I think people underestimate the extent to which US culture is indeed a culture. You may not have a Dutch, Swedish, or German heritage, but you do have a white American heritage. It just so happens that for coastal US white culture, part of the cultural heritage is not being proud of your cultural heritage.
For the other major US white culture, it is part of their white American cultural heritage to be proud of their white American cultural heritage. Hence the stupid Confederate flag everywhere.
I seem to be referring to one of my main hobbies a lot today, but anyway…genealogists who use DNA testing as part of the work are giggling their (our) butts off at how many proud-of-being-white Southerns are now discovering that a significant percentage of them have some Sub-Saharan African genes mixed in. They’re not as white as they think they are!
This is not true for multi-generation New Englanders, but the further south you go…
Yeah, but aren’t genes just some insidious plot invented by the evil FAKE scientist Charles Darwin to undermine the morale of southern whites and their pride in their cultural heritage?
Checkmate libt*rd!
/s (chess is not a big part of southern US cultural heritage)
“I don’t want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name—whatever their religion their father might have been, I’ll just say this: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States – I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11.”
I’m not going to address the stupidity of saying that white people are the only people to do things for human civilization. I will, however highlight the convenience of the fact that Steve King happens to be… (GASP) white. Isn’t it funny how well that worked out for him?
There’s a lot that goes into finding people to do those ads (and the shows as well…I know the genetic genealogist they use personally). They have to be actual customers, good on camera, with some sort of hook. Also, there needs to be something photogenic that is more than a vital record: the excellent quality of the photo of the handsome ancestor is a great example. Not naming the country/religion in this case helps a larger percentage of the viewing public think “that could be my story” without worrying they might find out something they don’t want to know. After all, most people test because there is some mystery to their ancestry, or they’re curious…ironically, Italians in particular are known for being highly unlikely to test, because they feel they already know their heritage.
If you look at all of the Ancestry ads, they cover a lot of the ethnicities that statistics indicate people WANT to find out about themselves without ever bringing up those where bigotry could make the discovery problematic.
My dad did a test from Ancestry.com and it showed 2% European Jewish. I assumed it would be non-zero, but 2% might be within some margin of error.
I’m originally from Tennessee, and figured that there would be some non-zero percentage of Sub-Saharan African, but it didn’t show up at all. My grandfather (on Dad’s side) had been told that he was part Native American, but that didn’t show up at all, either. A friend of the family speculated whether my grandfather was Melungeon; he did resemble some photographs that I’ve seen. (My dad, in turn, didn’t think that anyone else in his surviving immediate family would have been willing to talk about something like this being possible.) I recall this discussion coming up here on the BBS not too long ago, and some speculated that families claiming some amount of “Native American blood” may have been a way of “covering up” Sub-Saharan African ancestry. But in our case, according to his test anyway, it’s neither.
I might throw down $$ for the test myself, and get one that traces Mom’s side, as well. Where this gets really interesting, though, is that my family tree actually merges. (My parents didn’t know it when they married, but something like 8 generations back on my dad’s side, and 7 on my mom’s side, it’s the same dude.)
White pride is a healthy, normal thing. And it is not nearly as universally accepted as some people seem to think. Sometimes it is not enough to just imply the value of a certain group, it should be openly and clearly stated.
And Europeans have definitely contributed enormously to culture and civilization.
