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Yes please. My mother's ancestry is from an area in VA which claims melungeon roots. Her last name is one of the names mentioned in the articles i have seen identifying possible melungeon families. And, i THINK some of us (me and my family identify as very visibly black) may have some of the physical traits associated with the culture. Appreciate you sharing your joirney for everyone'a benefit and consideration.
Ms love your channel but u seem to overlook the fact that most people one, marry there own You also overlook the fact that thoose who dont create mix people Lastly u over look the fact that mix people can look mix on average but some look white ,indian , African or whatever full group they are mix with.... That is call passing ..... Meghan Markle White passing, boris kodjo, jcole, black passing, Kimora lee , chinese passing
It’s sad that at this point even people that present as part of their heritage get considered other….. Jenna Ortega has been called a fake Latina because she wasn’t really raised in the culture nor can she fluently speak Spanish. They hate her actually which is crazy. She’s not the only one. I remember when black people tried to separate Stacy dash from the community because of her views and half black status.
@@vikkidonn Nobody ostracized Stacey Dash because of her ethnic makeup, and to make it solely a basis of her conservative views (which was more than enough on its own) is reductive. Stacey Dash violated a cardinal rule of life: You never offend the people who make your money, and you never embarrass the people who write your checks. What made her a pariah in the Black community lies in the fact that Dash is an aging actress who, aside from a few instances, never enjoyed mainstream appeal. And when your audience had always been a specific demographic, it's a slap in the face to do an instant 180 in the hopes that your waning career would get some traction. It was never the conservatives who supported her career, or bought the magazines with her photo spreads, or gave her roles in movies and videos. Most conservatives still can't spell her name right.
@@therrendunham5594 how did she offend them? And how was it not about her race yet that was brought up repeatedly as a point of conversation. Used to explain her change in political and social beliefs? She was used in several colorism talks and panels across this platform alone. She was called white washed ect. So how did it not play a part?
@@vikkidonn Okay, one, she played a part in that by bringing up race and colorism herself. Two, this is a typical throw-stones-then-hide-your-hands response that many conservatives of color use when defending themselves, often after being (rightfully) critiqued for using coded language and stereotypes to disparage their own people. They rarely make these arguments within their own demographics, but to those audiences most likely to be receptive to hearing them (because it validates their biases; and hearing it coming from, in this case, a Black face, makes them more comfortable). Please read my last post again. Stacey Dash is no different from Dennis Miller, Victoria Jackson, Rob Schneider, (increasingly) Bill Maher, or any other celebrity who leaned liberal until their careers peaked and they needed to find relevance with new audiences. It's just that her situation was that more acute.
@@therrendunham5594 so what of the other black celebrities who are still left leaning or self identify with the democrats party who ALSO complain of colorism in their respective industries as well as within the community? What’s the difference between the two? It either happens or is doesn’t and it more acutely seems as though because Stacy simply has a difference in political view you choose to discount her life experiences even when others share those same thoughts socially
I am Melungeon and would love to share some of my family history, experiences, and pictures. My great grandmother Lena Mullins looked a lot like your grandmother. Our family has been intermixing for hundreds of years. I have done both dna and my tree and it is a beautiful mix that goes back to 1619. I have compared dna to Redbones and they typically merge 6-8 generations back and in some cases we have found our shared ancestors. America has a complex history of hidden racial mixing.
My grandmother is Melungeon from N.C. When my father was born she was actually put under house arrest and the law went looking for my grandfather. They were in trouble for " Cohabiting" They escaped to the Tennessee hill country where they were safe because NOBODY wanted to go up there dealing with what they called "Wild N----rs". Thing is you never know what people might be in this country.
As a black person who presents as black and comes from a family who presents as many things, depending on who you look at, I find it really interesting that people wanted them to pick white, almost as though it were better. I have also found it interesting as I have mapped out a lot of my own genealogy, that all of the census records up until the year, 1900 had color listed as white, black, mulatto, Chinese, and Indian (Native American). Starting with the 1900 census records, that same box is listed as -(color or race.). Upon which time, a lot of my ancestors went from being listed as mulatto or Native American, to being black. I find this to be a very common practice in the southern states.
They will break down to you the real history of the Indians are with sources and not just talk they also break down who the original dark skinned Europeans were and these Native Americans and where they really came from please look them up sis you won’t be disappointed it’s real family over there.
Were there Chinese people in the South in the 1700s or 1800s? I'm asking based on genetic testing results I've seen, that have confused me. If there were, how did they get there and what were they doing there?
@@zaidamagandayes there were many enlisted in the Civil War. It was a way to become a citizen of the US once their service was over and they were honorably discharged. 2 sons of the famous conjoined twins served as well.
@@donnablosser7982 I am aware of the twins because they lived near my ancestors in North Carolina, so I "bumped" into them in census records. I think they were from Thailand, weren't they? But they marked "white" on the census. I know the Chinese came over to work on the transcontinental railroad, but I was just curious about what they were doing before that. I've read there was a Filipino settlement in Louisiana from the 1700s, and they were originally sailors.
I'm white.. my 11th great grandma is Pocahontas and I am a decendent of her only child kaokee .. Pocahontas and kocoum had kaokee .. DNA is amazing.. on my fathers side im known as melungeon .. i have pictures of my dad's grandpa.. triracial.. black indian and white...I'm still white white greenish grey eyes brown 2b and 2c hair type .. God made a way for his people ❤ DNA is not skin tone
I’m 50 years old but remember checking other as child on a standardized test in elementary school. My teacher was furious and told me to erase it and check white. I at the early age of 8 told her no Mam. I was punished that day I told I wouldn’t be getting recess for a week and she was going to call my parents. Well she did call my parents and my father came to the school the next day. The teacher told my father it was ridiculous what I had done because I was clearly white. My father told her it was not ridiculous because my great grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and that’s why I wanted to check other. He told her you will not deny my daughter her heritage and she will check what box she wants. I even at 8 knew and had a very strong feeling my Dad was part African American also. I have told you my story before in the fact that it resembles your story so very much. My Dad passed before he could ever find out his true heritage. It was a family secret on both his parents side that was hidden from his siblings and his self because they passed as white. They were always told that their skin color was from the Native American only. I to this day check other. I’m very proud of my heritage all of it. It saddens me that the older generations of my family lived in time where they felt they couldn’t be who they truly were.
Well, they couldn't tell ANYONE who they were because passing would get you killed. It was tantamount to taking resources from good white people that black people didn't deserve. This is why (in your family) they didn't tell the children who they really were, because it was dangerous and children don't know how to keep secrets. Today it's different. Mixing has become a norm and the children as well as the coupling, fetishes.
Yeah, it's because of those reasons my mom put Black on my birth certificate regardless of how I looked, and where I was born and she insists I'm mixed race on top of that.
I'm white.. my 11th great grandma is Pocahontas and I am a decendent of her only child kaokee .. Pocahontas and kocoum had kaokee .. DNA is amazing.. on my fathers side im known as melungeon .. i have pictures of my dad's grandpa.. triracial.. black indian and white...I'm still white white greenish grey eyes brown 2b and 2c hair type .. God made a way for his people ❤ DNA is not skin tone
Mulatto is the Spanish word for mixed which is primarily European and African whereas Melungeon may have come from the French word melange, which is the French word for mixed. Melungeons are mixed with many ethnicities.
Honestly, I get the feeling that Waverly, OH has a very interesting history and that the wounds that were inflicted there go deep. In my opinion, Roberta's frustration with her daughter probably stems from how she witnessed her family members be treated firsthand: the treatment her grandparents and mother endured at the hands of their neighbors who are now kinfolk after several generations of intermarriage. The very same people whose descendants, in her mind, convinced her daughter that she isn't Black. I think that "White" means something very different to Roberta: exclusion, not inclusion. The town was ready to accept her; however, were they willing to accept her mother and other kinfolk who appeared too "ethnic"? It's like they're saying "We accept you in spite of your mother." That's backhanded. Instead of accepting that she comes from people whom the town chose to cordon off, she's now being told who she is in spite of her experiences. She's claiming relation to her birth mother, and the town is saying "That can't be right because it doesn't fit our way of understanding the world." The town gets to decide where she belongs, even though she already has a place to belong. The town is demanding that she exclude her Black identity. They get to decide when these people are accepted and how they're accepted. I think this way of thinking has already taken a dark turn when we look at how American Indians were forced to move from their homelands and how many nations had their children stolen from them. It's about denying relation for the convenience of the "White" narrative. The same can be said for enslaved Africans and their descendants who were put into the "Black" box and treated as if they had no cultural heritage to bring over during the Middle Passage. Roberta actually does acknowledge that she has White ancestry; she just chooses to identify with the Black and not exclude it. I think that Black has more to do with relation and belonging for her, instead of trying to fit in a box. For the daughter, I don't think she sees race as kinfolk and relation; instead, she's simply looking at "Whiteness" as something that is 100% tied to appearance because she has watched her mother be treated as a White woman even though she stubbornly identifies as Black. Why fight for something that no one is forcing on you anymore? She knows these people are her kin; however, she cannot relate. She already thinks of Black people as something separate from her. She could even identify as Black and be excluded by someone who has the features that we would feel make them “visibly Black.” I still think that there is wisdom in Roberta's warning though: for some people, it's not about how you look; it's just about the presence of what they consider to be " the Black blood." This brings me to my final question, which you addressed in your previous video: what gives private citizens or the state, whether that be Ohio or the USA as a whole, the right to dictate how a person racially identifies regardless of how their community identifies? I think that you encountered this same problem when you interviewed an Indigenous sociologist earlier this year. The needs of the USA's racial categorization system are thought to supersede the needs of individual communities. I agree: we need to build community and relation around something else other than this very incomplete and twisted tradition. We need to acknowledge who people’s family members are, and not exclude them simply because they don’t fit with what we think “People like them” should look like. P.S. Roberta's mother and your great grandmother Lola kind of remind me of my maternal grandmother. Sorry for any typos that I may have missed. I'm tired.
💯 agree with everything you say. There are subtleties and complexities to each woman’s self-identification which deserve respect and contextualisation. Roberta can’t forget she’s Black because her mother’s experience was that of a Black woman and she feels pride about her mother’s triumph over adversity. Discarding the Blackness would be akin to discarding her honour. The daughter on the other hand, has not seen or experienced that, so her racial identity is easier to associate solely with her appearance. People don’t treat anyone she grew up with in her family as Black, so she can’t see herself that way. I wish them both well but I hope that a White categorisation doesn’t lead to the daughter’s descendants losing their rich cultural history.
@are1042 I agree! I hope that she's able to connect and understand her family, so that a single incomplete narrative that glosses over important detail doesn't become her sole way of looking at the world. The people doing the excluding and the abusing need to have a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror. The reasons that these horrible acts were done weren't true then and they aren't true now. The only justifications that I ever hear are based in fear and ignorance; that's it.
She was raised with the one drop rule and she stands by it. Today things are changing and there is movement to change things even more. Notice she said "there is going to be people to pick it out of you" That was always one of the fears of "passing" There is a sense of pride in her for sticking with her people. Remember that these racial designations were placed upon people.
The funny wild part is everybody's original ancestry traces back to Africans or so called Black ppl. And traits that are commonly labeled as European such as Blonde/Red hair & Blue eyes in particular are actually associated with forms of albinism. Research & don't take my word for it + if you already know then you already know
@tw82rone5 You are not black, and don't look Black if you had an African ancestor 30,000 or 50,000 years ago. We are talking in the last 2 to 8 generations. Or one of the other ethnicities that can look Black but aren't.
@Myraisin1 The mother is right. Her daughter can have a black child because African DNA is dominant. It may skip 1 or 2 generations but it will always be there. I feel sorry for the daughter. She must be so conflicted to be raised within black culture but be perceived by outsiders as white.
There is a tribe of black people with darker skin in New Guinea called the Melanesians. Their hair is often naturally blond and some of the people have natural blue eyes.
