthy of voting rights. Nothing about slavery should be used as jingoism to make us feel warm and fuzzy about how wonderful it is that black Americans have overcome slavery (an arguable point, perhaps). I hope Michelle Obama sees this for what it is: jingoism that has little to do with her merits as a living, breathing individual human being. Maybe she doesn't want to be that kind of symbol?

Besides, it's completely American to reject Old World obsessions with blood lines and lineages and to accept and embrace our collective mutty-ness.
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@gawkimo: It's Old World to obsess over the purity of your bloodline, true, but I disagree with your last point: rejecting your family's history isn't "completely American", it's just foolish. I'm all for embracing our muttiness, but "John Winger" said it best:

We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse.
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John Cook
10/08/09

@gawkimo: I agree with you on mutty-ness, and on the fact that who her forebears were has no moral relevance to who she is. So maybe "pround" wasn't the right word. But if we're not supposed to feel warm or fuzzy about the arrival in the White House of the descendant of a 15-year-old girl who was raped by her owner, how are we supposed to feel? Ashamed? Angry?
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gawkimo
10/09/09

@John Cook: Mature, perhaps. Obamas aren't any more a symbol of the urban African American population than I am. If anything they represent the bourgeois establishment of any race in America. (With all the good and bad that implies.) It's funny to watch the Old Guard of the Civil Rights Movement squirm when the president doesn't live up to their expectations.
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naugahydeinplainsight
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
Today, Dolphus Shields lies in a neglected black cemetery, where patches of grass grow knee-high and many tombstones have toppled.
Assuming the First Lady and her family accept the story's findings, I'd expect some changes are in store at that cemetery. It would certainly be a private matter, but talk about your "teachable moments."
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Edited by naugahydeinplainsight at 10/08/09 3:06 PM

If_I_Had_a_Poodle
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
pitch perfect on the tone and the substance

this is an american story, and those who don't learn its meaning fail at their peril

one country, one people

yes we can
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iplaudius
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
I found the article moving and important and am extremely sympathetic to Cook’s review.

I want to know individual histories, and I want to know the history of the African American nation, who are, as far as I’m concerned, the chosen people of our time.
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hanneke
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
I enjoyed the historical cataloguing expostion of this story, along with the photos and documents. This information seems a little personal, though, for what became such a big news item, and I may be wrong, but couldn't a similar tree back to slavery be made for many african- americans ( maybe our president excluded?). I sort of fail to see why this is such a shock, along with the shock of having a white ancestor...
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bytememehard
10/08/09

@hanneke: As an African-American woman, I can tell you you do not know what you are talking about. You should stay out of the discussion, thank-you-very-much.
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@bytememehard: Would you kindly explain where Hanneke ran afoul of your sensibilities? I can't find anything wrong with that statement; I too found the story of Melvinia Shields fascinating, though not at all shocking.
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raincoaster
10/08/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: If a white foreigner may step in, I think you've accidentally hit on it. "Shocking" it is not, to us. But it seems some people expect it to be shocking, and that in itself is ... weird. It's not an exposé, it's a very human story. A personal story. And the implication that it therefore shouldn't be told might be the trigger?
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ocpd301
10/08/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: How about this? Yes, you can trace many Afrcan American roots back to similar places. How many of them looked out over the Rose Garden this morning while they had their coffee?

It brings tears to my eyes to think of Melvinia dreaming big dreams for her children, and their children, and so on, the way we all do. Could she ever have dreamed this big? What woud Melvinia have thought had she known her offspring would be the First African American First Lady of ths country? From the depths to the mountaintops.

In response to hanneke, I don't think it is shocking. I think it is triumphant. That is what makes it such a "big news item."
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@raincoaster: Being of Canadian descent, I consider you a cousin, not a foreigner.

I can't figure out is why such a wonderfully human story shouldn't be told. We learned about the black McCains during last year's election, after all, and I doubt that cost him many votes. As I've said before, we have a complex and interwoven history on this continent, and drawing lines doesn't really do our history justice.

(The other thing I can't figure out is why an African-American woman would use the picture of a white male from the Vanderbilt family as her avatar, but that's beside the point.)
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@ocpd301: I couldn't say it better myself.
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DahlELama
10/08/09

@ocpd301: Aw, the story didn't actually make me tear, but your comment totally just did.
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Mymoustache
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
I think any time someone can trace their lineage it is fascinating, enlightening and valuable. This is why invading armies often destroy the records of the vanquished - you take away their identity.
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@Mymoustache: It also helps you steal their land. We had a lot of that happen here in California about 150 years ago.
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Trai_Dep
10/08/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: Yup, and I'm still annoyed that we haven't driven the Dust Bowl Oakies the Hell back out of California.
Oh.
One hundred and fifty years ago.
*cough* As you were.
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Luckwouldhaveit
10/08/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: Californios complaining about the land they stole being stolen from them? California Natives say bich plz.
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karion
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
Heh. Night editor.
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Dickdogfood
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
OK, Mr. Cook. I think I'm beginning to come around to you.
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/08/09

@Dickdogfood: I don't know about that, but Cook did go up a notch in my book.
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naugahydeinplainsight
10/08/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: @Dickdogfood: Well done John Cook. I'd been put off by a couple recent Letterman "exclusives" that seemed less than thin,
[gawker.com] [gawker.com] but this reminds me why I like your posts.
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Edited by naugahydeinplainsight at 10/08/09 2:45 PM

TheUptightMidwesterner
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
Okay- a lot of people are admitting that this whole article brought them to tears, myself included. I can only imagine how the First Lady feels right now. It is inspiring, but still intensely personal.
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ambitiondude
10/08/09

In reply to Why We Need to Be Reminded That Michelle Obama Is Descended from Slaves
This was definitely needed to, um, balance Andrew Belonsky's epic late-night bungle. Thank you.
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