Discussion:

Discussion for article #238172

Background and ethnicity is so hard to define, and history of America and a few other white man dominant nations spent so much time trying to define who was who, well before the advent of DNA and well before we got to a nation where most people everywhere agree that background and ethnicity is not as important as the content of one’s character. Sadly, there are still some people that like to define the lines by skin color or looks or background. Most of us should have moved on to more important economic and social justice issues by now.

The facts of science and anthropology have determined that all human beings are descendants of African born humans. We know that now, we didn’t all know it 50 years ago, but some scientists did. So we are all human beings of African descent.

Sheriff McCall was the equivalent of Pitchfork Ben Tillman. He was not just a segregationist but a violent white supremacist.

True, but even though Chief Justice John Roberts declared racism a non-issue, race is still an issue. It isn’t about genetics, it’s about social and economic status, and who can be defined as one of us versus one of them. If you are one of them, then you must fight for economic and social justice.

Listen to the “debate” over Trump’s comments about immigration. He is only talking about illegal immigration on the Southern Border and branding undocumented people as Mexicans. The GOP is going batshit trying to decide whether to embrace Trump or run from him. Whatever they are deciding they too are only talking about Mexicans and the Southern Border. They are completely ignoring the Northern Border and everyone else who is entering the country. You can call that an argument about immigration policy, but at it’s core it is a racist argument aimed at Mexicans and Hispanics in general.

You’re correct this is a race thing. They always talk about securing the Southern Border, despite the fact that about 20% of the illegal immigrants in our country probably came in through Canada (mostly Europeans, with some Asians). That may not be the lion’s share, but it is still 2.5 million people! And yet, not one word about the European illegal immigrants. I wonder why.

This can’t have been a real problem, since I’ve heard repeatedly about how great black people have been treated since slavery ended, which is what makes it their fault for why they’re poor and desperate since they had the same opportunities as the rest of us. And that’s why we should finally stop helping them, since we’ve given them enough and can finally start openly hating black people again without fear of being called racist for it. I see so many comments saying that sort of thing every day that it MUST be true. Otherwise, if we’re to believe that racism has continued all the way up until now, then…we’d be monsters for continuing it. But since we’re not monsters, then racism isn’t real and therefore this story is invented.

And what’s truly sad is that I have no doubts that I’d read multiple comments saying that same thing if this story was posted on a conservative website. You don’t have to be racist to support the Republican Party, but it sure helps.

That’s odd. We read about it in Canadian news. There was talk of a blimp being deployed by your Homeland Security in the last article I read about it. Most of the articles I have read were about security changes in the border towns where crossing a street means crossing a border. There are even buildings that the border runs through. All in all it’s been a pretty quiet border since you stopped trying to invade us.

“Sheriff McCall was the equivalent of Pitchfork Ben Tillman. He was not just a segregationist but a violent white supremacist”.

I moved to Lake County Fl from Miami about 10 years ago. This place is still Redneckistan, lots of (until recently ) Confederate flags and 4 wheel drive mudders. It was quite a culture shock to move from a Democratic stronghold in South Florida to a place where McCain and Romney won by 65%. The whole state north of Orlando is blood red and with the gerrymander has given us a Supermajority legislature and Felon Rick Scott for Governor. They are dismantling environmental, planning and government institutions as we speak. They are probably disappointed there are not more Willis McCalls around . He was a real piece of work… more about him here:
http://www.sptimes.com/News/112899/Floridian/A_Southern_sheriff_s_.shtml

10 or 12 years later, when I was in elementary school, mainstream magazines and newspapers were publishing articles about the same kind of arbitrary classification being done in South Africa, where sometimes the apartheid authorities removed individual children from their families for being too “colored” to pass. This kind of thing was, of course, widely understood to be absurd and barbaric.

How soon we forget.

Here’s some more info on the Platts from a 1991 article: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-02-10/news/9102100121_1_platt-mount-dora-mccall

Black like them…thank goodness America is no longer racially divided like this…now a days we have better ways to tell if someone is black before we discriminate against them…true white people have nothing to worry about these days…

Okay…am I the only one on this thread who’s secretly wondering whether the Platts were, indeed, mixed-race including African American? Because although I’m not racist, I am very shallow. I also clearly have too much time on my hands, and would like to know, for absolutely no real reason whatsoever.

Surely some later Platt descendant has done a 23 and Me, and can satisfy this idle curiosity.

During the next 11 months, the sheriff, School Board attorneys, the governor and the FBI launched investigations to determine the composition of the fruit picker’s blood line.

Platt said he was Cherokee Indian and Irish, not black, and he fought back. Eventually, he won in court, but the case disrupted the county’s tranquility.

I don’t know, but there are plenty of people that stepped over the color line and never looked back.

Being “mixed-race” is by no means confined to people who look non-Aryan. And, of course, there aren’t any 100% solid genetic marker for “race”, so all a genetic scan would buy you is more muddle. There’s certainly no gene for “Irish”.

Oddly, I would have told you I was on my father’s side 100% Irish immigrant, on my bio-Mom’s side Irish w/a streak of British-American that had been here for 100’s of years. My DNA (only can track my maternal line) says I’m Native American. Huh. Someone obviously passed a couple of generations ago.

BTW on the Irish side, I looked up the meaning of my family name. It was a derogatary term for someone too blonde. I’m guessing Vikings in the woodpile.