They have dark skin, but that doesn't mean they are Black. Black is a designation for people from or of specific parts of the African continent, mostly below the Sahara. New Guinea is clear across the globe from Africa. Granted, all homo sapiens migrated from Eastern Africa. Dark skin doesn't equal Black, light skin doesn't equal White. Living in the US has warped people's thinking. I am from West Africa, my birth certificate and passport don't have my "race", it is obvious that I am human. Clearly, I look the ethnic group I come from. If I had a penny for every time an American said to me "but you don't look African"! A vast continent with 54 countries and over 3000 indigenous ethnic groups, what the hell? 😅😅😅 I say all this to say, Melanesians are dark skinned, as the name suggests, but calling them Black is a erasure of their identity. The way the US has thought people to use generic labels, is not how the 96% of humans who live outside the US does it. It's something people should unlearn.
From PerplexityAI without the source numbers. Papua New Guineans are not African. Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. The people of Papua New Guinea are primarily of Melanesian and Papuan descent, with diverse ethnic groups indigenous to the region. While there may be some genetic and phenotypic similarities between the people of Papua New Guinea and Africans, they are distinct populations with different origins and histories.
@@bellepierre24 white supremacy is global so to pin it all on United States thinking is not being genuine. Long before there was a United States, Britain and the other colonial forces were using whiteness as a dividing line. The term sub Saharan can be seen as problematic. You gave a definition of Melanasians but how do they define themselves? I have heard them define themselves as black. Melanasia has the same root as melanin. Melanated Asians. Black is universal not local or ethnic. Blackness is a connection to the original population and those genes that remain the dominant genes on the planet. Point being the lady acknowledged her original traits. You can't be surprised to see it wherever you go on the planet and trace the original inhabitants of these areas.
@@bellepierre24So you are West African yet still currently have not figured out that scientifically speaking traits that are associated with Europeans in particular. Such as Blonde/Red hair and Blue eyes are actually associated with forms of albinism?
@@sr2291So those melanated original Aboriginal Australian folks also weren't Black? And everybody didn't originate from melanated or so called Black ppl to begin with?
I remember hearing about the Melungeons when I lived in Knoxville. There was a lot of speculation about their ancestry. Back then, the commonly accepted idea was that they descended from shipwrecked Portuguese sailors who hiked into the mountains and took Native American wives. This was before the availability of genetic testing. And nobody ever explained why shipwrecked sailors would have walked so far inland and become landlubbers!
After it became possible to identify genetic markers it was determined that their ancestry was black and white. They had moved into the mountains to get away from other people.
Yes, they always said they were Portuguese. The first ship with Africans to Virginia came from a Portuguese colony in Africa. There was over 350 Africans but only 20+ made it to Virginia. The rest were left on the ship. Some melungeon families have traced their heritage to some of the Africans on that ship. My guess is there were melungeon families that came from some of the remaining on that ship and started their own communities.
Interesting. However, I think they called themselves Portuguese to avoid being called black. Portuguese people are quite fair, but lots of less education people in the area didn't know that.@@timeforchange3786
In 1965, Kentucky author Jesse Stuart published "Daughter of the Legend" about the Mulegeons. It's roughly based on a young woman he fell in love with while in college in Knoxville, TN. This community in OH is not the only place Mulegeons live. Their history is in primarily in TN, VA, NC.
@nytn @rasheed7934 @rhondalight70 @sharontabor7718 @rebeccamd7903 When you do your post on Melungeon, please note how God felt about interracial marriage in the bible, Num. 12: 1-10. God to Aaron and Mirium (if Moses is pleased with his African Wife, I’m good with that, if you don’t like it, that makes God angry!) Melungeon trace back to the 1600’s when African’s were marrying white indentured servants. This was before steam power and coal, legend has, they moved up to the mountains to find peace. I leave you with this: “Mulatto” is a derogatory word and should not be used. Wikipedia says it is “a word used as a source of pride” by people of other countries. Those who take pride in such a word are ignorant of it’s meaning and origin, and serves only to illustrate their illiteracy. The term “Métis” (m) or “Métisse” (f) has been in use from the 15c as a word for biracial, from as far back as the Roman Empire. Mulatto is a term worse than the “N-word.”
My grandma reminds me of Roberta! rest in peace. This proves that race isn't easy to define. I come from Mulengeon people in North Carolina and Virginia. But even today white or fair skin bring a whole set of responses than darker skin. I am a mom of very light racially ambiguous kids who have it a but easier than if they were darker skin like me. The things I've seen and heard would shock people. People asking if I'm babysitting or thank goodness my kids aren't dark like me...yeah....yeah. but my kids are raised to tell people they are biracial and pick the side of humanity and inclusion and justice in all things. We don't do racism or homophobic or sexist bs. Or one drop rule.
This is one of the reasons I don't want to live in the USA because there is such pressure to put yourself in a box. My children are also ambiguous and even I have been questioned over there (not in the UK though as they are use to our wide variety of skin tones) I don't want anyone hassling my kids over their bodies or their culture.
@natashaa43 I don't blame you! My kids are asked in elementary school What are they? My kids tell them I'm black and dad is czech and German. It is never a choice! We do Kwanzaa and October fest. I tell me don't ever EVER let someone tell you ain't black with African blood in your veins. And don't let anyone try to tell you your immigrant czech ancestors don't exist in you. Both are equally important.
I had a similar experience when living in GA where people would think I was my son’s nanny. My husband is Creole and my son has his Dad’s skin color, but otherwise looks just like me.
Thanks, Danielle! DNA is like a fascinating game of 3D chess. Identity seems to be catching up as we are able to better trace our bloodlines. I'm not sure we will ever achieve synchronicity, but hopefully get better at accepting one another. The geographical component you mentioned was very interesting. It would also be interesting to create a chronological matrix overlay on that. For example, the area of New Jersey where part of my Italian family settled was all Irish and Italian in the 60's and the demographic has sinced changed more than once. I recently checked my 23 & Me profile and it now suggests a lot of my DNA is from Calabria. Always was told I was Sicilian, Pugliese and Neopolitan. 🤷🏻♂️ Could be correct as there is a town in Calabria with my last name. I recently visited there and spent a lot of time hiking in the national parks in that area. Wild stuff. It always comes back to being a good citizen of the world. I never know who could be family so I better treat them all well. 😅
The content in this video can lead to a very deep discussion and it’s obvious based on the mother’s response. Being from Louisiana I’m familiar with a lot of the various reactions that people can get based on their skin color whether it be a very light person with straight or kinky hair to a dark person with straight or kinky hair and the various shades that fall between. Picture the skin tone crayons that are out now. As for eye color a person’s complexion has nothing to do with that. For me it’s just knowing who you are, being happy with that and letting others do likewise. It shouldn’t be something that causes problems among people but the gvt created this system for a specific reason. Knowing your ancestry is a composition of who you are. If you’re interested in knowing do the research and if not that’s fine too. I doubt the system will ever change so learn as much as you can about your family and enjoy them if and when possible. The way people crossed over in Louisiana I was raised that when I met someone, even if we were just friends to ask questions about their family because it’s easy to be related. Example: My son was dating a young lady and while researching my ancestry I found out they shared a cousin. I told my son to talk to her grandmother to find out how they’re related. My son is related to the cousin from her grandmother’s side and she’s related from her grandfather’s side. They’re third cousins to the same man. I know, talk about a lot going on there🤦🏾♀️
@@jamesvickers5004 My mom would almost get fighting mad if someone said she was light-skin or light complexion. I mean she would get hot. I’m sure she had to deal with a lot because of her skin color as well.
Incredible story. Nothing but admiration for this woman. She really does have black features. She is just very light skinned. What a shame the census makes people check boxes. Most people are mixed with something anyway.
What is interesting to me, is what ancestry families who identify as Melungeon would show on the DNA tests. I took one and it gave details on all my ancestry which was interesting. It also showed cousins all over.
My Mother was high yellow, Creole. She identified as black. My African friends called her white. I used to tell them off. lol 😂 Anyway, you can call yourself, whatever but you never know who your children will look like.
At about 9 minutes 40 seconds you lose sound, but I loved this video I first saw it some years back and was fascinated by this bc I’d always seen the reverse!
Yes, please do a deep dive, i would be happy to share my family history. Omg my mother and all of my relatives on her side are melungeon (tri racial isolate)! I've only ever heard a few people use that term. We are from the Welsh Mountains in PA. Natives helped slaves escape the south, and along with Portuguese indentured servants they formed their own community in the welsh mountains. My grandfather moved to Hawaii and passed for white.
I never heard the word "Melungeon" until I read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, in which the main character describes himself as such. My husband's family is from Appalachia and he says he has Native American ancestry, but I can't find it in his tree. He has not done DNA testing. I enjoyed your video, would love to hear more.
Your work is so important! Each video I've seen is inspiring, historically rich, and undeniably valuable to our divided American society. God bless your efforts.
This is super interesting to me for a few reasons. One I'm half black half white and I identify as black. I'm not in any way ashamed of my white heritage but I never in a million years could pass as white. I think the way the world sees you dictates how you experience the world and has an affect on how you identify. People see me as black so I experience the world as a black woman and identify as black. I also think the one drop rule has come into play here. When people were forced into a box they had no choice but to become proud members of that community and now to tell them to change that because the world has changed is a little unfair
@@nytn Have you ever seen the old Phil Donahue show on mixed race passing? It might be of interest to you. Some of it is a little dramatic however this topic is as old as the USA. There are a lot of generationally mixed individuals who identify as black. I think about Beyonce's mother and Vanessa Williams off the top of my head.
Have you considered a show about the people of the Ramapough mountains. They are a mixture of Native American, African American and European ethnicities who have isolated themselves from the rest of society. The negative term used to describe them is “Jackson Whites.”
First time I heard anything regarding Melungeon was a newspaper article in the 1990’s, talking about them and their traits and an area in east TN near VA and specific surnames. Knowing my mom’s mom family was from there and last name Mullins. My mom said she had never heard about that. But pictures of my GGGrandfather dark skin, eyes and hair
There's a girl who commented on this video whose family has that last name too, and said they were Melungeon! Im going to see if I can bring her on for a video
One point in defensive of the mum in this clip, she was 100% correct in arguing with the medical secretary regarding her heritage. How much melanin you produce doesn't mean that you haven't inherited issues from your African ancestry that isn't important. People of African descent are more inclined to some medical issues genetically, sickle cell anemia is a good example, being genetically mixed won't make any difference if you happen to carry a copy of the gene. My ex was in a similar position and had someone suggested her kids get put down as white and she said no because genetically they ARE mixed, even if they present as white.
I just discovered your channel yesterday, and I've watched 4-5 of your videos. Great content, much appreciated! What i especially like is that you're bringing forth so much information about how so much of what makes up a lot of the American people, actually belies common perception! There has, pretty much, always been way more intermingling than people commonly know about or perceive!
I lived in Southern Maryland and people were Native Americans, Black and White (English, Irish or German). They were extremely prejudiced though, they'd talk to my husband but not to be because I am not any of those things. I heard that they were segregation in public spaces into the 1970's and it just takes so long for these injuries to go away.
That family looks like mine. They are and they look black. People who can not identify question their identity. There are many blacks who have and are passing as white and considered white passing.
The mom is not lying when she said someone or something was going to pull the black out of her. I believe she was referring to the daughter having kids. If there's in them that will definitely be the time for it to show up. #coolvideo
If the White daughter is impregnated by a White man I guarantee if they have kids none of them are going to come out looking Black unless she cheated on her husband or boyfriend with a Black man. Two Caucasian phenotype parents can not biologically produce a Black phenotype child. There is the Sandra Laing case in South Africa of 2 Caucasian phenotype parents with a Black phenotype child but they were never able to prove the father was the biological father of Sandra Laing as they did not have DNA tests yet back then.
@@josephimperatrice5552 My comment was definitely not based on any prior knowledge just a random conclusion I reached while watching the video. I will definitely do some research on the subject. It's an all around interesting topic either way.
Redbone isn’t “melungen” like but it just means a light skinned “black” person. It’s funny because I came across this video days ago. This happened in a few generations and this lady still has features her melanated ancestry. In that Lincoln vid, I was accused of revisionist history when I had mentioned “black” Europeans in the colonies but this video can certainly drive many points home….that’s all I’m going to say here.
