The Importance of Ancestors
Who are your ancestors? Does it matter? What does it mean to you?
You may think this is going to be an essay about genealogy. Or maybe an exhortation to treat everyone equally regardless of their ancestry, race, ethnicity, etc.
No, this is about something else. It’s about the very idea of ancestry. What we mean when we refer to someone as an ancestor. Hear me out.
When the writer bell hooks died on December 15, 2021, there was an outpouring of obituaries and tributes. The author of All about Love and Ain’t I a Woman? , she was a pioneer of black feminism, and inspired a generation.
In a discussion of her life and contribution on National Public Radio a few days later, I heard the following statement by one of the black women scholars she had deeply influenced:
“It really sucks that she’s now an ancestor. . . but she’s walking with us!”
I was stunned. Not ‘now that she’s dead’ but ‘now that she’s an ancestor’! And that her presence is still alive and a support to those left behind!
We all lose people we are connected to through ties of family or friendship. We also grieve public figures we have admired…
