08
Feb
Blog Contest: Why Is It Important For Our Kids To Know Their Roots? (Week 2)
Post your response in the comments section of our blog and you’ll have the chance to win a free African Ancestry Test Kit!
Each year, February is a big month for African Ancestry. We are fortunate to have opportunities to share the African Ancestry Experience, meet new people, and engage in conversations across the country. This year, we thought a contest would be a good way to reach even more people and hear your perspective on finding your roots. We will pose a question each week and reward the most thoughtful and insightful response with a free MatriClan or PatriClan Test Kit.
One of our dreams for African Ancestry is that every black child know their ancestral roots. We have begun 2010 with two steps towards that goal. We’ve partnered with the Search for Common Ground Foundation on the True Roots Project. And, we’ve partnered with George Mason University on the Science, Technology, Ancestry and Me Project (STAMP) that will hopefully receive funding from the National Science Foundation. For our second contest of the month, please share your thoughts on kids and ancestry for the chance to win a free test kit for the young people in your family.
This week we’d like to know: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR OUR KIDS TO KNOW THEIR ROOTS?
Post your response in the comments section of our blog between February 8th through 14th and you’ll have the chance to win a free African Ancestry Test Kit!
The winner will be announced on February 19th and will be chosen by President, Gina Paige and Scientific Director, Dr. Rick Kittles! See full contest rules here.
UPDATE 02/15/10: This contest is correctly closed. But enter our Week 3 contest to try and win a free test kit.
UPDATE 02/19/10:
My dream is for every Black child in America to know their roots. Voting for the True Roots project is one way that you can help make this dream a reality. We were excited by how many of you agree with us on the importance of young people knowing their roots. Over 60 of you shared your perspectives. We were particularly moved by Monique B’s entry and selected her as the winner of last week’s contest. Congratulations Monique B. on winning an African Ancestry Test Kit!
Read Monique B’s Response:
It is important because by knowing their roots a child can truly understand that, their past history is the roadmap to their future. What they learn in school is history, but who’s history is it? Our history has been cover up by a veil of false pretenses and hidden doorways. Our children have become the product of these injustices and shackles of the mind. They look at TV, magazines and billboards, then look at their own appearance and feel ashamed of their own features. Then to offset this they attempt to live as and share the same history with a people they feel have a true history. These roots they do not know are the same as a beautiful youthful tree being uprooted then toss aside, all hope is lost. Slave stories, and the spilled blood of slaves to the youth who does not know his roots, becomes a burden that they try to hide by portraying themselves as a soul who cares not at all about his history but more about his present. But if they open there minds to what was and not what is, they can follow the trail of tears, back to the footprints in the sands, back to the villages and centers where their ancestral people once stood with their heads high, loving the place they called home.
So once again to answer that question, “Why is it important for our kids to know their roots?” This analogy puts it in simple terms: That youthful tree that was discussed earlier and was described as being tossed aside with all hope lost, has been given a second chance by being rooted again, so now all hope is regained. So the same should be with our kids, not knowing their roots gives them the sense of all hope being lost, but by knowing their roots, hope of a better day is regained.
To everyone else, thank you for your responses. There are still more chances to win a FREE TEST KIT. Answer our Week 3 question to enter for a chance to win. Our Week 4 question will be posted on 2/22. Plus, you can also sign up for our mailing list in February and be entered for a chance to win a FREE TEST KIT.
My husband and I feel that in order to know where your going you first you need to know where you came from. Once a month we sit down with our two children (a young man 15 and a young lady 13) and talk about our history (my husband’s and mines). Milton family was taken from African, not sure of what part, and they were sold to a slave owner by the name of Pitt. Milton great and grandfather use to pick cotton, bails of hay and tabacco. They live in a small shack in the back of a huge whitehouse. His grandfather told him that all the slave owners had very large homes. The great and grandmother both worked in the house. One would “take care of them babies”. Great grandmother even after the children were reared up. She would still call them her “Babies”. Grandma had long black hair. He said the slave owner wouldn’t let her cut her hair. He would tell her how much he loved her hair and her skin. They never spoke of any relationship between the two. Great grandma from time to time would help with the house work once the kids were grown. The grandfather was with the Pitt so long that they let him have the huge white house. His grandfather and grandmother had nine children. The Pitt family had so much land that there is a county called Pitt in North Carolina. My husband says that his grandparent would sit them down and talk about the way things were before they were. How there were different resturants for blacks and white. The colors could on drink from water fountains marked colors only. They talk about how they had to go to the back door to be let into the house. This was after slavery was abolished. But great grandma taught her children how to read and write. However, they had to keep it a secret or something bad would happen to the family.