Actually my family is RedBone/Melungen Indians. I understand you’re talking about the term red bone to refer to a light skin person. But they are an actual people as well. Mullins/Hawkins are a lare family from Tennessee who are RedBone.
"Black Europeans" look like Melania (literally dark/black) Trump. It has nothing to do with black Africans. Black means something else in places like Thailand and the Philippines.
@@84tahlia I think what Jess saying of the usage of the term is not exclusive to redbone. From a historical perspective other groups have been referred to as such as well.
@@kudjoeadkins-battle2502 There really are countless books on this subject matter. Crania Britannica by Davis and Thurnam, Races of Europe, and Origin of the Anglo Saxon Race are just three sources that I'll mention. There are so many references within those book alone. The evidence is there but folks don't realize that we learn narrative.
Yes, each generation is changing and everyone needs to just let people be what they are. After that many mixtures with Caucasian blood that's just what it is. It goes both ways. She needs to let her daughter choose for herself.
I grew up in Pennsylvania Appalachian. Had to have my blood tested when i got autoimmune in my mid fourties. Dr. said it resembled sickle cell and tested me anyway...turns out my blood is .019 African American. Who knew? My family didnt know, but there it is!
I just came across your channel for the first time and watched this old interview for probably the 3rd time since years ago. Amazing story and so common among us. I'm a black wife of my Hispanic husband of 28 years. We have four children together and 2 grandkids. Two of our kids look more black and two look more hispanic. They all identify themselves as Black Hispanics, as we taught them. And they have had challenges over the years concerning how others identify them. But their responses to others should never be to defend who they are but to inform.
I wanna know who the mom had the daughter with. That’s the missing piece for me. The mom looks black to me. I get the daughter not identifying as black because I suspect it’s kind of embarrassing for her. I’m questioning how exactly was she raised and who her father’s people are. I think it’s very easy for mixed race and white passing black people to feel disconnected. And then when they start having children with people who don’t have any of lesser amounts of black in them this is what you get. I don’t think people understand how they orchestrate these situations. I think the further down the line you get people suddenly become “white enough” to distance themselves from their heritage in plain sight.
The whole concept of race in America was born of politico- economic machinations. It's never been an abstract biological calculus. To identify as black is to implicitly make a sociopolitical statement of solidarity in a white supremacist culture. The black community has had the burden of absorbing the product sexual violence or "illicit" relationships. To be black in America has always been uneasy confluence of phenotype and culture. IMO the rise of biracial identify can be construed as a way of not dealing with the caste system of race in America. The overwhelming majority of black people in America have European ancestry no matter your phenotype. So race is a matter of culture and biology, which takes on a sociopolitical import in a white world.
I have some family that we don't talk to which I believe they may be passing for "white" . That side of the family are from Louisiana and Arkansas. The mother in this video may mark herself down as Black but it may change with her daughter. One thing that's not being taught in American schools is that race was based off of economic status versus physical phenotype when people first started coming to this country. Specifically after Bacon's rebellion. There were also a lot of "Black" Irish that were coming here from Europe as well as "black" people from other european countries. Mainly they were coming as indentured servants. These people were described as dark, tawny or swarthy. A prime example of this would be the author of "The 3 Musketeers" . His name is Alexandre Dumas who was from France. His racial identity is ambiguous, similar to the melungeon families in this video. The same is said about a few American Presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower. They too have a mixed genealogy.
My maternal grandfather and aunt share some physical characteristics with you. I've looked a little at whether we are Melungeon but I don't see any real evidence of it. Our family's earliest records are from about 75 miles east of the video subjects in Ohio, and there were definitely Melungeons moving through the region at that time (pre-Civil War). Melungeons were involved in the Underground Railroad in SE Ohio at that time. When the woman in the video says "German, Irish and White," she probably means Scots-Irish/Scottish/English when she says White.
“German, Irish, and White..” Well for a while Germans and the Irish were not considered ‘white’ I wouldn’t be surprised if she refers to Anglo-Saxon as white.
These people are a perfect example of people with super white skin but you can still tell they are black.. I always tell people never look at the skin tone but more at the features and hair texture. That there are blonde and blue eyed people that are black. However, her offspring do look white.
This is just a few. •King Charles Stuart II, who was named ‘The Black Boy. •King Kenneth Dubh of Scotland. •King Kenneth III (Dub mac Mail Choluim) of Scotland. •Queen Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg Strelitz. •Alessandro de Medici the first duke of Florence. •Philippa of Hainault. •Edward, the Black Prince. •Saint Maurice: Knight of the Holy Lance. •King Offa of England. •Alfonso XIII of Spain. •Benedict the Moor of Italy. •Muhammad XII of the Emirate of Granada. •Lucius Septimius Severus was ruler of the Roman Empire. The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain's oldest complete skeleton has revealed. The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough's Cave in Somerset.
Not sure these people are actually "Melungeon", per se. Their mixed, yes, but their little community "on the other side of the tracks" so to speak, was created much more recently and under very different circumstances. Mulatto for sure. They are more a Jim Crow and second class laborer community than anything else, that intermarried all the time. Until Jim Crow laws were abolished, they HAD to identify as black, even though they are very pale. Its just something that stuck. They can identify however they want though, and they'd mostly be correct regardless.
I used to live in Summerville, South Carolina, in the late 60s and early 70s, and there was a community of melungeon people there, along both sides of Highway 17-A from Summerville to Moncks Corner. They were mixed white, black, and indian. People called them "Summerville Indians," and they were mostly light brown with very curly or more African hair, but some were quite light, with wavy or almost straight hair. It was not unusual to see a family with several children of varying hair, skin, and eye color, and many of them were quite beautiful. Of course, being in the South, these people were mostly looked down on. When we sold our home in Summerville many years ago, one such melungeon couple tried to buy it, but we found out later that the real estate agent turned down their offer because of who they were, without even consulting us. Disgusting behavior! I'm not sure how cohesive the community is now, though. Probably there has been some dispersal of people from that area.
This is a fascinating video. I don't do genealogy to find out who I am. I set out on my genealogy journey to find out about my grandmother's heritage. We were always told we were part Indian because my grandmother's mother was half Indian, either Cherokee or Choctaw. (We were never told she was a princess.) I was named for my grandmother, and I wanted to find out about her family. I found out about almost every strand of my family tree before I found out about her. I was stumped on her great-grandfather, Merritt Duke. There are so many Dukes in Tennessee and North Carolina. I worked on him for years before DNA testing was readily available, and finally I solved the puzzle through DNA matches. And Merritt's mother was part Indian -- and part Black. But the racial mixing came even farther back past her. She was Winney Oren Bass Duke. Her 3rd-great-grandfather, John Bass, was married to a Nansemond Indian woman, Elizabeth. The DNA of male descendants of their middle son, William, shows that William had an African biological father. John Bass acknowledged William as his son. So one of my biological 9th-great-grandfathers was Black. Does that make me Black? No, I'm a White American. I'm not ethnically Black, and I'm not ethnically Native American. But I do have Black people and Native American people in my ancestry. I'm not German or Scottish, either, even though I have Germans and Scots in my ancestry. I'm American through and through.
My parents taught in Pike County Ohio in the late sixties. There are many mixed race people there. They are wonderful people and I loved living in Waverly as a kid. Everyone just says they are Cherokee! Keep up the good work!
Love that they are so proud to be black. My mother is so light skinned. I love these ladies. Love this story. So many black families have these stories.
Regarding those photos of that older man and woman, they definitely look Black. Yes. I agree that you don't have to be the actually color black to be a Black person. Her hair and facial features show that she is definitely a Black woman.
I love the mother because she is telling her daughter the truth when it comes to being black nomatter how white they may look she still has the black in her . Alot of people will still see her as a black person when they find out the truth and they will treat her as being black . The daughter has a right to view herself as being a white person but the mother feels like she is denying her blackness and she feels that's not right . Some people in this world will remind the daughter that she has black in her and they will make her feel bad and hurt her feelings because of racism and the One Drop Rule . President Obama and Meghan Markle both have a white parent and a black parent and they still faced a lot of racism because of there blackness . Alot of mixed and biracial people have had to deal with awful situations like that . The mother just don't want to see her daughter get hurt . It's alot of people who have had to leave there families and towns along time ago because they was passing for a white person and they had to hide there black side of there family out of fear because of racist people and some of the mixed biracial people look like there white side of there family, you can't even tell that they have black in them . To me the daughter and the mother don't look black but you can tell they have some black features . I wish them the best in life . I love them . Be blessed and safe . Miss . Linda ❤❤❤
I recall the first time my oldest asked me why on his school registration form they changed his race to Black only after we’d checked Black & White boxes. I’m African and my husband/his dad is a mix Scottish Irish ancestry. That was in elementary school. So I asked the school to correct it back as my son felt like picking 1 only is like negating 1 of us. By Middle school the school districts in our state had redone the formers and added a Mixed box with a line to specify the bloodline blend. 🎉🎉 Every mixed kid in all variation was thrilled to have this. It’s not just the Black White kids. We had Asian Black/White, Middle Eastern and so on. What’s funny is that full Caucasian kids started also checking the box. 1 of our kids’ friend put Italian/Irish. I said good! Mention them All!, 😂
Man I love her mother she a real one ❤❤❤ I’m black …but light myself! 😊my dad is black but I’m often mistaken for Puerto Rican I feel this so much lol her mom was not playing no games tho 😂😂😂
When I was taking data for covid vaccines a lot of the people who most would call black or African American didn't consider themselves that. Quite a few said they didn't want to answer the question they are other or wanted to be counted as Hispanic. The actual number after seeing this made me question our census data. The actual number may be undercounted. Many people who most would call Hispanic also got confused by the question. Some would say white or something else. There were also people who were probably from Asia who thought they were white. It goes to show the entire question is more an opinion of who you ask. No one really agrees on it.
I think having an ancestor that you may not share in your appearance, doesn't mean you can't identify with it. How you are raised, who you relate to, who you share your life experiences with molds how you identify.
From what I've heard about this group prior to the Civil war they had to spend a lot of time hiding because they couldn't prove they weren't runaway enslaved people. I'm guessing this attitude is a backlash to all that. You spend time having all your neighbors speculate about your ancestry and then you have Jim Crow telling you that one drop of blood (whatever in the hell that means) makes you one thing and not the other... Eventually your children are going to put their foot down and own it. We don't need to make fun of this lady. She's mixed, but she grew up around people who thought you could only be one thing because racism is thing and it's shitty.
The mom and the daughter arguing about black/white are having two different conversations both of which are correct. There is a difference between your ethnic heritage and family values which still is primarily her African American ancestoral roots BUT there is a genetic element of DNA that contributes to your race/color based upon the ancestors contributing actual genes that effect the pigment of your appearance. What we learn here is the prevalence of white African Americans via mixed race genetics. You can appear white but embrace the culture of the ancestors most prominent in the upbringing.
@1:25, you give a shout out to Reservation Dogs and Redbone ✌🏼😎✌🏼 Reservation Dogs the hit show, and Redbone a full-blood to mostly Native admixed band of Indigenous North American and Indigenous Mexican background, who also have both Native and a little Creole heritage.
This woman may also be albino which is known to occur in African people. I went to school with a brother and sister who looked exactly like these people. They explained that they were black but they have a genetic mutation that caused they skin to appear "white". The most interesting feature of these two classmates was their eyes were gray with a pinkish tint and they both had to wear glasses during the day but had excellent vision at night.
When you were speaking to Jared Taylor and you mentioned your Black American ancestry in Louisiana.You definitely didn't say African Ancestry. You only use that term for other people history. You cherry pick when to use that term. Why you didn't use that term with Jared Taylor? You are the answer to your question?
@@nytn understood in the video you did when you went to Louisiana to trace your roots records show you didn't use the term African Ancestry in that video as well.Black Americans are not Africans you know this but you keep using that term for whatever reason. American music and culture is mostly Black American. It's really an ethnogenesis of a new people breed in America decendants of Slaves and Slave owners.
