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Gates has an odd preoccupation with "passing" as a subject, and enjoys exposing passers by fishing out any black ancestor he can find. So when Roseanne Cash was on the show, he knew what he was doing. He successfully found "mulatto" census records, a paper trail to a slave, manumission records, and a DNA test confirming that Vivian Cash indeed had a black ancestor - just one though.
While it was interesting that he confirmed old rumors about Cash's wife, these kinds of episodes seem to be more about sensationalism than ancestry. He's like today's Walter Plecker or Naomi Drake, who exposed passing negros for a living and enjoyed what they did.
Surely there were plenty of interesting stories to tell about the other 97% of Roseanne Cash's ancestry. No?
Roseanne Cash aside. do you not know the history of the one drop rule and people being identified as being Black? Do you not know the history of "passing?"
As a white person, perhaps you can choose to be dismissive of these things. For Black people, these issues broke up families and got people killed. So, yeah, it's something worth noting.
Gates has an odd preoccupation with "passing" as a subject, and enjoys exposing passers by fishing out any black ancestor he can find. So when Roseanne Cash was on the show, he knew what he was doing. He successfully found "mulatto" census records, a paper trail to a slave, manumission records, and a DNA test confirming that Vivian Cash indeed had a black ancestor - just one though.
While it was interesting that he confirmed old rumors about Cash's wife, these kinds of episodes seem to be more about sensationalism than ancestry. He's like today's Walter Plecker or Naomi Drake, who exposed passing negros for a living and enjoyed what they did.
Surely there were plenty of interesting stories to tell about the other 97% of Roseanne Cash's ancestry. No?
It's not just one ancestor though, all of that slaves ancestors are her ancestors also. and chances are she already knew more about the other 97% of her ancestry as those family stories were not hidden so bits and pieces got passed down, also are you saying she should ignore that 3% of her DNA?
There's a natural draw towards the outlier in DNA and with the intersection of culture, race, perception. I strongly identify with my Irish family. My maternal grandparents were both born in Ireland, we still have strong ties to Ireland and family there. But my DNA test showed 7% -- roughly one great-great-grandparent -- American Indian. That was what caught my eye and what everybody talked about because it was the unknown. Not because it was a matter of identity (I'm still white and still Irish), but it was just the unknown part of a story we thought we knew. Personally I'd love to have someone like Gates track down where that came from and what the story is.
Roseanne Cash volunteered for the show and wanted to know. That's a lot different than exposing someone as "passing" for white when they don't want to be exposed, and when they might possibly face severe or even deadly consequences for being exposed as a PoC passing as white. It's the same reason it's totally acceptable for a magazine to run a story interviewing a celebrity or athlete or businessperson who's decided to come out as LGBT, but it would be really crappy of them if they ran a story outing them when they didn't want to be.
I'm a black person and think that "passing" is a worn-out subject.
Skip Gates's obsession with "passing" is a recurring theme is all of his programming. He does this over and over again.
"Passing" is certainly not a worn-out subject. You may not realize just how many whites have no knowledge of the history of "passing", and a lot of other black history topics. I'm in my 50's and didn't know about it until this show.
Gates is doing an excellent job of bringing the history of America to the general public through the study of DNA.
Surely there were plenty of interesting stories to tell about the other 97% of Roseanne Cash's ancestry. No?
He did spend quite a lot of time on her Sicilian ancestry, I think more than on her African ancestry. It was the Sicilian ancestry that was the common thread between Roseanne Cash and Clint Black. The African connections were secondary.
They're both doing exactly the same thing - for a living. And Gates believes in the notion of "passing" as much as Plecker and Naomi Drake.
Do you believe that "passing" was a falacy?
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