If there is one place where racism begins, outside of how or why it began in the history of this world, where it continues, it is within our own family dynamics. The stories we tell ourselves and our children are passed down through generations. They become part of our belief systems and our beliefs define us as the individuals we are.
Have you allowed someone else's beliefs to become your own? Why? Was it because of the conversations that took place in your home? We're you taught to fear the unknown by calling it names or putting it down, so you could feel better about your beliefs?
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NanciArvizu, "How Ant Slaves Overthrow Their Masters" by Brendan Borrell for the online Discover magazine April 10, 2013 talks about an enslaving, racist equivalent among ants.
Prince Philip's family came to Greece from Denmark, so add Danish. The Queen's mother was half English and half Scottish. The royal family descend from a Norse pirate known as Rollo the Ganger who gained Normandy by stealing it. So add Norwegian. They descend from the Tudors via Henry the Eighth, so add Welsh. Many of their ancestor were French, and there is some Spanish, I think. It is said that they also descend from Harold Godwinson, via his daughter whose descendants married into the Russian royal family, so add a bit of Russian.
There is no family more mixed race than the British royals who are mainly Greek/ German / Portuguese/ African. Prince George has more English in him than most of them through his mother Catherine Middleton and grandmother Diana Princess of Wales. Prince Philip is a Greek prince.
Now that is interesting. Portugal is the European country which has the most black blood in its population of any European country. Salazar, the long term president of Portugal decreed that Portuguese nationality is not defined by ethnicity. Authoritarian he was, but he was no racist.
It is a little known fact that Queen Victoria's great grandmother was a German/ Portuguese princess and was indeed mixed race from an African princess who married into Portuguese royalty. The British government had her blackness painted out her portraits although her husband the King had a painting of her showing his beautiful mixed race wife of African descent . She is the ancestor of our Royal family in Britain.
There was a case some years ago of a farmer in South West England who could trace his South Western English ancestors back for many generations. When he had his DNA tested, to his surprise his mitochondrial showed that his direct maternal ancestor was a black woman. The woman could have lived as far back as Roman times, when the Romans sometimes brought in black slaves.
You always inherit the mitochondrial DNA of your mother, and your father contributes none of it. This is unlike the DNA in the cell nucleus, which is fifty per cent from each parent.
Surprises like this should make us realize that race is a very shaky concept.
Exactly. This planet has been spinning a long time and people have been moving around it since the beginning.
How far back racial mixing goes! When my sister [Veronica] had her DNA tested she discovered that we have one per cent North West Russian DNA. When that mixing happened we know not, but it is a long way back.
When I was at school our textbooks taught us that the Anglo-Saxons had completely massacred all the ancient Britons.so with Danish and Norman incomers we English were truly and pure Nordic.I had an instant dislike of the idea that my Saxon ancestors had committed genocide, but I came to see that racial supremacy theories were behind this claim. It was also totally untrue, for later discoveries were to show that the Anglo-Saxons and the Britons interbred. In fact the Romans brought black people into Britain, so even then there was a black element to the English gene pool.
YEAH! I for one am wanting everyone to send in a '23 and me' kit to see just how we're all really put together. Not just individually, but as a whole planet. I think we all would be fascinated as to how large our 'families' really are. And shouldn't we all want what is best for our family?
It seems odd to me that some people consider themselves 'of pure blood.' Pure of what? At what point in time are they pointing to, while leaving out anything prior that they might have been? Time (Blood) is a much longer thing than three or four generations back. Moving forward, how are we NOT to blend as a people? Who can deny their heart when they fall in love?