@@nytn our diverse back ground can be traced to all groups who were at the beginning of the U.S Government. We are not homogeneous that is what makes America a great place we took bad situations and made beauty out of it.Yes your ancestors had to pass as White but I look at it as survival. I have caramel complexion not dark black like olive tone.But my Mother could pass and have been mistaken for other races and she always cleared any mistake up. Me and my mother are the same lineage not complexion. It is a big difference in holding a lineage discussion and a complexion discussion.
I thought this lady was an albino black person if that's possible My friend had a son and daughter with a Haitian man. Her daughter had golden hair and light skin but with black features. Her son had darker skin but white features. His hair was dark. I was adopted and grew up not knowing my heritage. This video facinated me since I had a friend that said I had black features. I met both my birthparents and did my DNA so I know I don't have recent African heritage. We all came from Lucy in Africa so it is in all of us. Just to let you know @ about 6:30 the volume went out on the video and did come on until you were talking.
Albinism 💯 occurs in black people and I also got the impression that Roberta has it. I wonder if there is a high expression of albinism in some of these closed communities that tend to inter-marry within themselves.
Way back when Germans were considered swarthy - at least by B.Franklin's letter. Black is a blanket statement for dark-skinned people in America. People would consider me black or African. I'm not. I'm dark-skinned Indigenous American, not black African. My family is from the Americas, and I know that by building my family tree. when people say they are black what is that? African or American. The "black "label needs to go.
This is a direct examply of why race is socially constructed. Meaning it is whatever we say it is and it is whatever it looks like to us. We just have a need to categorize people into groups naturally.
That is the way they raised the kids. 1 drop rule means Black. Biracial maybe more appropriate now days. No one should be ashamed either side. I don't want white or black people to hate themselves or their race or ethnicity.
UA-cam muted a good part of this! This is true history of what it’s like to be mixed dealing with society. Sigh… if you hit CC you can read what the mother says.
The founding fathers set the rules… no matter how you look… if your mother, grandma, great and great grandma was black you can be owned. My family is black and we’re all different shades
2 years ago, I became interested in learning more about Appalacian people as im of irish, Cherokee, Austrian & slavic decent. There was very few videos on Melungeons at the time. I randomly found a video by you earlier today and have been binging on all your melungeon & polish videos (im 50% pollock & proud). You have a new subscriber 🎉
The problem here is that we have made race so important. Demanding that people stay in their race box is tearing this family apart. People shouldn’t have to choose. There is so much intermixing, I don’t think the race boxes on forms even makes sense anymore.
The only time the boxes make sense biologically is in medical records, since different DNA can bring higher rates of different diseases. However, different groups of people do have cultural differences, so if they want to take pride in their culture, then why not?
It’s sad but those boxes are important especially when it comes to helping underserved communities and investigating hiring processes. It’s not as simple as saying we’re all human in a country built by systemic racism.
Thats not the problem thats a symptom. The problem is america like other euro-colonially invaded nations in the western hemisphere have a fear of making a admends with the history black enslavement an exploitation many of their historically western colonial used a fake vervion of the bible to justify this racial based exploitation while bible forbid all true christians from practicing slavery on other humans....
@etruscancivilization That is pretty common. Look up Charles Chesnutt. Look at Images of his photos. He was a writer who didn't fit into either side when he was young. You can tell he was part Black in his younger photos and when he got older he just looked like an old White man. His books are interesting too.
She now needs to love her daughter just as much and accept her. The fact of the matter she is not going to experience the true meaning of being black in the world. Never will.
They are white lol sorry only racist whites trying promote white supremacy would argue NOT. Society will treat you based on what they see you. Who cares they call themselves blk when blk is a look and so is white.
@@etruscancivilization Yes she did that is why she was so beautiful. Mixed race people are usually much more beautiful than either of their parents when their parents were in an interracial relationship,
My first gut reaction? She chose not to "pass" and stayed true to who she was. For her generational time that had to be difficult when one could "pass" and benefit in many ways and not deal with racism. Being black is not just your genetic make-up to me but also your experience. How you've been raised and the inner culture your raised in. I like her conviction.
Different for the daughter though. Her mum is highly likely 1/4 Negro (with albino genes). The daughter 1/ 8 negro (and far more white than black obviously). Her mother has great pride even if a little irrational in pronouncing her kids as 'black'.
Also, the mother's facial features and hair texture would give her away and she knows that. And white people, especially in her generation would have told her that. Also, Melungeons were known by their last names too, no matter how they looked. Racism is about who will get resources and privilege. So many times when they showed up for jobs when competition in Appalachia was high, they were weeded out not because of their looks at times but because of their last names which were associated with the Melungeons with more African DNA. That's the systemic part. Peace.
Part of why she’s so passionate about being Black may be because of what she saw her mother go through. Her mother wasn’t able to pass and possibly went out of her way to instill a sense of Blackness in her children regardless of their complexion. At least that’s how it was with my ancestors. They didn’t pass, not sure if it was by choice or circumstance, married men with dark complexions, and all of their children married Black people. If the mother in this video had married Black, her daughter may not have been able to choose. One union made the difference for generations.
My husband is from a city in Ohio that has quite a few Colored/Black people who can pass for white. Their birth certificates says "colored". Many of them could pass for white but chose not to, such as my blonde grey 'eyed father in law. Same with my husband. He could have married a white woman and passed for white. None of his uncles married white women, but Black women. My sister in law moved to the South. She got her license, and she told them you made a mistake! You put my race as white! DMV rep said, "Let it stay! You look white! She said, "Change it to Black! Nowadays, We no longer have race on our license.
So labelled African Americans need to adopt a different term for their ethnicity because "Black" capitalized as in ethnicity is not the same as "black" uncapitalized as in physical form. The problem comes because the distinction can't be made in speech, and it enables white people to play legal and economic games against "black" people. The younger woman is "Black" in ethnicity because that is how her family classed her. She can't change her ethnicity to "White" even if she is "white" in appearance no matter how she wants to, because it is set in stone by her family. It is for the same reason that "black" people from the Caribbean maintain that they are not "Black" and that is right too. Because when people use the word "black" to express ethnicity they mean "Black" most of the time. It is time "Black" Americanss found a way around this game the white legal and political establishment plays on them.
@@vfclists Maybe you could explain it better. Caribbean people have African heritage unlike the dark skinned people in Australia and the Pacific Islands. So why wouldn't they be black or Black?
I know a Melungeon guy. He's from Virginia Appalachia. He explained to me that very early slaves were freed after an indentured period. They mixed with whites in the area and created the Melungeon people. They've been mixed for a super long time.
But, respectfully, this is the way of the world.. I wish people wouldn't identify as one 'race' over another. Humans have evolved over this planet,... races are simply what part of the world ones ancestors spent the most time in. Humans have evolved over this planet,... races are simply what part of the world ones ancestors were the most recent ones..... This RACE view is a political construct. Don't cha know.
Partly true, Melungeons are the result of Aboriginal blacks intermarrying with Native Americans while later down the line also intermingling with Irish, Semitic Europeans (many of whom of South Asian ancestry) & West African via the slave trade.
I agree, Melungeons had European features and dark skin with blue eyes. They said they were not black. It is also the wrong state. These people just looked mixed or probably albino.
I'm white.. normal regular white not elbino white.. my 11th great grandma is Pocahontas and I am a decendent of her only child kaokee .. Pocahontas and kocoum had kaokee .. DNA is amazing.. on my fathers side im known as melungeon .. i have pictures of my dad's grandpa.. triracial.. black indian and white...I'm still white white greenish grey eyes brown 2b and 2c hair type .. God made a way for his people ❤ DNA is not skin tone
Most African American families have relatives who don’t look “black”. My mother was “light skinned” but to me she looked like a black woman who had a light complexion. But my nephews would say people would stare at them when they were with her wondering why this “white lady” was with these black kids. My mom was no where near as “light” as the woman in this piece but for people who are coming from a different perspective or have no idea that skin color doesn’t mean you can tell who is who there is confusion.
The vast majority of African Americans do not have family members who look White at least not in the recent sense, only in the far distant sense. For the vast majority of African Americans who throw big Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings with the whole family, nobody at the Thanksgiving and Christmas table looks White.
I completely stand with that mom. One of my Elders once pointed to his thumbnail when we were eating in a Chinese restaurant and told me, "you can have this much Indian in you and you have the right to identify yourself as a Native person." The thought being, we lose nothing when we mix, because our spirit and our drum (as a people) is strong. When others marry us, they become part of us. I'm mixed, and don't have all the info because of the muddy trail of adoption, and have gone through similar things to the mom in the video where someone will tell me they don't think I look that Indigenous (the same day as getting profiled in a store). My olive skin changes depending on many factors, sometimes I look light and sometimes I look dark, but that has nothing to do with what I am. People don't have the right to tell other people who they are.
@@ReshonBryantBAHHAHA these “NON-Native” think claiming “OUR identity” “FEDERALLY RECOGNIZES THEM” ITS 2024 STOP “devaluing OUR RACE AND CULTURE” to fit yall BILLION year TOLD narrative!
Should I do a deep dive on "Melungeons"? Let me know!
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Definitely. Our tri-racial heritage is an important part of our American identity.
If look white then you are white. If look black then you are black.
Yes please. My mother's ancestry is from an area in VA which claims melungeon roots. Her last name is one of the names mentioned in the articles i have seen identifying possible melungeon families. And, i THINK some of us (me and my family identify as very visibly black) may have some of the physical traits associated with the culture. Appreciate you sharing your joirney for everyone'a benefit and consideration.
What's odd to me is the claim of Turk ancestry which looks to me to be Romani (Gypsy) and or Appalachian Indigenous?
Ms love your channel but u seem to overlook the fact that most people one, marry there own
You also overlook the fact that thoose who dont create mix people
Lastly u over look the fact that mix people can look mix on average but some look white ,indian , African or whatever full group they are mix with.... That is call passing .....
Meghan Markle White passing, boris kodjo, jcole, black passing, Kimora lee , chinese passing
I greatly admire this woman standing up for her heritage. She did not take the easy way out way out.
It’s sad that at this point even people that present as part of their heritage get considered other….. Jenna Ortega has been called a fake Latina because she wasn’t really raised in the culture nor can she fluently speak Spanish. They hate her actually which is crazy. She’s not the only one. I remember when black people tried to separate Stacy dash from the community because of her views and half black status.
@@vikkidonn Nobody ostracized Stacey Dash because of her ethnic makeup, and to make it solely a basis of her conservative views (which was more than enough on its own) is reductive. Stacey Dash violated a cardinal rule of life: You never offend the people who make your money, and you never embarrass the people who write your checks. What made her a pariah in the Black community lies in the fact that Dash is an aging actress who, aside from a few instances, never enjoyed mainstream appeal. And when your audience had always been a specific demographic, it's a slap in the face to do an instant 180 in the hopes that your waning career would get some traction. It was never the conservatives who supported her career, or bought the magazines with her photo spreads, or gave her roles in movies and videos. Most conservatives still can't spell her name right.
@@therrendunham5594 how did she offend them? And how was it not about her race yet that was brought up repeatedly as a point of conversation. Used to explain her change in political and social beliefs? She was used in several colorism talks and panels across this platform alone. She was called white washed ect. So how did it not play a part?
@@vikkidonn Okay, one, she played a part in that by bringing up race and colorism herself. Two, this is a typical throw-stones-then-hide-your-hands response that many conservatives of color use when defending themselves, often after being (rightfully) critiqued for using coded language and stereotypes to disparage their own people. They rarely make these arguments within their own demographics, but to those audiences most likely to be receptive to hearing them (because it validates their biases; and hearing it coming from, in this case, a Black face, makes them more comfortable).
Please read my last post again. Stacey Dash is no different from Dennis Miller, Victoria Jackson, Rob Schneider, (increasingly) Bill Maher, or any other celebrity who leaned liberal until their careers peaked and they needed to find relevance with new audiences. It's just that her situation was that more acute.
@@therrendunham5594 so what of the other black celebrities who are still left leaning or self identify with the democrats party who ALSO complain of colorism in their respective industries as well as within the community? What’s the difference between the two? It either happens or is doesn’t and it more acutely seems as though because Stacy simply has a difference in political view you choose to discount her life experiences even when others share those same thoughts socially
I am Melungeon and would love to share some of my family history, experiences, and pictures. My great grandmother Lena Mullins looked a lot like your grandmother.
