Greetings List, I am going to rant. I saw a statement that pretty much annoyed me. I get annoyed whenever a fellow Afro-American gets offended by the very mention of any differences between us and white people. I don't mean to sound harsh, but, by virtue of our heritage, experiences, culture, etc. we ARE different in many ways. Its like the slightest suggestion that Black people have had an experience different from white people is an insult. To say that our people did not have any interest in genealogy before is not an insult. It may be a generalization, but it is not an insult. Why would that be so insulting, anyway? Maybe it is, for the most part, true. My mother even told me herself that we "selectively forgot" much of our family history because of the pain and embarrassment of slavery. Prior to the 60's, to "move ahead" meant to FORGET your past (direct quote from my mother). Also, the popular opinion has been (even within my lifetime) that Black genealogy was near impossible because of broken family ties. That opinion itself is inaccurate, but it did negatively influence our "interest" in genealogy. Yes, Roots was a milestone. There may be a few exceptions, but you've got to admit that Elder Haley incited a tremendous wave of interest into our genealogy. Maybe the statement is "offensive" because it's "embarrassing" that we didn't do something that many white people were doing (genealogy)? This logic really really annoys me. This post was not meant as a defense for anyone, nor an attack on anyone. I'm done. ---Karmella __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. http://personals.yahoo.com