It's not that a story in The New York Times about the all-American roots of First Lady Michelle Obama isn't fascinating, even heart-breaking. Viewing the slave trade through the eyes of one of Obama's ancestors, "negro girl Melvinia," a 6-year-old child valued at $475, speaks to the cruel inhumanity of this American institution.
The trail that leads from slavery has been so neglected and grown so cold, solving just one genealogical mystery is quite an accomplishment. Anything that transforms historical fact into emotional, human drama and reaches all the way into the White House is an essential addition to the tangled, yet ultimately triumphant, American tale. Who would have thought it?
It's the presentation of the Times story -- all breathless naiveté -- that took me by surprise. In that, I agree with my colleague Helena Andrews. Michelle Obama has white ancestors. Well, yes, so do most black folks in the United States. Look at the variations in skin color and features. Many white folks are hardly one race either. Edward Ball, who is quoted in the story, has written about his black relatives -- descendants of his white slave-owning ancestors -- in his memoir, "Slaves in the Family."
The wall-to-wall coverage reminds me of the stunned reaction when DNA evidence revealed that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child with Sally Hemings, his slave. The passed-down stories by those red-haired black folks named Jefferson had to wait for validation from the science. The stalwarts who always insisted our complicated third president – who wrote the Declaration of Independence while owning human beings -- would never have sex with one still are not convinced. Annette Gordon-Reed won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about the other side of the family in "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family."
Another open secret, the story of Essie Mae Washington-Williams, fathered by Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond with a teenage servant, returned to the news with South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson. He had attacked the character of the elderly woman when she finally claimed Thurmond, Wilson's mentor, as her father.
For many, it's the idea of rape, coercion and sexual exploitation at the heart of the intermingled history that repels and titillates. The Times story soft-pedals with hedge language more at home in a romance novel: "While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time." This isn't David Letterman and a personal assistant we're talking about. It's slave and owner.
My story isn't so different from Michelle Obama's. My great-great-grandmother was the daughter of the slave master and a slave he raped. When she fell in love with a freed black man doing skilled work, he tried to buy her. But the master (her dad) found out she was pregnant and decided he wasn't going to give up his new "property," his grandchild. He ran the man off. That "property" was my great-grandmother Addie Price, who was a child when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. After the Civil War, by the time they reunited, the man had married. He did take care of Addie. (Addie had a daughter, Mary Cecelia, the grandmother whose name I carry though she died before my birth.)
They made it work and carried on the best they could; most of the next generations did somehow. That a woman who lives in the White House shares this history is interesting, but not startling. It's all very American.
Mary C. Curtis, an NPR contributor based in Charlotte, N.C., was previously a writer and editor for The New York Times and the Charlotte Observer... more
get over it that happened alongggggggggggg time ago
RATE THIS COMMENT: (16)
INDIANSON365
9:11AM Oct 9th 2009
YEAH,AND MY ANCESTORS ON ONE SIDE WERE SLAVES SO THEY COULD EVEN GET HERE---SLAVES FOR 10 YEARS JUST TO TAKE THE BOAT RIDE YOU GOT FOR FREE.--SO THERE WERE SLAVES OVER -OVER-150 YEARS AGO.---GET OVER IT!!!ALL THE OTHER PEOPLES IN THE WORLD WERE ENSLAVED AT ONE TIME,AND AT WORSE CONDITIONS.LOOK AT HISTORY OR JUST READ THE BIBLE.THE ROMANS ENSLAVED EUROPE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS.THE TURKS ENSLAVED OR KILLED EVERYONE.---GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON!--THE LAST BLACK SLAVE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR SOME TIME NOW.AND DONT FORGET HOW THEY WERE ROUNDED UP AND SOLD BY BLACK TRIBES TO THE SLAVERS.SO GET OVER IT AND LETS GET ON WITH OUR WORLD TODAY.SHEEEESH!!!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (31)
Sal
4:58PM Oct 9th 2009
If blacks got over being slaves and blaming everthing on the fact that thier black what elese would they have?
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deborah hardy
2:51AM Oct 11th 2009
NO SLAVERY NOT OVER YOU JUST CHANGE THE WAY OF BEING SLAVE MASTERS SO QUESTION WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND NOW THAT GOD CHANGING IT TO THE GOOD OF THE BLACK SHOULD WE BE AS NICE TO YOU AS YOU WHERE TO US? ONE OF THOE THING THAT MAKE YOU GO HUMMMMMM. WHAT IF THIS IS TURE
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-11)
Carolyn
10:21PM Oct 11th 2009
Sal..What else would the Democrats have to control them with? They would be really free if they could shake the chains of the democrat politicians who manipulate them with promises and welfare and an enemy to hate.