Our family has been intermixing for hundreds of years. I have done both dna and my tree and it is a beautiful mix that goes back to 1619. I have compared dna to Redbones and they typically merge 6-8 generations back and in some cases we have found our shared ancestors. America has a complex history of hidden racial mixing.
Rebecca, can you e-mail me at howdy(at)nytonashville(dot)com?
Im going to try and make that happen! Bet it would be a great convo@@jayregal6478
My grandmother is Melungeon from N.C. When my father was born she was actually put under house arrest and the law went looking for my grandfather. They were in trouble for " Cohabiting" They escaped to the Tennessee hill country where they were safe because NOBODY wanted to go up there dealing with what they called "Wild N----rs". Thing is you never know what people might be in this country.
Are you from Appalachia? Lots of Mullins in that area, some of which are Melungeon.
We are probably family. My family is Mullins/Hawkins. My Mom did her dna and has done a lot of history research on the Melungeon.
As a black person who presents as black and comes from a family who presents as many things, depending on who you look at, I find it really interesting that people wanted them to pick white, almost as though it were better. I have also found it interesting as I have mapped out a lot of my own genealogy, that all of the census records up until the year, 1900 had color listed as white, black, mulatto, Chinese, and Indian (Native American). Starting with the 1900 census records, that same box is listed as -(color or race.). Upon which time, a lot of my ancestors went from being listed as mulatto or Native American, to being black. I find this to be a very common practice in the southern states.
They will break down to you the real history of the Indians are with sources and not just talk they also break down who the original dark skinned Europeans were and these Native Americans and where they really came from please look them up sis you won’t be disappointed it’s real family over there.
Were there Chinese people in the South in the 1700s or 1800s? I'm asking based on genetic testing results I've seen, that have confused me. If there were, how did they get there and what were they doing there?
@@zaidamagandayes there were many enlisted in the Civil War. It was a way to become a citizen of the US once their service was over and they were honorably discharged.
2 sons of the famous conjoined twins served as well.
@@donnablosser7982 I am aware of the twins because they lived near my ancestors in North Carolina, so I "bumped" into them in census records. I think they were from Thailand, weren't they? But they marked "white" on the census. I know the Chinese came over to work on the transcontinental railroad, but I was just curious about what they were doing before that. I've read there was a Filipino settlement in Louisiana from the 1700s, and they were originally sailors.
I'm white.. my 11th great grandma is Pocahontas and I am a decendent of her only child kaokee .. Pocahontas and kocoum had kaokee .. DNA is amazing.. on my fathers side im known as melungeon .. i have pictures of my dad's grandpa.. triracial.. black indian and white...I'm still white white greenish grey eyes brown 2b and 2c hair type .. God made a way for his people ❤ DNA is not skin tone
I’m 50 years old but remember checking other as child on a standardized test in elementary school. My teacher was furious and told me to erase it and check white. I at the early age of 8 told her no Mam. I was punished that day I told I wouldn’t be getting recess for a week and she was going to call my parents. Well she did call my parents and my father came to the school the next day. The teacher told my father it was ridiculous what I had done because I was clearly white. My father told her it was not ridiculous because my great grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and that’s why I wanted to check other. He told her you will not deny my daughter her heritage and she will check what box she wants. I even at 8 knew and had a very strong feeling my Dad was part African American also. I have told you my story before in the fact that it resembles your story so very much. My Dad passed before he could ever find out his true heritage. It was a family secret on both his parents side that was hidden from his siblings and his self because they passed as white. They were always told that their skin color was from the Native American only. I to this day check other. I’m very proud of my heritage all of it. It saddens me that the older generations of my family lived in time where they felt they couldn’t be who they truly were.
Well, they couldn't tell ANYONE who they were because passing would get you killed. It was tantamount to taking resources from good white people that black people didn't deserve. This is why (in your family) they didn't tell the children who they really were, because it was dangerous and children don't know how to keep secrets. Today it's different. Mixing has become a norm and the children as well as the coupling, fetishes.
Mama "stood on business" as the kids say lol..I love that! She is who she is, and no one is changing that.
Yeah, it's because of those reasons my mom put Black on my birth certificate regardless of how I looked, and where I was born and she insists I'm mixed race on top of that.
I'm white.. my 11th great grandma is Pocahontas and I am a decendent of her only child kaokee .. Pocahontas and kocoum had kaokee .. DNA is amazing.. on my fathers side im known as melungeon .. i have pictures of my dad's grandpa.. triracial.. black indian and white...I'm still white white greenish grey eyes brown 2b and 2c hair type .. God made a way for his people ❤ DNA is not skin tone
Mulatto is the Spanish word for mixed which is primarily European and African whereas Melungeon may have come from the French word melange, which is the French word for mixed. Melungeons are mixed with many ethnicities.
FOUNDING FATHERS SPANISH
FOUNDED SETTLEMENTS
WITH " NEGRO " SKIN
REFERENCE
RED HAIRED & FRECKLES
" MULATTO "
1/2 of
" STRAWBERRY BLOND "
PEACEMA' NY !
Another term I've heard for __Melungeons__ is ""Tri-racial Appalachian Isolates""😮😊😒😬😚😄
Maybe it stems from a Portuguese word?
The reason I said French is because they were in that area of the country.@@tammietravis2395
People from Spain are mixed themselves
Honestly, I get the feeling that Waverly, OH has a very interesting history and that the wounds that were inflicted there go deep. In my opinion, Roberta's frustration with her daughter probably stems from how she witnessed her family members be treated firsthand: the treatment her grandparents and mother endured at the hands of their neighbors who are now kinfolk after several generations of intermarriage. The very same people whose descendants, in her mind, convinced her daughter that she isn't Black. I think that "White" means something very different to Roberta: exclusion, not inclusion. The town was ready to accept her; however, were they willing to accept her mother and other kinfolk who appeared too "ethnic"? It's like they're saying "We accept you in spite of your mother." That's backhanded. Instead of accepting that she comes from people whom the town chose to cordon off, she's now being told who she is in spite of her experiences. She's claiming relation to her birth mother, and the town is saying "That can't be right because it doesn't fit our way of understanding the world." The town gets to decide where she belongs, even though she already has a place to belong. The town is demanding that she exclude her Black identity. They get to decide when these people are accepted and how they're accepted. I think this way of thinking has already taken a dark turn when we look at how American Indians were forced to move from their homelands and how many nations had their children stolen from them. It's about denying relation for the convenience of the "White" narrative. The same can be said for enslaved Africans and their descendants who were put into the "Black" box and treated as if they had no cultural heritage to bring over during the Middle Passage.
Roberta actually does acknowledge that she has White ancestry; she just chooses to identify with the Black and not exclude it. I think that Black has more to do with relation and belonging for her, instead of trying to fit in a box.
For the daughter, I don't think she sees race as kinfolk and relation; instead, she's simply looking at "Whiteness" as something that is 100% tied to appearance because she has watched her mother be treated as a White woman even though she stubbornly identifies as Black. Why fight for something that no one is forcing on you anymore? She knows these people are her kin; however, she cannot relate. She already thinks of Black people as something separate from her. She could even identify as Black and be excluded by someone who has the features that we would feel make them “visibly Black.” I still think that there is wisdom in Roberta's warning though: for some people, it's not about how you look; it's just about the presence of what they consider to be " the Black blood."
This brings me to my final question, which you addressed in your previous video: what gives private citizens or the state, whether that be Ohio or the USA as a whole, the right to dictate how a person racially identifies regardless of how their community identifies? I think that you encountered this same problem when you interviewed an Indigenous sociologist earlier this year. The needs of the USA's racial categorization system are thought to supersede the needs of individual communities. I agree: we need to build community and relation around something else other than this very incomplete and twisted tradition. We need to acknowledge who people’s family members are, and not exclude them simply because they don’t fit with what we think “People like them” should look like.
P.S. Roberta's mother and your great grandmother Lola kind of remind me of my maternal grandmother.
Sorry for any typos that I may have missed. I'm tired.
Every word of what you said is spot on.
💯 agree with everything you say. There are subtleties and complexities to each woman’s self-identification which deserve respect and contextualisation.
Roberta can’t forget she’s Black because her mother’s experience was that of a Black woman and she feels pride about her mother’s triumph over adversity. Discarding the Blackness would be akin to discarding her honour.
The daughter on the other hand, has not seen or experienced that, so her racial identity is easier to associate solely with her appearance. People don’t treat anyone she grew up with in her family as Black, so she can’t see herself that way.
I wish them both well but I hope that a White categorisation doesn’t lead to the daughter’s descendants losing their rich cultural history.
@are1042 I agree! I hope that she's able to connect and understand her family, so that a single incomplete narrative that glosses over important detail doesn't become her sole way of looking at the world.
The people doing the excluding and the abusing need to have a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror. The reasons that these horrible acts were done weren't true then and they aren't true now. The only justifications that I ever hear are based in fear and ignorance; that's it.
This was so beautifully put.
It seems strange today, but at one time immigrants were not considered "white". Thats why she said "German, Italian and white"
She was raised with the one drop rule and she stands by it. Today things are changing and there is movement to change things even more. Notice she said "there is going to be people to pick it out of you" That was always one of the fears of "passing" There is a sense of pride in her for sticking with her people. Remember that these racial designations were placed upon people.
It wasn't placed they were raised as Black people, with Black relatives.
Look at her mother. She has more than one drop. It's true that racists can see if you have African ancestry, even a small amount. Personal experience.
The funny wild part is everybody's original ancestry traces back to Africans or so called Black ppl. And traits that are commonly labeled as European such as Blonde/Red hair & Blue eyes in particular are actually associated with forms of albinism. Research & don't take my word for it + if you already know then you already know
@tw82rone5 You are not black, and don't look Black if you had an African ancestor 30,000 or 50,000 years ago. We are talking in the last 2 to 8 generations. Or one of the other ethnicities that can look Black but aren't.
@Myraisin1 The mother is right. Her daughter can have a black child because African DNA is dominant. It may skip 1 or 2 generations but it will always be there. I feel sorry for the daughter. She must be so conflicted to be raised within black culture but be perceived by outsiders as white.
There is a tribe of black people with darker skin in New Guinea called the Melanesians. Their hair is often naturally blond and some of the people have natural blue eyes.
They have dark skin, but that doesn't mean they are Black. Black is a designation for people from or of specific parts of the African continent, mostly below the Sahara. New Guinea is clear across the globe from Africa. Granted, all homo sapiens migrated from Eastern Africa. Dark skin doesn't equal Black, light skin doesn't equal White. Living in the US has warped people's thinking. I am from West Africa, my birth certificate and passport don't have my "race", it is obvious that I am human. Clearly, I look the ethnic group I come from. If I had a penny for every time an American said to me "but you don't look African"! A vast continent with 54 countries and over 3000 indigenous ethnic groups, what the hell? 😅😅😅 I say all this to say, Melanesians are dark skinned, as the name suggests, but calling them Black is a erasure of their identity. The way the US has thought people to use generic labels, is not how the 96% of humans who live outside the US does it. It's something people should unlearn.
From PerplexityAI without the source numbers.
Papua New Guineans are not African. Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. The people of Papua New Guinea are primarily of Melanesian and Papuan descent, with diverse ethnic groups indigenous to the region. While there may be some genetic and phenotypic similarities between the people of Papua New Guinea and Africans, they are distinct populations with different origins and histories.
@@bellepierre24 white supremacy is global so to pin it all on United States thinking is not being genuine. Long before there was a United States, Britain and the other colonial forces were using whiteness as a dividing line. The term sub Saharan can be seen as problematic. You gave a definition of Melanasians but how do they define themselves? I have heard them define themselves as black. Melanasia has the same root as melanin. Melanated Asians. Black is universal not local or ethnic. Blackness is a connection to the original population and those genes that remain the dominant genes on the planet. Point being the lady acknowledged her original traits. You can't be surprised to see it wherever you go on the planet and trace the original inhabitants of these areas.
