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History Lesson on Mixed hertage in the USA; President Obama is NOT the 1st black/mixed Pres.
Topic Started: Nov 21 2015, 11:03 PM (570 Views)
Can't Help It
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Just stumbled up on this...thought I'd share it for those who might be interested.


Is Obama the first black president?

Don’t tell Nate Terrell that Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States. He and others, thinks that evidence — if not traditional history — shows there already have been several U.S. presidents of mixed race.

“… (I)f we go with George Washington as our first (American president), then Obama would be No. 7,” said Terrell, department chairman and associate professor of sociology at Emporia State University, who received his doctorate in sociology from Iowa State University. “But we have six presidents whose parents — five mothers, one father — had black blood. But we never claimed that for these folks.”
The possibilities are something he said he has presented to his students for about six or seven years.
Terrell deals with the possibility of black U.S. presidents in two classes at ESU — race and ethnic relations and introduction to sociology.

That issue is not something found routinely in history texts used in schools around the country. Terrell’s information comes from piecing together information from other sources that include books written by Abraham Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon, and a biography by Chancellor Williams.

Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, Terrell said, was the country’s first black president.
“Most researchers look at this as ‘hypodescent,’” he said. “So if you have a mixed child, then that child is going to be black, if they have any black blood.”
Terrell asserts that Jefferson’s mixed blood came from his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson.
“Her father was considered mulatto mix with black and (India) Indian, so his grandfather is considered black and Indian,” Terrell said.

Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the second president alleged to be black.
“The story behind him is his mother migrated from Ireland to what we called the Crawford Farm, where her sister was,” Terrell explained.
The woman who would become Jackson’s mother already had been widowed before she arrived at Crawford farm.
“And she had a union with a slave on the plantation, so the only way we would allow that to happen was if this was a light-skinned slave,” Terrell said.
One of the source books traces Andrew Jackson’s brother being sold into slavery.
“He’s the first one (president), actually, I would say, that the father had black blood,” Terrell said. “Most likely the father was one of the light-skinned slaves around the plantation.”

Abraham Lincoln
Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, was credited with providing the black blood some believe to be in the 16th president of the United States.
“That, for most people, is not a surprise,” Terrell said. “Nancy Hanks, his mother, her father was Ethiopian, so it’s like how can Nancy’s father be Ethiopian? Rumor was she had an illegitimate child with a father who was mixed. … We’re pretty sure with Abraham Lincoln that her father was from the Ethiopian tribe. That actually came from his law partner, William Herndon.”
Herndon, at one point, wrote that Lincoln believed he was not the son of Thomas Lincoln, but the son of another man, whose name Herndon said Lincoln had sought.
Herndon’s book, “Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life” is available online for less than $40. The book, as well as documentations that became sources for books by others, grew from Herndon’s long and close association with the president.
“The Hidden Lincoln: From the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon,” credits both Herndon and Emanuel Hertz as authors. It also is available online for less than $20.

Warren G. Harding
Terrell named Warren G. Harding as the nation’s fourth black president.
“Harding’s father, George Harding, was mulatto,” Terrell said. “They describe him as a man with big lips and chocolate skin.”
Chancellor Williams wrote a book mentioning Harding’s ancestry, Terrell said.
“The weird thing is our government, the Justice Department, tried to buy up all of the books and destroy them. I thought, ‘Why?’” Terrell said.
Williams reportedly quoted Harding as saying, “How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors may have jumped the fence?” Terrell added.
Harding got his only academic degree from Iberia College, which had been founded to educate fugitive slaves, Terrell said.

Calvin Coolidge
Black president No. 5 on Terrell’s list is Calvin Coolidge, whose mother, Victoria Moore, was said to be of mixed blood.
“They said she had fair complexion with a ‘rich growth,’ they called it, of brown hair,” Terrell said. “There’s a story that his grandfather, when Calvin Coolidge turned 18, told him, ‘Happy birthday. Here’s your 40 acres and a mule.’
“The Republican party promised slaves when they were released, they’d give ’em 40 acres and a mule.”
Terrell believes it is possible that Coolidge’s mother’s surname, a variation on “Moor,” came from a European habit of giving the surname “specifically to black people in Europe.”

Dwight Eisenhower
The most-recent president believed to perhaps have mixed descent is Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was born in Texas and reared in Kansas.
“The rumor was his dad was mixed, coming out of Africa,” Terrell said. “… But his mother, Ida (Elizabeth) Stover Eisenhower, was mulatto. And when I show people pictures of her they say, ‘Oh well, we can tell. Just by looking at mom, we can tell she was mixed.’”
The photograph reputed to be of Eisenhower’s mother and father was published this year by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in conjunction with several articles run on the subject of black presidents.
Terrell’s teachings also come through books by historians Joel A. Rodgers, Dr. Leroy Vaughn and Dr. Auset Bakhufu.
Although Vaughn does not assert that Eisenhower was of mixed ancestry, his 2006 book, “Black People And Their Place in World History” states there may have been five black U.S. Presidents, according to the online news, The Daily Voice, Black America’s Daily News Source.