My family is part Black and Native American or Indiana. I don’t know much about my family’s history. It was taboo to talk about it or to ask a question. Native American side I only know a few things. How they would hunt for their food. They were suppose to be one of the fearless tribe of people. There was talk about how “Ruthless” they were. My tribe is Blackfoot.
Once a month we sit around for family time and talk about ourself sometimes. How when we were growing up a dollar was $20 bucks now. We talk about how we actually play out side, the games we played like hopscotch, jacks (I showed them how to play) They won’t play with me any more they say I was cheating. We played Hot peas and butter, we make snowmen and snow angels. The boys played basketball and they girl watched while deciding which guy we like How in the summer in my neigborhood, we would have block parties with local DJs and Rappers. We had the drugs and gangs. But not like today. When gay meant happy and it was so advertised like now. They stated in the closet. But some how we knew. I could go all night but I’m falling to sleep. Thank you for this opportunity.
Children should know about their roots, because it can give them a greater interest in the actual history of our people, as well as those connected to them directly by their roots. Hopefully they will want to make a difference in the lives of those like themselves, after learning of their roots. Not to mention being accepting of other cultures because as we know, many families have multiple races woven within them. With Dna tracing that is available to the children, they also will be able to have a sense of pride in knowing that they have a rich ancestry that goes far beyond that of slavery. Many oral histories about grandparents, cousins and other distant relatives can show a child that their ancestors went through so much during periods like segregation and some may find out they had people who participated in some of histories most memorable events. Its something about the stories of your ancestors, it gives you a sense that you know them a little better. In many ways it makes you feel closer to them, they are no longer just names. They are people who struggled against insurmountable odds, many times to stand up for the principles of equality. Many of them being far from rich, had only little for their families back in those times, but they were able to make the best out of what they had to put food on the table, support their families and raise children in times where our ancestors were at best second rate citizens. Its also interesting to find out that certain traits and talents and resemblances have come through the generations. Maybe a child has a love for building things, and they may have a greater interest in it because they know that they come from a line of people who were mechanically inclined, or whatever the case may be. All in all Our children need hope and we must build them up in every way possible. And that includes helping them to know where they come from so that they may be able to stand on the backs of those that fought so hard, So one day they’ll be able to soar higher than they ever thought possible.
I often wonder if children would appreciate themselves more and grow up to have more empathy and open-mindedness if they knew about their own rich cultures and histories. These are aspects that should not be solely taught in school. Whoever is responsible for rearing a child must start to expose the youngster to his or her roots at an impressionable age. We can’t fault an adult who is not interested in the past if it was not a part of the fabric growing up.
I feel that if children knew their roots and whence they came then that would make the biggest difference in the world. They would have a new and profound appreciation for life as well a since of self respect and for the elders as well as their own peers. I think if the brothers in the gangs such as crypts and bloods knew their past history and the many struggles of Afrikan people then they would work more so together than against each other!
Two years ago I had my DNA done by African Ancestry at the National Black Arts Festival. At the reveal we learned that my DNA traces back to the Bamileke people of Cameroon. During my childhood I loved social studies but hated that there was very little reference to Africa except for the fact that people were taken from there and sold into slavery. Until now I was never able to tell my children of our true roots. Now they know our family roots trace back to the 1400’s in a well established African kingdom.