@@bellepierre24So you are West African yet still currently have not figured out that scientifically speaking traits that are associated with Europeans in particular. Such as Blonde/Red hair and Blue eyes are actually associated with forms of albinism?
@@sr2291So those melanated original Aboriginal Australian folks also weren't Black? And everybody didn't originate from melanated or so called Black ppl to begin with?
I love mom. She loves her mother. Mad respect. Nothing but love to her and her daughter ❤❤
I remember hearing about the Melungeons when I lived in Knoxville. There was a lot of speculation about their ancestry. Back then, the commonly accepted idea was that they descended from shipwrecked Portuguese sailors who hiked into the mountains and took Native American wives. This was before the availability of genetic testing. And nobody ever explained why shipwrecked sailors would have walked so far inland and become landlubbers!
After it became possible to identify genetic markers it was determined that their ancestry was black and white. They had moved into the mountains to get away from other people.
I've heard they were Romani mixed
Yes, they always said they were Portuguese. The first ship with Africans to Virginia came from a Portuguese colony in Africa. There was over 350 Africans but only 20+ made it to Virginia. The rest were left on the ship. Some melungeon families have traced their heritage to some of the Africans on that ship. My guess is there were melungeon families that came from some of the remaining on that ship and started their own communities.
Interesting. However, I think they called themselves Portuguese to avoid being called black. Portuguese people are quite fair, but lots of less education people in the area didn't know that.@@timeforchange3786
@@timeforchange3786yes, and the Goins surname can be traced back to a slave that arrived on that first ship.
In 1965, Kentucky author Jesse Stuart published "Daughter of the Legend" about the Mulegeons. It's roughly based on a young woman he fell in love with while in college in Knoxville, TN. This community in OH is not the only place Mulegeons live. Their history is in primarily in TN, VA, NC.
@nytn @rasheed7934 @rhondalight70 @sharontabor7718 @rebeccamd7903
When you do your post on Melungeon, please note how God felt about interracial marriage in the bible, Num. 12: 1-10. God to Aaron and Mirium (if Moses is pleased with his African Wife, I’m good with that, if you don’t like it, that makes God angry!) Melungeon trace back to the 1600’s when African’s were marrying white indentured servants. This was before steam power and coal, legend has, they moved up to the mountains to find peace. I leave you with this: “Mulatto” is a derogatory word and should not be used. Wikipedia says it is “a word used as a source of pride” by people of other countries. Those who take pride in such a word are ignorant of it’s meaning and origin, and serves only to illustrate their illiteracy. The term “Métis” (m) or “Métisse” (f) has been in use from the 15c as a word for biracial, from as far back as the Roman Empire.
Mulatto is a term worse than the “N-word.”
In the African American community, we use Red Bone to describe a complexion as well. A copper golden color, Beyonce tone or similar pretty much.
My grandma reminds me of Roberta! rest in peace. This proves that race isn't easy to define. I come from Mulengeon people in North Carolina and Virginia. But even today white or fair skin bring a whole set of responses than darker skin. I am a mom of very light racially ambiguous kids who have it a but easier than if they were darker skin like me. The things I've seen and heard would shock people. People asking if I'm babysitting or thank goodness my kids aren't dark like me...yeah....yeah. but my kids are raised to tell people they are biracial and pick the side of humanity and inclusion and justice in all things.
We don't do racism or homophobic or sexist bs. Or one drop rule.
I love your response.
This is one of the reasons I don't want to live in the USA because there is such pressure to put yourself in a box. My children are also ambiguous and even I have been questioned over there (not in the UK though as they are use to our wide variety of skin tones) I don't want anyone hassling my kids over their bodies or their culture.
@natashaa43 I don't blame you! My kids are asked in elementary school What are they? My kids tell them I'm black and dad is czech and German. It is never a choice! We do Kwanzaa and October fest. I tell me don't ever EVER let someone tell you ain't black with African blood in your veins. And don't let anyone try to tell you your immigrant czech ancestors don't exist in you. Both are equally important.
Disgusting
I had a similar experience when living in GA where people would think I was my son’s nanny. My husband is Creole and my son has his Dad’s skin color, but otherwise looks just like me.
Thanks, Danielle! DNA is like a fascinating game of 3D chess. Identity seems to be catching up as we are able to better trace our bloodlines. I'm not sure we will ever achieve synchronicity, but hopefully get better at accepting one another.
The geographical component you mentioned was very interesting. It would also be interesting to create a chronological matrix overlay on that. For example, the area of New Jersey where part of my Italian family settled was all Irish and Italian in the 60's and the demographic has sinced changed more than once.
I recently checked my 23 & Me profile and it now suggests a lot of my DNA is from Calabria. Always was told I was Sicilian, Pugliese and Neopolitan. 🤷🏻♂️ Could be correct as there is a town in Calabria with my last name. I recently visited there and spent a lot of time hiking in the national parks in that area. Wild stuff. It always comes back to being a good citizen of the world. I never know who could be family so I better treat them all well. 😅
The content in this video can lead to a very deep discussion and it’s obvious based on the mother’s response. Being from Louisiana I’m familiar with a lot of the various reactions that people can get based on their skin color whether it be a very light person with straight or kinky hair to a dark person with straight or kinky hair and the various shades that fall between. Picture the skin tone crayons that are out now. As for eye color a person’s complexion has nothing to do with that. For me it’s just knowing who you are, being happy with that and letting others do likewise. It shouldn’t be something that causes problems among people but the gvt created this system for a specific reason. Knowing your ancestry is a composition of who you are. If you’re interested in knowing do the research and if not that’s fine too. I doubt the system will ever change so learn as much as you can about your family and enjoy them if and when possible. The way people crossed over in Louisiana I was raised that when I met someone, even if we were just friends to ask questions about their family because it’s easy to be related. Example: My son was dating a young lady and while researching my ancestry I found out they shared a cousin. I told my son to talk to her grandmother to find out how they’re related. My son is related to the cousin from her grandmother’s side and she’s related from her grandfather’s side. They’re third cousins to the same man. I know, talk about a lot going on there🤦🏾♀️
There's a large percentage of people in the Natchitoches, LA area you can't tell their race by appearance
@@jamesvickers5004 My mom would almost get fighting mad if someone said she was light-skin or light complexion. I mean she would get hot. I’m sure she had to deal with a lot because of her skin color as well.
Yes, you definitely have to ask about everyone you're interested in, cause you could be related, I'm deep into family research.
Incredible story. Nothing but admiration for this woman. She really does have black features. She is just very light skinned. What a shame the census makes people check boxes. Most people are mixed with something anyway.
What is interesting to me, is what ancestry families who identify as Melungeon would show on the DNA tests. I took one and it gave details on all my ancestry which was interesting. It also showed cousins all over.
My Mother was high yellow, Creole. She identified as black.
My African friends called her white. I used to tell them off. lol 😂
Anyway, you can call yourself, whatever but you never know who your children will look like.
Also dna and family tree toooooo please
If i marry white, chinese etc ....i csn call them whatever but dna , family tree , and reality would also tell the story not just me
At about 9 minutes 40 seconds you lose sound, but I loved this video I first saw it some years back and was fascinated by this bc I’d always seen the reverse!
It came back around 11 minutes
Yes, please do a deep dive, i would be happy to share my family history. Omg my mother and all of my relatives on her side are melungeon (tri racial isolate)! I've only ever heard a few people use that term. We are from the Welsh Mountains in PA. Natives helped slaves escape the south, and along with Portuguese indentured servants they formed their own community in the welsh mountains. My grandfather moved to Hawaii and passed for white.
I never heard the word "Melungeon" until I read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, in which the main character describes himself as such. My husband's family is from Appalachia and he says he has Native American ancestry, but I can't find it in his tree. He has not done DNA testing. I enjoyed your video, would love to hear more.
Your work is so important! Each video I've seen is inspiring, historically rich, and undeniably valuable to our divided American society. God bless your efforts.
This is super interesting to me for a few reasons. One I'm half black half white and I identify as black. I'm not in any way ashamed of my white heritage but I never in a million years could pass as white. I think the way the world sees you dictates how you experience the world and has an affect on how you identify. People see me as black so I experience the world as a black woman and identify as black. I also think the one drop rule has come into play here. When people were forced into a box they had no choice but to become proud members of that community and now to tell them to change that because the world has changed is a little unfair
I love your work you got me digging in my family history I have Ben shocked thank you 🥺😍
I'm so glad! I gotta learn more about these amazing mixed groups
@@nytn Have you ever seen the old Phil Donahue show on mixed race passing? It might be of interest to you. Some of it is a little dramatic however this topic is as old as the USA. There are a lot of generationally mixed individuals who identify as black. I think about Beyonce's mother and Vanessa Williams off the top of my head.
No, but I got to find that now!@@Myraisins1
@@nytn ua-cam.com/video/X_tO7Q5RvIg/v-deo.html
thank you!
Have you considered a show about the people of the Ramapough mountains. They are a mixture of Native American, African American and European ethnicities who have isolated themselves from the rest of society. The negative term used to describe them is “Jackson Whites.”
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
By one drop rule that family is Black even if the rest of the USA doesn't see them that way. They are just using an older definition of "black".
First time I heard anything regarding Melungeon was a newspaper article in the 1990’s, talking about them and their traits and an area in east TN near VA and specific surnames. Knowing my mom’s mom family was from there and last name Mullins. My mom said she had never heard about that. But pictures of my GGGrandfather dark skin, eyes and hair
There's a girl who commented on this video whose family has that last name too, and said they were Melungeon! Im going to see if I can bring her on for a video
That would be very interesting. The more my sister and I have looked at our genealogy the more we thought the same
One point in defensive of the mum in this clip, she was 100% correct in arguing with the medical secretary regarding her heritage. How much melanin you produce doesn't mean that you haven't inherited issues from your African ancestry that isn't important. People of African descent are more inclined to some medical issues genetically, sickle cell anemia is a good example, being genetically mixed won't make any difference if you happen to carry a copy of the gene. My ex was in a similar position and had someone suggested her kids get put down as white and she said no because genetically they ARE mixed, even if they present as white.
I just discovered your channel yesterday, and I've watched 4-5 of your videos. Great content, much appreciated! What i especially like is that you're bringing forth so much information about how so much of what makes up a lot of the American people, actually belies common perception! There has, pretty much, always been way more intermingling than people commonly know about or perceive!
I lived in Southern Maryland and people were Native Americans, Black and White (English, Irish or German). They were extremely prejudiced though, they'd talk to my husband but not to be because I am not any of those things. I heard that they were segregation in public spaces into the 1970's and it just takes so long for these injuries to go away.
It's wonderful to be proud of your heritage.
I watched this video (born in NE Ohio) before even buying a DNA 🧬 test of any kind ; very fascinating.
That family looks like mine. They are and they look black. People who can not identify question their identity. There are many blacks who have and are passing as white and considered white passing.
The mom is not lying when she said someone or something was going to pull the black out of her. I believe she was referring to the daughter having kids. If there's in them that will definitely be the time for it to show up. #coolvideo
If the White daughter is impregnated by a White man I guarantee if they have kids none of them are going to come out looking Black unless she cheated on her husband or boyfriend with a Black man. Two Caucasian phenotype parents can not biologically produce a Black phenotype child. There is the Sandra Laing case in South Africa of 2 Caucasian phenotype parents with a Black phenotype child but they were never able to prove the father was the biological father of Sandra Laing as they did not have DNA tests yet back then.
@@josephimperatrice5552 My comment was definitely not based on any prior knowledge just a random conclusion I reached while watching the video. I will definitely do some research on the subject. It's an all around interesting topic either way.
Redbone isn’t “melungen” like but it just means a light skinned “black” person. It’s funny because I came across this video days ago. This happened in a few generations and this lady still has features her melanated ancestry. In that Lincoln vid, I was accused of revisionist history when I had mentioned “black” Europeans in the colonies but this video can certainly drive many points home….that’s all I’m going to say here.
Where’s the evidence of black Europeans?
Actually my family is RedBone/Melungen Indians. I understand you’re talking about the term red bone to refer to a light skin person. But they are an actual people as well. Mullins/Hawkins are a lare family from Tennessee who are RedBone.