The Daily Voice states, “Vaughn cites what he says is literary evidence that Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge all ‘had Black people among their ancestors.’ The Daily Voice could find no major national news outlet or presidential scholar who has ever confirmed that claim.”
Bakhufu appears to be the only historian of the three who includes Eisenhower in his book, “The Six Black Presidents: Black Blood, White Masks.” Depending upon the Web site, the book is available at costs ranging from about $13 to $150.
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UTB

Shhhhhh,shhhhhhh, you don't want the Negroes to find another Mulatto ruling this nation in the past!
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kennyinbmore
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This list has a lot of "believed" and "rumors". Not good when attempting to document history
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VoiceofReason

So, if it's true, what difference do people think it makes? Is it bragging rights or is it more "in your face" type of thing?

Even Tom Jones said he's going to find out if he has "black blood". Smh. Will he hit the streets for the next Black Lives Matter demonstration? If so, then why not now?
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U Thant
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Can't Help It
Nov 21 2015, 11:03 PM
Just stumbled up on this...thought I'd share it
No, you didn't.

You are a lightskinned-racist so you are a-okay with, Colorism, and you use it to advance your Livelihood. And that is why, no, you did not stumble upon this as you intentionally and strategically sought out this article.

You feel that if you continue to illuminate White people who, allegedly, have some drop of Black blood on their DNA surface...then it takes attention off of your posting career, here, as it hath always uplifted lightskinned-racism.

Well, Mem, to this nonsense thread and your deceit which borne it...I say this:



On Colorism and Light Privilege

http://allvalid.com/all/on-colorism-and-light-privilege/


Over on Twitter yesterday, I came across a series of unfortunate tweets from a black woman who is of a fair complexion that seemed to deny the existence of colorism. She very quickly got some nasty blowback and went on to say that she never denied it existed, only that she had never experienced it, and has in fact suffered for her tone, having been ostracized from darker-skinned circles because of her color.

A quick note on why I’m not naming her or addressing her directly: I didn’t engage with her on Twitter because she was being called names and very clearly took a Block and Roll stance. When coupled with the I Am Right And You Are Wrong stance, a virtual fortress is formed that I have neither the time nor the inclination to penetrate.

Name-calling is a hideous, undeserved response to a disagreement and while I don’t judge anyone’s personal response to being attacked, I also know that an invitation to debate sensibly will likely go ignored or be met with anger at such a time. I have no desire to attack or “drag” this woman and not all “subtweets” are shady.

Sometimes one wants to express a thought that was sparked by another’s comment, which is not the same as addressing them directly. If one finds that insulting, that is one’s prerogative. Aaaaaaaaaaand, we’re walking.

The unfortunate thing is that this questioning of whether colorism exists is a frequent argument. Despite evidence of the systemic racism that birthed colorism by continuing the overall preference for lighter skin. Despite the facts of the paper bag and pencil tests. The argument generally goes something like this: Light Privilege?

The hell you say! I’ve never benefited a day in my life from this so-called privilege; in fact, I’ve suffered more because of it. Okay, personal experience cannot be denied, but there is an air of denial inherent in such scoffing. Referring to a thing as “so-called” (to use my own example) denies the legitimacy of the thing itself.

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To deny that a privilege exists just because you don’t feel that you can point to examples of it in action from your life is foolish for two reasons: one person’s personal experience cannot negate a systemic ill, and a fact of privilege in this context is that those who benefit from it may not even be aware of it.

The P-word has been bandied about so frequently of late that to some, it now carries a connotation of bountiful blessings. That is not what privilege always looks like; in fact it usually doesn’t.

Sure, we may look at a wealthy person with many cars and a private jet and call them “privileged,” but that is different from White Privilege as it relates to racism and Light Privilege as it relates to colorism.

Often, these privileges manifest themselves as what you don’t see or hear around you, not luxury cars in the driveway or prizes awarded for your complexion. If you are not racially profiled or falsely arrested or deemed less beautiful you might not even be aware of it until it is pointed out to you by someone who is. That’s privilege. It doesn’t mean your life is better overall or that you are not also oppressed in other ways.