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nhouse8007
9:22AM Oct 9th 2009
Another racist right winger????
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garry402
9:36AM Oct 9th 2009
The pathetics are the one that listened to the Rev. Wright's sermons. There is the hate that you speak of.
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berkedit
9:38AM Oct 9th 2009
There is something about AOL news items and polls that attracts the vilest, stupidest, most bigoted right-wing knuckledraggers among the internet viewership. Kinda like sh*t attracting flies.
The response to this particular news item exemplifies this sorry phenomenon quite well.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-21)
lolabull
10:07AM Oct 9th 2009
Where's the proof that all posters are "right-wingers"? Some of us have no political dog-in-the-hunt to speak of. Some of us are just curious as to why slavery seems to always rear it's head in what so many "left-wingers" obsessively call this particular time period "The 21st Century"? You know, if one speaks of religion or gay marriage they always say, "Well it's the 21st century you know.....?" Why does slavery enter into their furturistic vision so frequently? They're the only ones fixated on color and catagory.
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mattymash
12:18PM Oct 9th 2009
See... It's all these venemous comments from right wingers that prove that books reminding us of racism are still necessary. If books like these inspire such venemous outbursts, then people today must not be comfortable with talking about it. How could they become SO angry about the publication of this book? My response to hearing about this book was simply, "Hm, that's fine. I don't really care too much, but how could it do any harm?" THIS indifference is evident of nothing less and nothing more than a LACK of racism. People who ATTACK any attention this book might have received, or call the president's wife an American hater MUST have some deep-seated feelings of racism, or at least must feel uncomfortable about criticizing their own country. Many of them probably aren't even consciously aware of just how rattled they are at the idea of a black man, a man who is different from the traditional American president, in the White House. Many of them will say, "Of course I don't care what color the president's skin is, but I just don't like people making a big deal of it like it makes a difference or is something noteworthy and special!" But to deny that it is a huge change would simply be... denial. Becuase it is! It could NEVER have happened before! Celebrating this change, and all that it might mean, is totally natural! People who are uncomfortable with that celebration should ask themselves why.
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Dorrall
9:48AM Oct 9th 2009
These are some very interesting things about the first lady. To go back and retrace the life of a prominant person shows that anything is possible in America. I would like to see where her husband came from. Just to see what else is possible in America.
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vintagetealeaf
9:52AM Oct 9th 2009
Dear Mary,
Very nicely and kindly written. I live in the community where a statue of William Lloyd Garrison stands. I hope my long line of white, Yankee ancestors were supporters. But maybe not. They may have just gone about their lives without caring for the injustice and brutality of slavery. We are all part of the American story and I am pleased to read about the courage of former slaves. Congratulations on your own story.
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Bill
10:35AM Oct 9th 2009
It would be great if the media (so-called "main stream") gave us a break.
This poor "lil" girl had such a terrible life (which is why she bad-mouthed this country) that she got into a very important job in Chicago, working for a hospital (figuring out ways to keep the uninsured out of that facility) and the job was so very important that the hospital never needed to fill that position after she left.
Why doesn't the "main stream" investigate why her husband has spent a million dollars hiding from his past (maybe his story is really more important than hers could ever be). Why did he hide his papers from college, passport information, scholarship information, etc.?
Do your job and stop trying to make them more than they are....political hacks from one of the most crime ridden areas of the nation, "Chicago".
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loucardsfan
10:38AM Oct 9th 2009
Dont know where you go to church but it sounds like somewhere in Chicago. You paint all Christians with the same brush while crying about others doing the same thing. Another example of Liberal hypocricy. Keep up the good work.
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loucardsfan
10:39AM Oct 9th 2009
Your comments reveal you are the exact trailer trash you are complaining about. Liberal hypocrite.
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Walt
11:01AM Oct 9th 2009
As a WHITE man people like nickcherryl completely digust me! The truth is we all probally have some slavery in our lineage. If racism weren't still so prevelant today from ALL sides we might could move on. the sheer ignorance, and intolerance that some people show only proves how far we still have to go. In case anybody hasn't noticed; most journalism is based on the current topics. I personally believe this to be a well written story. If you think that Mary is racist or has a personal agenda then you obviously don't know much about her.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (1)
angeldolllogic
1:09PM Nov 6th 2009
I would just like to remind everyone that the Civil War was fought over STATES RIGHTS, NOT SLAVERY! There were as many slave owners in the north as in the south, if not more!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (9)
MARK
11:43AM Oct 9th 2009
Let's give Mrsobama a Nobel Peace Prize....hold on...just to be fair and politically correct...let's award EVERYBODY, a Nobel Peace Prize. After all, we're all just a little mediocre, incompetant and corrupt...aren't we ?