Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. - General Discussion

[carrps]

9 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

It was the writer Louise Erdrich.  

She grew up among Native Americans, but I don't believe she has any actual NA ancestry. It's a touchy issue. A lot of tribes consider people raised in (with?) the tribe are considered tribal members. I guess, for me, what's the point of going on a show like this if you don't think the DNA matters? Oh, well.

 

23 hours ago, Mermaid Under said:

none of these people interest me. 

I'm a huge fan of Ruben Blades -- both his acting and his music AND his politics -- I'm looking forward to his episode. Actually, I like a lot of these people: Melanie Lynskey, Michael Imperioli, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Amanda Seyfried, and Amy Tan.

[meep.meep]

Louise Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe tribe.

Sean Sherman is a Native American chef.

I think it's an interesting list with lots of Asians for once.  Salonga, Tan, and Teigan

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Louise Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe tribe.

I didn't remember her name, but I remember that she gave a long, noble, speech about why she wouldn't consent to DNA testing that sounded totally disingenuous. 

I thought Teigan had already been on one of these shows. I remember her saying that people would ask her "what she was"; i.e., her look is very racially ambiguous.

Edited November 23, 2024 by Mermaid Under
.

[shapeshifter]

On 11/21/2024 at 11:09 AM, One Imaginary Girl said:

It was the writer Louise Erdrich.  

On 11/21/2024 at 8:25 PM, carrps said:

She grew up among Native Americans, but I don't believe she has any actual NA ancestry. It's a touchy issue. A lot of tribes consider people raised in (with?) the tribe are considered tribal members. I guess, for me, what's the point of going on a show like this if you don't think the DNA matters? Oh, well.

17 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Louise Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe tribe.

(see also: startribune.com/the-three-graces/15083971)
 

1 hour ago, Mermaid Under said:

 I remember that she gave a long, noble, speech about why she wouldn't consent to DNA testing…

From scienceblogs.com/geneticfuture/2010/03/08/genetic-ancestry-testing-peopl:

Quote

Louise Erdrich also added that she had spoken with her family members and they did not want her to find her genetic ancestry either.

Quote

This comment from John Hawks (below) also makes an important point about the trade-off between individual choice and effects on broader communities:

If each person's decision were independent, that would be one thing. But what do these companies know about Chippewa ancestry? They know the genotypes of some other people who self-identify as Native American, and they'd like very much to add more self-reported people to their databanks so that they can improve their interpretive abilities. Fair enough.

But that means that every self-identified Chippewa who gives a sample helps to build the genetic picture of identity in that tribal unit. So that every person who contributes may help to *take away* the status of *other people* who self-identify and are genotyped in the *future*.

Individuals should be tested or not as they choose, my viewpoint is personal rights, not collective rights. But the effect of your test on the collective identity is a possibly negative externality of testing -- your genes help to identify others who share distant ancestry with you.

To put it simply: It's complicated.
Not entirely unlike the points in the quote directly above, I personally find the designation of 100% Ashkenazi Jewish to be at least slightly more historically significant than biological, since it doesn't separate out ancestors who were, for example, Cossacks or whatever. Plus, Cossacks themselves might have had significant Far East Asian ancestry. For these reasons I'd like to have my genes in the database for future research that I hope might dispel racism, but I'm still not sure, and have not done so, although one of my daughters has, so it might not matter.

[auntjess]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/henry-louis-gates-jr-searched-his-own-past-and-made-a-surprising-discovery/ar-AA1nW2tb?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=f21c41f18e194123b6b2d68c983566af&ei=16

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Searched His Own Past and Made a Surprising Discovery

 

Edited January 4 by auntjess
To add better description.

[auntjess]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/exclusive-sopranos-star-michael-imperioli-learns-ancestors-were-1920s-law-breakers-on-finding-your-roots/ar-BB1rb76N?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=372c7977e62747ea9889f020e9f5ade3&ei=19

Above is from today's Microsoft news feed.

[auntjess]

Posting this here, because some might want to do this.
https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/get-started-transcribing

[meep.meep]

I'm already doing the same thing for the Library of Congress

https://crowd.loc.gov

I've been transcribing letters sent to Garfield after he was selected as the Republican candidate for president in 1880.  There is always a selection of different "campaigns" to work on.

Speaking of the show - I had no idea that Joy Behar was Italian.  I've never seen a moment of The View, but I have heard her name and seen her face.  She and Imperioli were fun guests.

