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My mom and dad are darker so i don't present white or even "visibly mixed" but even 1 generation back my mom's grandparents have v light skin. And ironically, I'm lighter than my parents. An interesting show of genetics, for sure.... (this is turning into a thread lmao) https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1276525498127040512
While i don't have that "mixed" look that Americans have constructed as a racial phenotype, occasionally people will ask if I'm mixed because of perceived non normative traits like my "high cheekbones." There's a whole nother series of tweets right there, but anyway...
And my entire life I said no, and still I say no because I'm literally Black. but it was only like a year ago my grandma told me that her great (maybe x2, cant recall) grandmother was white and Jewish. This probably speaks to the complicated ass racial history of Jamaica as well-
As the deeply entrenched histories of African slavery, Taino genocide, the Maroons (and accompanying Indig intermarriage), and more. I often wonder about my family's past, both on the island and in America on my dad's side (but I'm less close to that side of the fam bc divorce).
Being descended from slaves it already feels so much more difficult to trace these familial legacies because of all the effort that went into literally dehumanizing slaves into property, and it seems even more difficult in Jamaica (at least from talking to my grandma) to keep...
track of ancestral records...my grandma only went to grade school, and her parents definitely didn't. No one's writing anything down like that, yknow? It's all oral history. I can't comment on the Jamaican govt's historical recordkeeping, especially pre independence
but it couldnt be much better than the US's methods of documenting Black and white "intermarriage." This thread could go on 4ever bc the little hamster wheel in my head is spinning, but tldr i wish i could know more about my history, but im not sure how to cope w/what i may find.
