Sunday, February 25, 2007
Degrees of separation
I was fascinated to learn that Al Sharpton's ancestors were chattel slaves of the family of the late Senator from South Carolina and erstwhile segregationist, Strom Thurmond. Sharpton, never at a loss for words, was virtually speechless at the news:
"I have always wondered what was the background of my family," the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. "But nothing — nothing — could prepare me for this."
"It's chilling. It's amazing."
Sharpton's office said Sunday morning that he would not comment until a news conference planned for later in the day.
I always imagine the worst, so naturally I wonder this: Are Al Sharpton and Strom Thurmond cousins?
Before you cry foul, tell me with a straight face that you don't believe Sharpton isn't wondering the same thing.
10 Comments:
By 
Assistant Village Idiot, at
Sun Feb 25, 10:51:00 PM:
I thought the "It's chilling" comment rather remarkable. Whatever the sins of Senator Thurmond and his family, I'm not sure Al Sharpton has the moral standing to criticize much of anyone.
That would apply equally to someone using similar phrsing about the family on Sharpton's behalf, even if the accusers were themselves pure. "Chilling" implies a moral superiority so great that it can scarce be expressed. That seems a bit much.
Now ironic, I would go for that.
By GreenmanTim, at
Sun Feb 25, 11:51:00 PM:
The set up is interesting, too. How does a reporter, contacted by Ancestry.com (great site, run by the folks who have made a religion out of genealogy: the LDS), decide on Al sharpton as the next guinea pig to test the service? Reporter's nose for a story, or something else?
By Jeremiah, at
Mon Feb 26, 01:08:00 AM:
By 
, at
Mon Feb 26, 05:06:00 AM:
A comment refers to Sharpton's "moral standing." Buying and selling other human beings is the moral equivilent of...what? The post was just fuckin' hilarious,though
By Pablo Gazmuri, at
Mon Feb 26, 11:22:00 AM:
Given that most male descendents of slaves have a y chromasome of european ancestry (meaning their paternal lineage can be traced to europe, not Africa), it would not be surpising if Strom and Al were related. In fact...I'd be more suprised if they weren't.
By , at
Mon Feb 26, 11:27:00 AM:
Given Strom's preference for black booty (remember he fathered a child with his parent's 16 year-old black maid when he was 21), it wouldn't suprise me that some of Strom's ancestors liked the same thing.
By Georg Felis, at
Mon Feb 26, 01:51:00 PM:
You know, one of the things I admire about America is that we don’t believe in Blood Guilt, where the Sins of the Fathers are visited upon even the third generation…
By , at
Mon Feb 26, 02:46:00 PM:
The Saga Continues............
When last we left that retard Little Nell, she was running through the jungle, a pack of blood thirsty Zulus with bad body odor nipping at her heels as she had made off with the only known specimen of the often rumored but up until now undiscovered Pew Orchid, unmistakable in it’s putrid essence as it was resplendent in the highly prized but rare state of full turd blossom. The crudely realized spears zipped through the air just like the thought bees in little Nell’s meat sponge, occasionally caroming will-nilly off the sides of large clunky tree trunks and sizable sedimentary boulders scattered throughout the dank jungle flora proper, getting ass-puckering close to poor stupid Little Nell, nearly shitting herself in abject foreboding. Yes, she was being hunted like an egg sucking dog, actually more like a boar which the local indigenous population prized for it’s soft succulent pink meat, but never mind all that, she was being hounded for her insolence towards native custom and pointless societal ritual. In her haste, she wished not only that she had spent more quality time with the natives, establishing a more gracious intercourse with them, but also oddly digging for more info regarding the equally malodorous pigs in the area, and I’m not talking about the tribal chief’s asshole son who tried several times in vein to sneak a look up her pretty orange and green camisole. The savage and wild boar that roamed these tropical forests of Tetiaroa were known for their especially luscious flesh, ease of spit-cooking (a rather gross method by Western standards), and the absolute pain in the ass difficulty of capturing them using any weapon other than native spears carved from jungle bamboo and festooned with spearheads fashioned from shark dicks home-grown in the local waters. Earlier, she had been offered a heaping palm-frond-full plotz of the juicy meat, steaming and attracting squadrons of the local titty flies almost immediately as it was spooned on to the mud-caked and cracked palm leaf, but she was too squeamish at the notion of actually ingesting such a repast covered as it was in the many assorted loogies courtesy of the team of native chefs furiously nattering like nabobs over a stereotypical dark iron cauldron. The wild boars, slightly smaller but demonstrably more fierce then their larger porcine cousins on the atoll, were known for putting up a fierce fight when cornered, especially those that the local village idiot bred for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and the quarterly end of the sales cycle. The boars were---and still are---stalked and killed by Tetiaroamian tribesman famed for their unrivaled large members and stalking and killing skills in the South Pacific.
By W.B. Reeves, at
Tue Feb 27, 02:21:00 PM:
As someone whose Great Grandfather served with Robt. E. Lee I have a hard time understanding why you'd think anyone would call foul on this. Like one of my Aunts is won't to say, its pretty stupid to deny something was common practice when the evidence is visible to the naked eye. The suggestion of blood kinship between slave owner and slave isn't likely to suprise any African Americans. Personally, I suspect that possibility is precisely what Sharpton was referencing with his "chilling" comment.
More interesting to me is the unmentioned correlative to this. For over 300 years the US has produced unumbered generations of mixed race parentage. Of these an unknown number have been able to "pass" as "white" and have consequently been absorbed into the white community. The logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that untold numbers of folks who assume themselves to be "white" in fact possess an African heritage.
I suspect an inquiry into this side of the question would generate far more of a stir.
By , at
Wed Feb 28, 11:05:00 AM:
Do we know which of today's professional blacks had ancestors who were owned by the family of Saint Jimmah Carter? Al Gore's father railed against civil rights efforts for years. Did the Gore family own slaves and have any of them done as much credit to the Gores as Sharpton has given to the Thurmonds?
You just don't see enough credit being given for the influence that these benevolent owners had on the the folks in public life today.
