Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Mixed races

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/09/btsc.obama.race/index.html

The above internet article is on the question of whether Obama is of mixed race because his mother was a white lady from Kansas or black because his father was a highly educated Black African from Kenya.

I started thinking about this and remembered something I had read over the years that if someone was more than 2 or 3 generations in America that they likely were part native American or black even if it is 1/32nd each. This might not make someone look like they are native American or black but suffice it to say most Americans who have lived in America for more than 2 or 3 generations are "multiracial" whether they look it or not.

For example, though I'm 60 years old my hair is not solid grey which is a native American characteristic, for example. My ancestors on my father's side came from Switzerland and Germany in the 1720s to Philadelphia Harbor and then Pennsylvania, Ohio, and then to Kansas.

Though my mother's parents were both born, one in Philadelphia and one in Boston to solid Scottish born parents on both sides, my grandmother's house burned down and she and her 12 brothers and sisters returned to the Glasgow, Scotland area to grow up. My Grandfather's father died getting pneumonia from getting my grandfather medicine one winter in Boston, so my Grandfather's mother moved back to Scotland. However, after my grandfather and grandmother grew up in Scotland, both they and ALL their brothers and sisters came back to America since they were already citizens by birth and lived the rest of all their lives here in America in Nebraska and Washington and California.

So though my mother's ancestors were all Scottish in ancestry, my father's ancestors were here since 1720 from Switzerland and Germany. So I figure on my father's side I'm Swiss-German by last name but also English, French, Scandinavian, likely native american somewhere in there as well as most European nationalities and who knows what.

The important thing is we all survived strong and tall. We're still here when others didn't make it.

Whether Obama is Multi Racial or Black, he fits right in in America. We're international, all of us Americans. What can I say?

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