"Black Europeans" look like Melania (literally dark/black) Trump. It has nothing to do with black Africans. Black means something else in places like Thailand and the Philippines.
@@84tahlia I think what Jess saying of the usage of the term is not exclusive to redbone. From a historical perspective other groups have been referred to as such as well.
@@kudjoeadkins-battle2502 There really are countless books on this subject matter. Crania Britannica by Davis and Thurnam, Races of Europe, and Origin of the Anglo Saxon Race are just three sources that I'll mention. There are so many references within those book alone. The evidence is there but folks don't realize that we learn narrative.
Yes, each generation is changing and everyone needs to just let people be what they are. After that many mixtures with Caucasian blood that's just what it is. It goes both ways. She needs to let her daughter choose for herself.
Poor girl. She shouldn’t have to feel guilty. That’s messed up.Race is so central to American identity.
I grew up in Pennsylvania Appalachian. Had to have my blood tested when i got autoimmune in my mid fourties. Dr. said it resembled sickle cell and tested me anyway...turns out my blood is .019 African American.
Who knew? My family didnt know, but there it is!
As long as yu don't claim black
I just came across your channel for the first time and watched this old interview for probably the 3rd time since years ago. Amazing story and so common among us. I'm a black wife of my Hispanic husband of 28 years. We have four children together and 2 grandkids. Two of our kids look more black and two look more hispanic. They all identify themselves as Black Hispanics, as we taught them. And they have had challenges over the years concerning how others identify them. But their responses to others should never be to defend who they are but to inform.
In a perfect world, none of this would matter 😕
Awesome video, thank youuuuu!!!
Enlighten yet again! (blown actually ) This is profoundly fascinating!
I wanna know who the mom had the daughter with. That’s the missing piece for me. The mom looks black to me. I get the daughter not identifying as black because I suspect it’s kind of embarrassing for her. I’m questioning how exactly was she raised and who her father’s people are. I think it’s very easy for mixed race and white passing black people to feel disconnected. And then when they start having children with people who don’t have any of lesser amounts of black in them this is what you get. I don’t think people understand how they orchestrate these situations. I think the further down the line you get people suddenly become “white enough” to distance themselves from their heritage in plain sight.
The whole concept of race in America was born of politico- economic machinations. It's never been an abstract biological calculus. To identify as black is to implicitly make a sociopolitical statement of solidarity in a white supremacist culture. The black community has had the burden of absorbing the product sexual violence or "illicit" relationships. To be black in America has always been uneasy confluence of phenotype and culture. IMO the rise of biracial identify can be construed as a way of not dealing with the caste system of race in America. The overwhelming majority of black people in America have European ancestry no matter your phenotype. So race is a matter of culture and biology, which takes on a sociopolitical import in a white world.
I have some family that we don't talk to which I believe they may be passing for "white" . That side of the family are from Louisiana and Arkansas. The mother in this video may mark herself down as Black but it may change with her daughter.
One thing that's not being taught in American schools is that race was based off of economic status versus physical phenotype when people first started coming to this country. Specifically after Bacon's rebellion. There were also a lot of "Black" Irish that were coming here from Europe as well as "black" people from other european countries. Mainly they were coming as indentured servants. These people were described as dark, tawny or swarthy. A prime example of this would be the author of "The 3 Musketeers" . His name is Alexandre Dumas who was from France. His racial identity is ambiguous, similar to the melungeon families in this video. The same is said about a few American Presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower. They too have a mixed genealogy.
And don't forget __J. Edgar Hoover__!!!😮😊
Being black is not just skin color, it’s cultural.
My maternal grandfather and aunt share some physical characteristics with you. I've looked a little at whether we are Melungeon but I don't see any real evidence of it. Our family's earliest records are from about 75 miles east of the video subjects in Ohio, and there were definitely Melungeons moving through the region at that time (pre-Civil War). Melungeons were involved in the Underground Railroad in SE Ohio at that time. When the woman in the video says "German, Irish and White," she probably means Scots-Irish/Scottish/English when she says White.
I love this lady…she is what she is and that’s that! 👍🏽
I’ll wait. ❤️❤️❤️
my favorite part of this
“German, Irish, and White..”
Well for a while Germans and the Irish were not considered ‘white’
I wouldn’t be surprised if she refers to Anglo-Saxon as white.
Lol as a Louisiana Creole I’ve been trying to tell people this all the time 😂😂
These people are a perfect example of people with super white skin but you can still tell they are black.. I always tell people never look at the skin tone but more at the features and hair texture. That there are blonde and blue eyed people that are black. However, her offspring do look white.
Now we have to have a discussion about the British Royal family being Melungeon. and I've probably angered a LOT of people saying this now 🤣
Tell me more
@@Bummerdrummer463 Queen Charlotte (Queen Victoria's grandmother) was mulatto German 👍
I did a video on Queen Charlotte a few months ago!
This is just a few.
•King Charles Stuart II, who was named ‘The Black Boy.
•King Kenneth Dubh of Scotland.
•King Kenneth III (Dub mac Mail Choluim) of Scotland.
•Queen Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg Strelitz.
•Alessandro de Medici the first duke of Florence.
•Philippa of Hainault.
•Edward, the Black Prince.
•Saint Maurice: Knight of the Holy Lance.
•King Offa of England.
•Alfonso XIII of Spain.
•Benedict the Moor of Italy.
•Muhammad XII of the Emirate of Granada.
•Lucius Septimius Severus was ruler of the Roman Empire.
The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain's oldest complete skeleton has revealed. The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough's Cave in Somerset.
@@ThepurposeofTimeOh __Yes__:: **Charlotte of Mecklenburg Streliz**😮😊
I have watch that video before and it was very moving. I am doing my research on my own family and it is very interesting
Keep up the Great Discussion Ms Danielle.
Not sure these people are actually "Melungeon", per se. Their mixed, yes, but their little community "on the other side of the tracks" so to speak, was created much more recently and under very different circumstances. Mulatto for sure. They are more a Jim Crow and second class laborer community than anything else, that intermarried all the time. Until Jim Crow laws were abolished, they HAD to identify as black, even though they are very pale. Its just something that stuck. They can identify however they want though, and they'd mostly be correct regardless.
I used to live in Summerville, South Carolina, in the late 60s and early 70s, and there was a community of melungeon people there, along both sides of Highway 17-A from Summerville to Moncks Corner. They were mixed white, black, and indian. People called them "Summerville Indians," and they were mostly light brown with very curly or more African hair, but some were quite light, with wavy or almost straight hair. It was not unusual to see a family with several children of varying hair, skin, and eye color, and many of them were quite beautiful. Of course, being in the South, these people were mostly looked down on. When we sold our home in Summerville many years ago, one such melungeon couple tried to buy it, but we found out later that the real estate agent turned down their offer because of who they were, without even consulting us. Disgusting behavior! I'm not sure how cohesive the community is now, though. Probably there has been some dispersal of people from that area.
This is a fascinating video. I don't do genealogy to find out who I am. I set out on my genealogy journey to find out about my grandmother's heritage. We were always told we were part Indian because my grandmother's mother was half Indian, either Cherokee or Choctaw. (We were never told she was a princess.) I was named for my grandmother, and I wanted to find out about her family. I found out about almost every strand of my family tree before I found out about her. I was stumped on her great-grandfather, Merritt Duke. There are so many Dukes in Tennessee and North Carolina. I worked on him for years before DNA testing was readily available, and finally I solved the puzzle through DNA matches. And Merritt's mother was part Indian -- and part Black. But the racial mixing came even farther back past her. She was Winney Oren Bass Duke. Her 3rd-great-grandfather, John Bass, was married to a Nansemond Indian woman, Elizabeth. The DNA of male descendants of their middle son, William, shows that William had an African biological father. John Bass acknowledged William as his son. So one of my biological 9th-great-grandfathers was Black. Does that make me Black? No, I'm a White American. I'm not ethnically Black, and I'm not ethnically Native American. But I do have Black people and Native American people in my ancestry. I'm not German or Scottish, either, even though I have Germans and Scots in my ancestry. I'm American through and through.
My parents taught in Pike County Ohio in the late sixties. There are many mixed race people there. They are wonderful people and I loved living in Waverly as a kid.
Everyone just says they are Cherokee!
Keep up the good work!
I watched this lady before, very adamant, standing on business ✌🏿❤️🇬🇧
Love that they are so proud to be black. My mother is so light skinned. I love these ladies. Love this story. So many black families have these stories.
Regarding those photos of that older man and woman, they definitely look Black. Yes. I agree that you don't have to be the actually color black to be a Black person. Her hair and facial features show that she is definitely a Black woman.
I love the mother because she is telling her daughter the truth when it comes to being black nomatter how white they may look she still has the black in her . Alot of people will still see her as a black person when they find out the truth and they will treat her as being black . The daughter has a right to view herself as being a white person but the mother feels like she is denying her blackness and she feels that's not right . Some people in this world will remind the daughter that she has black in her and they will make her feel bad and hurt her feelings because of racism and the One Drop Rule . President Obama and Meghan Markle both have a white parent and a black parent and they still faced a lot of racism because of there blackness . Alot of mixed and biracial people have had to deal with awful situations like that . The mother just don't want to see her daughter get hurt . It's alot of people who have had to leave there families and towns along time ago because they was passing for a white person and they had to hide there black side of there family out of fear because of racist people and some of the mixed biracial people look like there white side of there family, you can't even tell that they have black in them . To me the daughter and the mother don't look black but you can tell they have some black features . I wish them the best in life . I love them . Be blessed and safe . Miss . Linda ❤❤❤
I recall the first time my oldest asked me why on his school registration form they changed his race to Black only after we’d checked Black & White boxes. I’m African and my husband/his dad is a mix Scottish Irish ancestry. That was in elementary school. So I asked the school to correct it back as my son felt like picking 1 only is like negating 1 of us. By Middle school the school districts in our state had redone the formers and added a Mixed box with a line to specify the bloodline blend. 🎉🎉 Every mixed kid in all variation was thrilled to have this. It’s not just the Black White kids. We had Asian Black/White, Middle Eastern and so on. What’s funny is that full Caucasian kids started also checking the box. 1 of our kids’ friend put Italian/Irish. I said good! Mention them All!, 😂
Where I am from in southern Md our tri-racial families were called Wesorts. You can google.
I am melougeon. I have black and white ancestors. But I consider myself melougeon.
Man I love her mother she a real one ❤❤❤ I’m black …but light myself! 😊my dad is black but I’m often mistaken for Puerto Rican I feel this so much lol her mom was not playing no games tho 😂😂😂
When I was taking data for covid vaccines a lot of the people who most would call black or African American didn't consider themselves that. Quite a few said they didn't want to answer the question they are other or wanted to be counted as Hispanic. The actual number after seeing this made me question our census data. The actual number may be undercounted. Many people who most would call Hispanic also got confused by the question. Some would say white or something else. There were also people who were probably from Asia who thought they were white. It goes to show the entire question is more an opinion of who you ask. No one really agrees on it.
I think having an ancestor that you may not share in your appearance, doesn't mean you can't identify with it. How you are raised, who you relate to, who you share your life experiences with molds how you identify.
From what I've heard about this group prior to the Civil war they had to spend a lot of time hiding because they couldn't prove they weren't runaway enslaved people. I'm guessing this attitude is a backlash to all that. You spend time having all your neighbors speculate about your ancestry and then you have Jim Crow telling you that one drop of blood (whatever in the hell that means) makes you one thing and not the other... Eventually your children are going to put their foot down and own it.
We don't need to make fun of this lady. She's mixed, but she grew up around people who thought you could only be one thing because racism is thing and it's shitty.
The mom and the daughter arguing about black/white are having two different conversations both of which are correct. There is a difference between your ethnic heritage and family values which still is primarily her African American ancestoral roots BUT there is a genetic element of DNA that contributes to your race/color based upon the ancestors contributing actual genes that effect the pigment of your appearance. What we learn here is the prevalence of white African Americans via mixed race genetics. You can appear white but embrace the culture of the ancestors most prominent in the upbringing.