 

[sempervivum]

1 hour ago, meep.meep said:

She and Imperioli were fun guests

Hm, I found this episode quite boring. I miss the part where they DNA-connect them to somebody else famous.

Can't stand the woman, but Joy Behar absolutely didn't look 82 here. 

[Mollywolly555]

I love this show.

I like Joy Behar. I watch The View.

Yes. She looks  younger than 82, which can be chalked up to genetics, surgery,  and expensive skin treatments, BUT she also is quick on the draw for witty responses, quips, and jokes (albeit with dated references like Lewinsky or Eluzabeth Taylor,  etc.), moreso than most 82 year old. I hope I can be half as lucid then. 

Now,  that said, I thought she was kind of tone deaf repeatedly remarking to Gates about how so very hard her Italian ancestors had it as though he should sympathize with her. 

 I'm thinking, his ancestors were slaves and he is still racially discrimated against today, and he's supposed to feel sorry for your people?  

I do get it. I know human suffering is varied and widespead. Idk, her comments to Gates, that her ancestors had it SO bad, made me uneasy. 

I've been researching my husband's Southern Italian roots who were also peasants (contadino) with no chance of getting ahead without land ownership. They starved, died early, had many babies (12-15l) many of whom also died along with their mothers, and experienced earthquakes, drought, floods, etc.

That's why millions of mistly Southern Italians immigrated to the US and South America at the turn of the 20 century. 

BTW, the separate designation of "Southern "  listed under race was because the Southern half of Italy.. the agrarian Mezzogiorno...  a bit above the spur of the boot and across the country... was looked down upon as backwards, illiterate, cannon fodder, etc. The government didn't care to help them either with education or even roads or railroad lines. Immigration was encouraged.... until too many went away. 

Northern Italy...Milan... nearer to European mainland was urban, industrial, progressive, and intellectual, likely because of their proximity to other European countries. 

Michael Imperioli was very gracious in his gratitude to Gates. My own ancestors were bootleggers and scofflaws during Prohibition. The newspaper articles I found about them hiding liquor -- and getting caught--at their "soft drink parlor" are actually kind of humorous as seen with my 21st century eyes. 

[Yeah No]

I guess no one started an episode thread for this week. I started one last week but I'm not good at remembering to do it. 

[Yeah No]

I just posted a thread for the latest episode here:

https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/151488-s11e2-la-famiglia/

[Yeah No]

10 hours ago, Mollywolly555 said:

I love this show.

I like Joy Behar. I watch The View.

Yes. She looks  younger than 82, which can be chalked up to genetics, surgery,  and expensive skin treatments, BUT she also is quick on the draw for witty responses, quips, and jokes (albeit with dated references like Lewinsky or Eluzabeth Taylor,  etc.), moreso than most 82 year old. I hope I can be half as lucid then. 

Now,  that said, I thought she was kind of tone deaf repeatedly remarking to Gates about how so very hard her Italian ancestors had it as though he should sympathize with her. 

 I'm thinking, his ancestors were slaves and he is still racially discrimated against today, and he's supposed to feel sorry for your people?  

I do get it. I know human suffering is varied and widespead. Idk, her comments to Gates, that her ancestors had it SO bad, made me uneasy. 

I've been researching my husband's Southern Italian roots who were also peasants (contadino) with no chance of getting ahead without land ownership. They starved, died early, had many babies (12-15l) many of whom also died along with their mothers, and experienced earthquakes, drought, floods, etc.

That's why millions of mistly Southern Italians immigrated to the US and South America at the turn of the 20 century. 

BTW, the separate designation of "Southern "  listed under race was because the Southern half of Italy.. the agrarian Mezzogiorno...  a bit above the spur of the boot and across the country... was looked down upon as backwards, illiterate, cannon fodder, etc. The government didn't care to help them either with education or even roads or railroad lines. Immigration was encouraged.... until too many went away. 

Northern Italy...Milan... nearer to European mainland was urban, industrial, progressive, and intellectual, likely because of their proximity to other European countries. 

Michael Imperioli was very gracious in his gratitude to Gates. My own ancestors were bootleggers and scofflaws during Prohibition. The newspaper articles I found about them hiding liquor -- and getting caught--at their "soft drink parlor" are actually kind of humorous as seen with my 21st century eyes. 

I took my response to this to that episode thread, BTW.