Look at who news networks “trust” to deliver our news, and the actors, particularly female, that Hollywood deems beautiful enough to cast in romantic leading roles. Now, if one is fairer and reading this or hearing any discussion of colorism through the lens of their personal experiential injury, I understand that they might feel blame or accusation but that is neither my intention nor a foregone conclusion.

Only the ignorant and/or malicious would seek to blame societal ills on the person potentially benefiting from them unless that person is flagrantly exploiting the ills. But media representations of lighter black people and erasure of darker tones infect our brains on a level that is far removed from your personal experience in the schoolyard.

So we have to wade through the ignorant and the malicious and remember that we come in all skin tones and the conversation ought to focus on deconstructing the comparative standards by which our people were historically valued and judged and bought and sold. We can’t do that if we ignore them.

I have a white-passing friend who has a terrible complex about his appearance. By Anglo/Caucasian beauty standards he’s gorgeous, but he doesn’t fit in with his family or community, so he feels ugly.

His darker brothers clowned him from birth. Growing up, he was an oddity at his mostly black school and kids called him every kind of cracker and he carries deep discomfort into adulthood. I would never discount his experience or brush it off by saying

“Oh well, you benefit from Light Privilege so nevermind your feelings!” Both things are possible. He doesn’t experience racist microaggressions like darker skinned people, but he experiences internal racial conflict in ways that they will never know. One is systemic and one is personal, and they are both real.

Things that he has described to me, about not being welcomed into black spaces and other insults, were echoed in later tweets from the woman I mentioned earlier, after she had calmed down a bit and shared more from a personal perspective.

These twisted ideas about race are so deeply embedded in our culture that we draw lines between us, not even pausing to notice the parallel between the lines drawn on plantations and at slave auctions.

Whichever “side” you are on, colorism is despicable and hurtful. But personal history does not negate societal history just because someone doesn’t feel the two line up in an easily defined way.

Aggressively rejecting your privilege is a form of privilege itself (Memdear...Can't Help It?) because having the luxury to even question the existence of a proven societal ill is a. . . privilege. I wish that sister peace. I wish for us all to make progress, together, which means acknowledging some uncomfortable stuff along the way. And then moving forward.


Tagged with: colorism, light privilege, Racism, Twitter, White Privilege
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UTB

And A.G. Gaston? Errr, was he "light skinned too"?

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U Thant
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UTB
Nov 23 2015, 10:53 AM
And A.G. Gaston? Errr, was he "light skinned too"?

Posted Image

Nope.

I just torched this thread, Pops, and you brought a cup of water to a forest fire. Mem posted some sublime nonsense, you coSigned it, so now I come along to expose it.




skinny: lightskinned-racism is real, and there is no lie that you tell which will change the facts.
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Can't Help It
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Be quiet Germ. I didn't force you to read or say anything. If your racist comments had just an ounce of truth to them I would be inclined to take you seriously but since you don't know what the hell you're talking about just STHU.
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U Thant
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Can't Help It
Nov 23 2015, 06:16 PM
I didn't force you to read or say anything.
Noper. I never once said you did, so no, that diversion tactic hath failed here.

And it failed bcuz You are a lightskinned-racist. Which means that your rhetoric will never focus on ending lightskinned-racism---unlike what we get to experience in rhetoric from great, noble, courageous lightskinned-Blacks like Min. Farrakhan Soledad O'Brien Kathleen Cross Michael Eric Dyson and of course, my baby, the lovely Michelle Alexander.

So yes, just like in this thread;


Your mission will always be to come onto pro-Black websites and tell darkskinned-Black people to, tolerate, lightskinned-racism so long as it continues to advance your xenophobic Life.
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Can't Help It
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Ethos Logos Pathos
Nov 23 2015, 06:25 PM
Can't Help It
Nov 23 2015, 06:16 PM
I didn't force you to read or say anything.
Noper. I never once said you did, so no, that diversion tactic hath failed here.

And it failed bcuz You are a lightskinned-racist. Which means that your rhetoric will never focus on ending lightskinned-racism---unlike what we get to experience in rhetoric from great, noble, courageous lightskinned-Blacks like Min. Farrakhan Soledad O'Brien Kathleen Cross Michael Eric Dyson and of course, my baby, the lovely Michelle Alexander.

So yes, just like in this thread;


Your mission will always be to come onto pro-Black websites and tell darkskinned-Black people to, tolerate, lightskinned-racism so long as it continues to advance your xenophobic Life.
Look little boy you have no idea what or who I am other than some things I have stated........does that make it true.....no I could just be having fun with you. For all you know I may be black as coal. Just be quiet....no one is interested in your self proclaimed war on melanin or the lack thereof. Read my signature line....it's just for you!
Edited by Can't Help It, Nov 23 2015, 06:29 PM.
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