YOUR TOPICS ARE GREAT
@1:25, you give a shout out to Reservation Dogs and Redbone ✌🏼😎✌🏼
Reservation Dogs the hit show, and Redbone a full-blood to mostly Native admixed band of Indigenous North American and Indigenous Mexican background, who also have both Native and a little Creole heritage.
yes! love that scene. The band has really interesting background,like you mention.
@@nytn 🤘🏼😎✌🏼
This woman may also be albino which is known to occur in African people. I went to school with a brother and sister who looked exactly like these people. They explained that they were black but they have a genetic mutation that caused they skin to appear "white". The most interesting feature of these two classmates was their eyes were gray with a pinkish tint and they both had to wear glasses during the day but had excellent vision at night.
When you were speaking to Jared Taylor and you mentioned your Black American ancestry in Louisiana.You definitely didn't say African Ancestry. You only use that term for other people history. You cherry pick when to use that term. Why you didn't use that term with Jared Taylor? You are the answer to your question?
I said black because he talks in terms of "black vs white". I dont prefer that term, as you know!
@@nytn understood in the video you did when you went to Louisiana to trace your roots records show you didn't use the term African Ancestry in that video as well.Black Americans are not Africans you know this but you keep using that term for whatever reason. American music and culture is mostly Black American. It's really an ethnogenesis of a new people breed in America decendants of Slaves and Slave owners.
@@nytn our diverse back ground can be traced to all groups who were at the beginning of the U.S Government. We are not homogeneous that is what makes America a great place we took bad situations and made beauty out of it.Yes your ancestors had to pass as White but I look at it as survival. I have caramel complexion not dark black like olive tone.But my Mother could pass and have been mistaken for other races and she always cleared any mistake up. Me and my mother are the same lineage not complexion. It is a big difference in holding a lineage discussion and a complexion discussion.
There are a lot of terms and I try to be respectful to how others tell me they identify, even if it's not a term I prefer to use! But I hear you
A number of Melungeons live in West Virginia at the southern end of Chestnut Ridge.
I thought this lady was an albino black person if that's possible
My friend had a son and daughter with a Haitian man. Her daughter had golden hair and light skin but with black features. Her son had darker skin but white features. His hair was dark.
I was adopted and grew up not knowing my heritage. This video facinated me since I had a friend that said I had black features. I met both my birthparents and did my DNA so I know I don't have recent African heritage. We all came from Lucy in Africa so it is in all of us.
Just to let you know @ about 6:30 the volume went out on the video and did come on until you were talking.
Albinism 💯 occurs in black people and I also got the impression that Roberta has it. I wonder if there is a high expression of albinism in some of these closed communities that tend to inter-marry within themselves.
Way back when Germans were considered swarthy - at least by B.Franklin's letter. Black is a blanket statement for dark-skinned people in America. People would consider me black or African. I'm not. I'm dark-skinned Indigenous American, not black African. My family is from the Americas, and I know that by building my family tree. when people say they are black what is that? African or American. The "black "label needs to go.
Is the one drop rule not a thing anymore?
The American system is what is broken. I faced this as a mixed looking Black Jew! The questions have never ended.
This is a direct examply of why race is socially constructed. Meaning it is whatever we say it is and it is whatever it looks like to us. We just have a need to categorize people into groups naturally.
Genealogist Henry Louis Gates, Junior, who does “finding your roots” show is a descendent of those families in the Appalachia
Interesting.
7:35 her mom looks so hurt 😢
I get where the both of them are coming from. I really hope in the future these boxes won’t exist.
That is the way they raised the kids. 1 drop rule means Black. Biracial maybe more appropriate now days. No one should be ashamed either side. I don't want white or black people to hate themselves or their race or ethnicity.
UA-cam muted a good part of this! This is true history of what it’s like to be mixed dealing with society. Sigh… if you hit CC you can read what the mother says.
Ughhh not again!
What’s the name of this town? Couldn’t find anything for East Jackson Ohio
The founding fathers set the rules… no matter how you look… if your mother, grandma, great and great grandma was black you can be owned. My family is black and we’re all different shades
Some of them look to have some degree of albinism. I think that they may have had at least one albino black ancestor.
2 years ago, I became interested in learning more about Appalacian people as im of irish, Cherokee, Austrian & slavic decent. There was very few videos on Melungeons at the time. I randomly found a video by you earlier today and have been binging on all your melungeon & polish videos (im 50% pollock & proud). You have a new subscriber 🎉
The problem here is that we have made race so important. Demanding that people stay in their race box is tearing this family apart. People shouldn’t have to choose. There is so much intermixing, I don’t think the race boxes on forms even makes sense anymore.
We didn’t do that… the founding fathers and slave holders did it so they can have free labor…& continued the abuse post slavery to otherise people
The only time the boxes make sense biologically is in medical records, since different DNA can bring higher rates of different diseases. However, different groups of people do have cultural differences, so if they want to take pride in their culture, then why not?
It’s sad but those boxes are important especially when it comes to helping underserved communities and investigating hiring processes. It’s not as simple as saying we’re all human in a country built by systemic racism.
But they do exist, that’s the problem.
Thats not the problem thats a symptom. The problem is america like other euro-colonially invaded nations in the western hemisphere have a fear of making a admends with the history black enslavement an exploitation many of their historically western colonial used a fake vervion of the bible to justify this racial based exploitation while bible forbid all true christians from practicing slavery on other humans....
The mother clearly loved her own mother enough to endure treatment and a life she could have avoided. That’s real love.
@etruscancivilization That is pretty common. Look up Charles Chesnutt. Look at Images of his photos. He was a writer who didn't fit into either side when he was young. You can tell he was part Black in his younger photos and when he got older he just looked like an old White man. His books are interesting too.
She now needs to love her daughter just as much and accept her. The fact of the matter she is not going to experience the true meaning of being black in the world. Never will.
There is always a possibility that offspring will be darker, so long as she keeps the truth in mind, she can live her life as she pleases.
They are white lol sorry only racist whites trying promote white supremacy would argue NOT. Society will treat you based on what they see you. Who cares they call themselves blk when blk is a look and so is white.
@@etruscancivilization Yes she did that is why she was so beautiful. Mixed race people are usually much more beautiful than either of their parents when their parents were in an interracial relationship,
My first gut reaction? She chose not to "pass" and stayed true to who she was. For her generational time that had to be difficult when one could "pass" and benefit in many ways and not deal with racism. Being black is not just your genetic make-up to me but also your experience. How you've been raised and the inner culture your raised in. I like her conviction.
Different for the daughter though. Her mum is highly likely 1/4 Negro (with albino genes). The daughter 1/ 8 negro (and far more white than black obviously). Her mother has great pride even if a little irrational in pronouncing her kids as 'black'.
Also, the mother's facial features and hair texture would give her away and she knows that. And white people, especially in her generation would have told her that. Also, Melungeons were known by their last names too, no matter how they looked. Racism is about who will get resources and privilege. So many times when they showed up for jobs when competition in Appalachia was high, they were weeded out not because of their looks at times but because of their last names which were associated with the Melungeons with more African DNA. That's the systemic part. Peace.
Being black is having a majority of African genes. That’s the definition and facts.
The rest is delusions and feelings,the opposite of facts.
@@marianaya5824 this is what my family looks like. We are melungeons from wv
Part of why she’s so passionate about being Black may be because of what she saw her mother go through. Her mother wasn’t able to pass and possibly went out of her way to instill a sense of Blackness in her children regardless of their complexion. At least that’s how it was with my ancestors. They didn’t pass, not sure if it was by choice or circumstance, married men with dark complexions, and all of their children married Black people. If the mother in this video had married Black, her daughter may not have been able to choose. One union made the difference for generations.
My husband is from a city in Ohio that has quite a few Colored/Black people who can pass for white. Their birth certificates says "colored". Many of them could pass for white but chose not to, such as my blonde grey 'eyed father in law. Same with my husband. He could have married a white woman and passed for white. None of his uncles married white women, but Black women. My sister in law moved to the South. She got her license, and she told them you made a mistake! You put my race as white! DMV rep said, "Let it stay! You look white! She said, "Change it to Black! Nowadays, We no longer have race on our license.
So labelled African Americans need to adopt a different term for their ethnicity because "Black" capitalized as in ethnicity is not the same as "black" uncapitalized as in physical form. The problem comes because the distinction can't be made in speech, and it enables white people to play legal and economic games against "black" people.
The younger woman is "Black" in ethnicity because that is how her family classed her. She can't change her ethnicity to "White" even if she is "white" in appearance no matter how she wants to, because it is set in stone by her family.
It is for the same reason that "black" people from the Caribbean maintain that they are not "Black" and that is right too. Because when people use the word "black" to express ethnicity they mean "Black" most of the time.
It is time "Black" Americanss found a way around this game the white legal and political establishment plays on them.
@@vfclists Where did you hear Caribbeans say they are not Black?
@@sr2291 Are you trolling? Why don't you just go do a search or something?
@@vfclists Maybe you could explain it better. Caribbean people have African heritage unlike the dark skinned people in Australia and the Pacific Islands. So why wouldn't they be black or Black?
I know a Melungeon guy. He's from Virginia Appalachia. He explained to me that very early slaves were freed after an indentured period. They mixed with whites in the area and created the Melungeon people. They've been mixed for a super long time.
But, respectfully, this is the way of the world.. I wish people wouldn't identify as one 'race' over another. Humans have evolved over this planet,... races are simply what part of the world ones ancestors spent the most time in. Humans have evolved over this planet,... races are simply what part of the world ones ancestors were the most recent ones..... This RACE view is a political construct. Don't cha know.
Slaves may have been dark skinned indigenous Americans. What do you mean when you say “slaves”?
There's a little bit more than being mixed and being Melungeon
Partly true, Melungeons are the result of Aboriginal blacks intermarrying with Native Americans while later down the line also intermingling with Irish, Semitic Europeans (many of whom of South Asian ancestry) & West African via the slave trade.
Blacks Afrikaans @@ngonsainti
The first time I saw the video, years ago. Me and a lot of people in the comments thought that the mother had albinism
I agree, Melungeons had European features and dark skin with blue eyes. They said they were not black. It is also the wrong state. These people just looked mixed or probably albino.
I agree, a lot of these people are presenting with some albino-like traits.
I'm white.. normal regular white not elbino white.. my 11th great grandma is Pocahontas and I am a decendent of her only child kaokee .. Pocahontas and kocoum had kaokee .. DNA is amazing.. on my fathers side im known as melungeon .. i have pictures of my dad's grandpa.. triracial.. black indian and white...I'm still white white greenish grey eyes brown 2b and 2c hair type .. God made a way for his people ❤ DNA is not skin tone
Most African American families have relatives who don’t look “black”. My mother was “light skinned” but to me she looked like a black woman who had a light complexion. But my nephews would say people would stare at them when they were with her wondering why this “white lady” was with these black kids. My mom was no where near as “light” as the woman in this piece but for people who are coming from a different perspective or have no idea that skin color doesn’t mean you can tell who is who there is confusion.
Generalizing we don't
The vast majority of African Americans do not have family members who look White at least not in the recent sense, only in the far distant sense. For the vast majority of African Americans who throw big Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings with the whole family, nobody at the Thanksgiving and Christmas table looks White.
I completely stand with that mom. One of my Elders once pointed to his thumbnail when we were eating in a Chinese restaurant and told me, "you can have this much Indian in you and you have the right to identify yourself as a Native person." The thought being, we lose nothing when we mix, because our spirit and our drum (as a people) is strong. When others marry us, they become part of us. I'm mixed, and don't have all the info because of the muddy trail of adoption, and have gone through similar things to the mom in the video where someone will tell me they don't think I look that Indigenous (the same day as getting profiled in a store). My olive skin changes depending on many factors, sometimes I look light and sometimes I look dark, but that has nothing to do with what I am. People don't have the right to tell other people who they are.
Great point. I'm bordering on light skinned aka redboned right about now due to the season 😂
@@ReshonBryantBAHHAHA these “NON-Native” think claiming “OUR identity” “FEDERALLY RECOGNIZES THEM”
ITS 2024 STOP “devaluing OUR RACE AND CULTURE” to fit yall BILLION year TOLD narrative!