April 2, 2012, - 3:44 pm
Few US Blacks Have American Indian Blood, Contrary to Claims of Many
Growing up in a Black neighborhood, graduating from a majority Black high school, and living in a Black city, if only I had a dime for every time someone Black told me they were “part Cherokee” (or some other Indian tribe). But a Black ancestry and genetics expert says most Black claims of being part Indian just aren’t borne out in DNA testing. No, you are not a Navajo princess.
I’m sure you remember the self-important Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. He’s the race-baiter who whined ad nauseam about his arrest by the Cambridge police and got Barack Obama to stick his nose in it. I don’t like the guy or his divisive race-based politics. But I gotta give him credit for having the guts to tell the truth about a common myth among Black Americans, something he’s proven to be false in genetic tests he conducts for his Palestinian Broadcasting System show, “Finding Your Roots.” And for showing a form of racial resentment: that many Blacks are disappointed when they learn how much White European blood they have (including Cory Booker, the New Jersey Mayor who recently cuddled up to Muslims and attacked the NYPD for conducting legitimate terrorism investigations that saved American lives).
Mr. Gates breaks down each of his guests’ racial makeup into a simple pie chart. In an episode . . ., Newark Mayor Cory Booker discovers he is 47% African, 45% European, and 7% Asian or Native American.
Mr. Gates says that reveal “always gets an emotional response, positively or negatively.” For example, African-American guests are often surprised at how much European blood they carry and their lack of significant Native American ancestry. “It’s the biggest myth in African-American genealogy: ‘My great grandmother was a Cherokee princess,’ ” he says, adding, “The average slave and the average Native American didn’t even see each other, which makes it very hard to mate.”
Yup, you’re just another White person like me, not someone whose ancestors wore cool turquoise squash blossoms and used arrowheads in battle.
I understand the psychological need to think you came from some exotic people to feel special. It’s a stark sign of insecurity and an inferiority complex. Sadly, in our “I need to feel special” culture–where self-esteem has been unduly made into a premium–people are more about what they are and from whom they came, instead of what kind of persons they are and what they, personally, have achieved and contributed to this world.
And it’s not unique to Black people. In college, a woman I grew up with and with whom I went to a Jewish day school became my roommate for a year. I laughed and rolled my eyes when I learned that people around campus referred to this daughter of Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivors as “The Countess.” She’d told fellow students throughout the University of Michigan that she was royalty and a countess, a complete fabrication. (Jews were not allowed to become European royalty (who were almost universally Catholic)–just the victims of their pogroms, blood libels, and persecution) I guess it wasn’t enough that she was the daughter of people who’d miraculously survived a massive genocide or that she, herself, was a junior Olympic champion. She needed to feel some weird artificial blueblood pedigreed superiority. This phony is now a medical doctor, and I wonder–now that she has the “Doctor” title–if she’s given up her false title of prestige.
But that’s the way it is in a society focused solely on fame at any cost, rather than personal contributions, achievements, and accomplishments.
I’m proud of where I came from–poor Jews from Poland who survived anti-Semitic persecution to come to America and make something of themselves–and who I am. People who aren’t proud of tihs are the ones who feel the need to create this type of faux-exoticism to feel important. It’s not about where you came from. It’s about what you do with it and, more relevant, where you are going.
Frankly, I’m more impressed when someone does something of note and doesn’t have kids out of wedlock that they’ve dumped on society, than whether or not their great-great-grandfather allegedly wore feathers and beaded moccasins.
Despite what I think of him, I’m glad Dr. Gates had the decency and honesty to call out this myth.
Tags: African Americans, American Indians, ancestry genealogy, Blacks, Cory Booker, DNA, DNA test, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., faux-exoticism, Few Blacks Have Indian DNA, Few Blacks Have Native American DNA, Finding Your Roots, Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Henry Louis Gates Jr., myths, Native Americans, Neward Mayor, PBS, race, race myths, Skip Gates
I am soooooooo annoyed by all these freaks thinking they have “native american blood”. WHO THE FUNK CARES!!!!! Most certainly NOT the REAL natives, like ME!!! If you do not come from a LEGITIMATE tribal community, you are NOT native! PERIOD! Get it through your thick, wanna-be SKULLS already! Why not get all huffy about your more OBVIOUS ethnic affiliations, you know, the ones you can actually PROVE?? here is a clue. Your REAL ethnicity is the one you have no choice but belonging to. Its the language you speak, the place you live, the food you eat, the clothing you wear, the religion you follow…all that. And no, you CANNOT just “pick up” native american culture. You cannot follow our spiritual ways unless you are born to a tribe, we don’t and will NOT allow outsiders “in” (I know, goes against Christian teachings of all-inclusiveness, but thats christianity, not US…we are EXCLUSIVE with our beliefs, even amongst other tribes -as in, we limit what we share with other tribes regarding spirituality- and not “all-inclusive” spiritually..for very good reason beyond the non-native scope of understanding)You can learn our languages, sure, but it won’t change the fact that you were not BORN to us, you can google some of our recipes, but it doesn’t mean you learned them from generations of UNBROKEN teaching. Some reservations allow non-natives to live on them….but again…that does not change your ethnicity. At best, all non-natives have is STEREOTYPES and google to go off-of when learning about “native americans” and absolutely NO connection to a REAL tribe. A real native? Just has to look at their family and community to verify their tribal affiliation. http://www.suquamish.nsn.us/Portals/0/TribalNewsletters/Suquamish%20News%202-2013%20Web.pdf <–newsletter for my tribe. A LOT of the people in my tribe are mixed, but thats not a problem. We don't discriminate against those that are mixed. We don't enroll those who are NOT a part of the community. Every single one of our tribal members has at least ONE parent, ONE grandparent and at least one great-grandparent who was enrolled in, and raised in, our tribe.
Noel on February 11, 2013 at 5:35 pm