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| Above are the various African areas that Maya's ancestors come from. Based on this, her father is 86% African and the rest European. Maya's European part that doesn't come from Steve and me appears to be from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) What she is not is Native American though her paternal grandmother swears this is so. Her father asked how he could find out his background. Um..multiply all of Maya's African parts by 2 and there you go. Must do more reading. I thought the English grabbed slaves from Ghana to bring here and the Portuguese grabbed Nigerians to bring to Brazil (and about 100 fold more than the English) |
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| Tessa and Maya enjoying a popsicle |
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some of her European roots shining through
Recently I was reading a blog of a white adoptive mom of an African- American girl being raised in a black neighborhood in NY. The mom's white friends tell her Oh you should just let her hair be natural. Black little girls look so cute with their ringlets cascading down....
But do the other black little girls in that neighborhood have their hair in Afros? Apparently not. They are in tight braids. Maya often comes back from a weekend with her aunts with her hair in tight braids and part of me is disappointed because yes, she does look cuter to me with that mass of curls. Are Ann Arbor black girls the same as the ones in New York? I don't know. If we want her not to stick out as a girl obviously raised by white folks, I guess we should pay attention. The other little black girl in her class is raised by an adoptive mom (who looks my age) has her hair in very loose braids or lumps.
As for the adoptive mom in New York, she doesn't have the skill set to do her daughter's hair but finds others to do it. Eventually Maya will learn from her peers how she should wear her hair. Right now, she is focusing on clothes: the shinier and sparklier the better.
In a neighboring county, someone put up a sign
Make our county white again
Geez. Presumably it was a joke, a take on Trump's slogan\
Make America great again
Which means what? More white? Less Mexican? More Jim Crow? No women voting? Less caring for the old and the sick? What time period were we greater? The end of the 19th century with child labor and all the wealth in 5 men's hands?
Trump is appealing to the evil that isn't buried too deep inside of us. Before Trump, I bet that man would not have dared put that sign up but now, it is AOK as that is what the presidential candidate presumably feels.
And I fear for my family: part black, part Asian, part Jewish, part Arab, part gay..groups that certain white men love to hate and some of them find a religion to justify it.
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4 comments:
Sigh.
The make our country white again people have a foothold over here too. Forgetting (conveniently) that the people from whom they 'acquired' said country were not white.
And the 'good old days' were very good for some and incredibly hard work for others. Which hasn't changed much.
Scary times here. Trump brings out the ugly. When I listened to him rant and rave during the first Republican debate, I thought no one would ever take him seriously but I was so wrong. And he really has no plan to help his main followers, uneducated white men but he unites them with inane slogans.
Don't discount the Native American thing so fast. You only inherit half of your parent's DNA. Which half is up for grabs. That is why you can get two siblings with different color hair and eyes. Each person can only contribute half of their DNA to their children. If you didn't receive any of a certain gene from your parents, it will not be passed on. So, my aunt shows Ireland and West Europe, with only trace amounts of Great Britain and Native American. On the other hand, I show 35% Ireland, 27% Great Britain, 25% West Europe, but no Native American. My daughter only has Irish and Great Britain. My son is very similar to me. Maya can have Native American ancestors, she just didn't get their genes. Ancestry has a very good tutorial about gene distribution in their Ancestry Academy. You can access it with the Extras button.
Maya's father is very willing to have his DNA tested. It is interesting that your daughter doesn't show the Western Europe part Lisa. Also a lot of my presumed Irish background didn't seem to be transmitted. Did you upload your raw data to GEDmatch? Lots of interesting stuff in that database and it's free. Promomethease gives you lots of medical information and cost $5.
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