Children should know their roots because it gives them some facts about their history. It replace a lot of the negatives in the lives of the African American family while preparing them for a rich adventure into their own past. In 2006 I began this adventure to search for missing parts of my history through genealogy and found family members I never knew about living only four city blocks away from my home. I also began to find a greater appreciation for what my people have done in America when they had very little to help them survive. I found that two of my family member had been Tuskegee Airmen which put a bright light in my eyes and hope in my soul. Our children need the eye opening light of hope and we must build them up in every way possible. So they will know that they come from a line of kings and queens.
When you know your roots, you, in a sense, know your identity. While the identity of your ancestors will not entirely shape your self-image, knowing the identity of those who came before you will connect you to a larger something, a line, a string, a path to your beginnings.
Discovering your family’s past does not mark the end of a journey but marks the beginning of a building venture. As a child, learning about one’s ancestors provides one large stone of the many that will build self-identity. In this world, where many black children continue to feel a lack of self-identity, learning about their ancestors becomes even more important. Knowing that in the distant, often gloomy past, your ancestors survived, grew, married, bore children, lived a life that you became a part of when you were born creates a solid footing on which to stand in an often uncertain time. When you learn about your ancestors, you learn a lot about yourself and your capabilities.
When hearing the word “roots” being utter, sends out a profound message to an individual,youth in particular, whom may never had thought of his or her family ties beyond the shores of America.
Marcus Garvey said it best about the importance of knowing ones roots, in a metaphorical sense: “A people without knowledge of its past, is like a tree without its roots!” Garvey’s quote speaks volumes because without a sense or understanding of your past (roots) you will fall as an individual but more importantly as a nation. By this, we were stripped from a true sense of identity. This issue of ignorance has continue to plague many of our today’s youth across the African diaspora, and which has led to many more worse problems for many of our fellow brothers and sisters.
Countless institutions, here and abroad, have indoctrinated many of us with this “Willie Lynch” chip (i.e. self-hatred) as a tool to keep us mentally dead. For example, we have been taught that everything affiliated with Africa is deemed as inferior,wicked, heathen, and even how being brought to America in chains was a blessing in disguise. Ask yourself, what is the cure for self-hatred, or noted earlier, “Willie Lynch” chip, the answer is quite simple – having a sense of your ROOTS!
With a nation of youth that are in tuned with their roots really can bring legitimate change that is needed. There will be less violence amongst us because we wouldnt kill those that look like us if we loved ourselves to begin with. The black youth would embrace their physical bodies as a true gift from God, and would reject the lies that white supremacy has taught them, especially our young QUEENS! Our young black sisters, with knowledge of their roots will blossom from young ladies, and will return to their righteous throne as the Goddesses of the Universe. Our young black men will carry themselves as kings, and will become once again the backbone of our community.
Discovering your roots is just another tool to FREEDOM here in America and abroad!
Peace,
Dirk
A tree is only as strong as its roots. A person who is aware of and in tune with their heritage has established a foundation that is sound and healthy. This heritage, like the roots of a tree, makes one strong and comfortable within their own skin.
For many years, my father would share all the history of our family. From our ancestors who were slaves to our European and Native American genealogy, he would regale us with stories about our heritage. The only issue was that I was not in the mindset to absorb this information. However, I am lucky for my father, now retired, is able to provide the time and more importantly has reconnected in his mind with memories that were not previously shared. I now relish the opportunity to hear his stories and if this is not sufficient enough, he has commenced a project to write an autobiographical account of his life.
The fact that my family has connections with so many different ethnic groups allows me to embrace diversity over the entire world. In my life, “six degrees of separation” may be more a connecting theory between two people based on heredity than a social network.
My own children have a more complex story being that their mother is Caucasian of German ancestry. However, they are following in my foot-steps from the perspective that they may listen to discussions on family history but have not yet acquired an appreciation for what it all means. How do you convince teenagers that their history is more important to them as a person than knowing the words to the latest “Top 40 Hit”? Time has a way of opening our eyes. My hope is that as they grow and mature, understanding their origins will become an important endeavor. Knowledge is power and the crucial understanding of ourselves is the core of self-awareness and self-actualization (Abraham Maslow).