sister Desert Storm
Desert Storm said:
I would like to state my conclusions about this poem as I was reflecting on it and why I wrote it in the first place
My purpose for writing this poem was sincerely and 100% because I was pretty surprised to have found out this part of my family history and to find so much information about it from my Papa.
The features that run on my dads side as well as including my own features includes: hazel eyes, red hair, auburn hair, freckles, fair skin, green eyes, blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, and hair textures from wavy to kinky. That makes up most of my dad's side of the family. My quest for finding out my family history besides the history that's on my mother side of the family comes from questions from others that I don't know the answers to and seeing these features in my family and not knowing where they came from.
The history on my mothers side is a little more resolute and don't have so many strands as my dads side.
Growing up in California I have pretty much been posed with the question all of my life about what I am mixed with, not just from WHITES, & LATINOS but my BLACKS as well.
I had a friend of mine try to tell me that I wasn't related to my cousin because we didn't look anything alike and other brothaz and sistahs point out the fact that I have mixed blood, like I didn't know. I didn't even find out that I had spanish in me until I was 12 yrs old. That was after being bombarded by the latino community and almost forced to learn Spanish out of necessity and wanting to help other people.
The last reason I wrote this poem was because my Papa and Grandma was contacted through a mutual relative by our white cousin in Shreveport, LA to meet his black relatives, which he did. My grandparents went to Shreveport met the man and his wife, were shown the gravesites of the white man and black maid and some other people as well as given documentation on who these people were. My grandpa was raised in Arkansas and has maintained a cordial relationship with his cousin for the past five years.
That is something significant that I didn't know and found interesting. That is the reason why I wrote this poem. I definately could have used some different wording and not made it sound so corny or glamourous. I DO APOLOGIZE TO anyone who may have misinterpreted this poem or got offended in any. So when I look at my BLACKNESS, so to speak, and the BLACKNESS of my family, I see a variety of features and I appreciate them ALL.
I am also becoming increasingly Aware, that growing up in CALIFORNIA, has been a different black experience for me than some others may be used to growing up with. THAT is the main reason I enjoy different people, foods, and cultures because that has been what I've been exposed to and that is CALIFORNIA CULTURE.
ALWAYS PEACE, LOVE, AND HAPPINESS TO ALL.
Desert Storm
Coming from Los Angeles its kinda funny hearing you speak of California culture with an understanding that Los Angeles was founded by a small group of "multi-ethnic" settlers from Sinaloa, Mexico.
My mother was born in Los Angeles and her parents were born in Oklahoma and New Orleans, respectively. My father was born in New Mexico and his parents were born in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
I moved to Texas in 2005, near Dallas, where my great-great-grandmother was born in Kaufman. I moved here knowing my father's family was having a reunion in 2006. I posted some of the photos I took in the family photo section. On both side's of my family there are europeans going back to the 1840's, as well as enslave black and also "free persons of color" who lived in new orleans going back to the early 1700's.
On of my Ancestors, Louisa Lightfoot May, had a "relationship" to a white slave owner, and this "relationship" also continued after the civil war. They had eight children together. He also had children by his wife, who was a white woman. Known as "Cissy", Louisa stayed with "Drew" when some of her children moved from Alabama and resettled in Texas, then Oklahoma. Some of my great-great aunt's and uncles stayed with her in Alabama instead of leaving. Some of their descendants moved later.
One thing we find about some of these "relationships" is that SOME white people had multiple partners as did many of the indigenous people living in the same areas before them. Early African settlers also miscegenated and had multiple partners. In New Orleans, prior to it becoming part of the union, this "race-mixing" was commonplace. I know this is difficult for most black people to understand (or, as some say, overstand) who have been brainwashed into thinking that each and every instance was one involving the rape of black women. I have documentation that proves there were a multitude of free Black women in New Orleans that purchased "slaves" and in many instances married them. In some of those cases those "white men" were black people or mixed blacks "passing" as white who bought their own families and then re-located with their families intact.
This was the case of my great-grandparents who moved from Butler County, Alabama to Boley, Oklahoma. My great-grandfather, JR Clipper, was the oldest of Louisa's grandchildren and by most appearances was a "white man". When hemoved his family by train he had to ride in one section of the train, they in aonther. And this was before my uncle Jim Cherry was born in 1890.
JR Clipper and his brothers, who appeared to be "white" were among the founders of Boley Township, but settled in the area before it was incorporated in 1903. They settled with other indigenous people from Alabama, their indigenous relatives from the Lower Creek and Seminole. Together they built a college which now is Seminole State in Oklahoma. This Seminole-Creek college was built with the guidance of Booker T. Washington.
My maternal grandmother, "Dixie" was born in Neshoba County Mississippi and by all appearances "a white woman" but appearances can be decieving as I found when later meeting my other aunts and uncles. Her family was related to Oprah's family in Neshoba and Attala County. They also were a result of "race mixing". A white man, last name Stribling, and a black woman named Mariah, who had a brother named Jones. These folks were from Virginia and South Carolina. The Striblings were inter-married with the Taliaferro's, white settlers from Venice, Italy. As in Booker Taliaferro Washington.
As far as I know, my family ahs always considered itself "Black". At the same time, they have retained knowledge of the Indigenous and european bloodlines. And used this to their advantage. Some of my relatives have participated in a DNA project affirming their european lineage. 96 to 100% match. Are they proud of this. Not really. Our pride is in "Cissy". And the fact that she was able to keep her family intact and retained knowledge of our origins, going back further to Atlanta. Back to around 1830.
Since some of my family names are not very common its therefore easy for me to trace back parts of my family tree. Stribling, Morney, Caraby. These are not very common names. Some branches are virtually extinct. Others survived principally from the Women who bore children. Before, during and after slavery.
No need to apologize for your "family tree". it is who you are and where you are from. At least You KNOW You.
Peace....and Divine Love.