A Change of Mind

There are so many things and topics rattling in my brain today it is difficult to docs on just one. They all seem to run together. With that being said let me start with the confusion I am having understanding my youngest daughter's current shift in thinking.

 In recent months she has proclaimed  that she has a belief in her self worth. Great!!!!! She is wearing her hair natural, no make up, working out to keep her body in shape, and eating healthy. She also has a new partner and they have had a child together. This is her third with each having a different father. She lost her job and has struggled to pay bill and housing is in jeopardy, as her new partner does not work either. He is a free spirit and is very influential in her life. The first major change was the idea that he and she are no longer African Americans. He has research to show that on his mother's side of the family a member is a direct descendant of the American aborigines that were here before Columbus, and his Alabama parents kept this from him. Now my daughter believes that she too is of Indian descent also and should not be considered an African American.

Now I am glad that she is interested in the history of this country and the fact that Indians were here centuries before the pilgrims and their slaves. While it is not taught, Columbus and his successors did not come to an empty wilderness, but to a world that was more populated than parts of Europe. But what is lost on her is the fact that many of the Indians were killed as an excuse for progress and the annihilation of races by Anglo conquerors and leaders of Western civilization. The Indian relocation Act of 1821 moved most the Indians from what was considered the south. To disavow this facts are hard to imagine. This may have been a possibility in the Western parts of he country where the Indians were displaced and slavery was not entrenched yet, but the likelihood, without evidence, of  being descendants of the Moundbuilder culture are slim. But even if so, we must be aware of the fact that we are "black" and that our  forefathers and their descendants have suffered tremendously in this country.

Not only has she given up on her African American heritage she has also change party affiliation. Not that she was much into politics previously, I did feel that we shared some similar ideology. She is a definite Republican now and totally supports Donald Trump. I can understand that she had a definite distrust for Hillary Clinton and some of the thing that had happened, but to overlook the downside  of Trump is hard for me to understand.  She talks about Obama in a way that supposes that he didn't  do anything for Black people during his time in office. This I attribute to the idea that she and others had that a black president would be a "savior" and straighten everything out for people of color in America. This was a fantasy. Particularly when the country was in the worst recession and financial systems were on the verge of collapse. Having a black president meant more to symbolize that in America you could accomplish something "in spite" of who you are. This President did more to assist "Americans" than many of his predecessors based on results. This was not an Abraham Lincoln moment, particularly when the members of the white race's primary mission was to ensure that this President would fail, and that they would try and block everything that he would try to do. This African American President gave people of the white majority to flex heir muscle and try to move the country back to their ideal of white America first.

Donald Trump is another example of what is wrong with America and adds to its continuum of what our forefathers believed. The Anglo American race is superior to all, and the rich need to subordinate those of lower class and different ethnic groups to make America great. Build a wall to protect us from immigrants, increase the military to maintain control and nation building, when pricing for those with funds get to high forget those who need help and get rid of the Affordable Care Act instead of making it better. How can she believe that things will be better for the poor and just middle class Americans with the view looking up. A privileged white male who wants things to be the way they have always been in American history. The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.

While I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, I congratulate her on sticking to her guns about things. These beliefs are the things that create the experiences that make up your life. You have freedom of speech but you do no have freedom from their consequences. We are just a piece of the mosaic that is American and many of these major initiatives will not change things for us at all in the short run, but they will in the long run. Our country has a horrid and brutal past. Slavery and black discrimination are just the worst examples that can be linked to America. I think it is on the decline like the cycle all of the major civilizations go through, but it can be fixed, but only if we see the real past and present history for what it is.