Anita

It is too bad that you see it as an "attack on you". It was meant  
more as a cautionary comment. You frequently don't see where people  
are going, or coming from, with their posts because you don't read  
them you react to them.

Mr. Browning was responding to your "flaming" him, because you did  
not read what he posted. And contrary to what you claim you did  
"attack" Mr. Browning. And it is not the first time you have jumped  
on another poster. You have a tendency to go off half cocked, over  
react, and relate almost everything to slavery. There is and was more  
to Virginia history. My point was that while you are legitimately  
proud of your African heritage, you wear it on your sleeve. That is a  
potential problem because you let it influence your posts and it  
detracts from what you are posting.

While we are all interested in our ancestors. One's race should not  
be an issue in an historical discussion. It shouldn't matter that Mr.  
Browning knows that you are African-American (everyone does as you  
make such an issue of it) and you don't know his race. Just because  
you are of African ancestry, does not make statements you make about  
slavery or life in the South any more valid than Mr. Browning's or  
anyone else on the list. It does, as you had slave ancestors, give  
you a personal connection. But that is all. Are only descendants of  
people who owned slaves allowed to comment on their history? Can only  
people of Indian ancestry, like me, legitimately comment on Indians?  
Much of what we know about the life the American Indian or Africans  
is due to the work of lily white Europeans or Americans. Does their  
"race" invalidate their work? Your posts often leave the impression  
that you think so.

Mr. Browning may be White. So what? He knows at least as much about  
Virginia history as you, perhaps more. As he has spent his life  
studying it. He certainly knows more about some aspects, as you do  
about others. We cannot know everything because we are compelled to  
specialize. Lists exist so we can exchange information.

If you go back far enough the present theory is that we are all  
African. Race is an artificial and somewhat arbitrary way to separate  
people. This is particularly true if you take it to the extreme of  
skin colour. While most (about 75%) of the people from India are as  
Caucasian as a Norwegian, many also have skin as dark as Africans. We  
should judge people by the contents of their minds, their  
utterances,  and especially their deeds, not by the colour of their  
skin.

James Brothers, RPA
[log in to unmask]



On Sep 4, 2007, at 12:42, Anita Wills wrote:

> I don't know where you are going with this post. I responded to a  
> post in which the person said, their ancestors fought in the Civil  
> War to free, "My" people. I stated that the poster knew I was  
> African American, and I did not know what his race was. Now you are  
> sending a post saying that the I am focusing on the color of  
> someones skin. In the first place my immediate family contains  
> almost every race in this nation. My lines have changed races  
> several times since it's inception. I also pointed out that I have  
> direct ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812,  
> and in the Civil War. This was again, in response to the posters  
> message, which was directed at me.
>
> So I am puzzled as to your attack on me (UMMM).
>
> Anita