Julie H
Julie H
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

“Caucasian” is a made-up racial classification that was invented in the late 18th century. People were divided into “caucasoid” (beautiful, because the Caucus mountains produced the fairest skinned, most delicate of people …) and “mongroid” (yeah, no so much). The inventor of “Caucasian”, as a racial classification (Christoph Meiners), believed that each of the races had a different origin. We now know that all peoples came from Africa through a number of migrations through the Middle East and up into Europe, Asian, and beyond.

We also know, thanks to genetic genealogy, that very few people are “purely” much of anything. I have Jewish ancestry (and I’m a practicing Jew), with a lot of English, Irish, German, French and Scandinavian in there. I also have very small amounts of Polish and Italian. The one Italian cousin I’ve encountered (I do both traditional and genetic genealogy) has various amounts of Southeastern European ancestry, along with North African and Sub-Saharan African ancestry.

Studies of African-American genetic background show that they have approximately 25% non-African DNA on average, or about one non-African grandparent. The African-Americans I know sometimes know where the non-African ancestor(s) are in their family tree, others have a good idea or have heard family stories

The same is true for “white people”. My Irish ancestors lived in this country at a time when the Irish were considered vastly inferior to other “whites”. I don’t believe any of my Italian ancestors ever lived in the United States, but Italians — and a wide variety of Asian peoples — were also considered to be inferior. When I was younger I heard a large number of “Dago” and “Polack” jokes. I learned of my Polish ancestry through a traditional family tree search, and my Italian ancestry through genetic mapping. I’m glad I had the good sense not to think something was wrong with either of those two groups.

Families lie about their background either to make themselves more interesting (I was told we had Eastern Band Cherokee ancestry — I have no Native American ancestors in over 200 years, and no genetic evidence of Native American ancestry), or more acceptable (my German ancestors claimed to be Scots in the aftermath of World War I and II).

The odds are, unless you still live in the same town where your ancestors lived several hundreds of years ago, you’re a mutt like the rest of Americans. And if you have lived in the same town as your ancestors over the past many hundreds of years you’re either a Native American or you don’t live in this country.

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    Julie H

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    Julie H

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