social | Straightspeak

Is Petraeus the exception or the rule–and what’s the rule?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:08-05:00November 19th, 2012|Categories: politics, social|Tags: affairs, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Clinton, Broadwell, Freud, Gary Hart, JFK, Petraeus, sex, Tiger Woods|

David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell: Holding hands in public is quite common, even between secret lovers, and deserves nothing more than a "So what?" (reuters) Why did his mistress choose “All In” as the title for his biography? Why do men and women like General David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell risk success for sex? He, in particular, is Read more...

Oh Canada, oh no! Is Harper selling out to China?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:08-05:00October 29th, 2012|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: China, Clayton Ruby, democracy, foreign trade, forest ethcis, Mitt Romney, Prime Minister Harper|

Prime Minister Harper toasts the selling out to China. All part of the race to beat Americans to the big China pie. (photo: forestethics.com) Sign this petition BEFORE November 1, 2012 – hurry! Stop Canada's Prime Minister Harper from creating his version of state capitalism! Click here to sign the petition: Here's another conservative who says one Read more...

“Oh Mother of Mary” … did Jesus really have a wife?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:10-05:00September 29th, 2012|Categories: social|Tags: Bible, Harvard Divinty School, Jesus, Karen King, Last Supper, Lazurus|

Written in the 4th century AD, 150 years after the crucifixion, Jesus' little secret may be out. Or not? (reuters) Sacre Bleu! Has this little piece of papyrus ripped a page out of the 2000-year-old Catholic story of misogyny? Has the Vatican been wrong all along? Did Jesus embrace the marriage of priests and the ordination of women? Read more...

Luxury to die for – and in!

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:11-05:00September 4th, 2012|Categories: business, social|Tags: Apple, Audi, BMW, Insurance Institute for Safety, luxury brands, Mercedes, Volvo|

Just when you thought it was safe to slip back into that ego-soothing leather MercedesCclass - all that money, so little safety. See that 3 pointed star, you may be wearing it soon. Aaah the quality of luxury brands: Your safety is optional and brand damage protection is not included Most of us know a quality brand when Read more...

Marathon and serial liars – a.k.a. politicians

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:11-05:00September 3rd, 2012|Categories: politics, social|Tags: George W. Bush, marathon runners, Matt Lauer, Paul Ryan, US politics|

Paul Ryan is a marathon liar and comes in last – behind a bunch of other liars Ryan Gore Palin Huckabee Frist Bush Edwards Spitizer Nothing new about lying in politics, it's a given. But Paul Ryan's lie about running a Read more...

How’s your paycheck? Does size matter?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:14-05:00June 20th, 2012|Categories: business, social|Tags: Apple, CBS, Cummins, Larry Ellison, Murdoch, Nooyi, Oracle, Pepsico, Solso, Tim Cook, Top CEOs|

Compare it to Apple's Tim Cook at $348 million or WWP's Martin Sorrell who didn't get his $10.5 million or a lot of rich CEOs in between How much is $348 million? (graphic: NYT) Wow! And we thought times were tough. Somewhere between the 99% and the 1% there was supposed to be a tempering of the ghastly Read more...

Masters of the uterus, repent! The Dark Ages are over

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:14-05:00June 19th, 2012|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Barb Byrum, Detroit News, Eve Ensler, Lisa Brown, Michigan Capitol, Vagina Monologues, vasectomies|

16 years after its debut, The Vagina Monologues is packing them in everywhere, including State legislatures (photo: wikipedia) What is it about women, politics and vaginas that don’t fit? If ever the cliché, “Politics makes strange bedfellows,” was considered a truism, it was proven last week in the Michigan State Legislature. If ever men needed to be reminded Read more...

Marketing with product placement: When subtle can go viral

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:15-05:00June 13th, 2012|Categories: business, social|Tags: Bridget Moynahan, CBSSports, ESPN, Funny or Die, Gisele Bündchen, New England Patriots, Tom Brady|

Three-time Superbowl champion, Tom Brady goes on a rant (see short video below) If you want funny, get truly funny people to create your spots If you haven’t seen the Tom Brady promo that has gone viral then check it out. Some great advertising lessons embedded in this one. Comedic writing has to be done by great comedic Read more...

We know where the insanity is. So where’s the outrage?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:15-05:00June 12th, 2012|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Eaton Centre, George Zimmerman, gun laws, National Rifle Association, obama, Second Amendment, Stephen Harper, Thomas Jewfferson|

When it comes to guns, why does insanity trump outrage? It’s actually fairly simple. Insanity resides with the minority, outrage with the majority. And it’s much easier to organize and voice the views of a minority than it is to get a majority to do anything. Not because the majority of us don’t want to do Read more...

My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."

"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama

This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.

It's historical fiction because I cannot find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandmothers' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, all the facts aren't there. I have written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left too few records – slavery.

My paternal, great grandmother was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, the Count de Poullain, in Grenada, West Indies. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage disowned her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, as a mother of twelve children, enshrined into the family commandments, "Marry white." Many did, including my father. My mother was a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.

It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary to free themselves from the stigma of their black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying. But, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear, violence, and murder but also the self-respect, dignity, love, kindness, perseverance and indomitable spirit.

As of the spring of 2025, the depth of historic perspective and the sweeping inspiration of oppressed people has created a two-volume duology of which I have only arrived at the middle of the 19th century. 1840 is the year my great grandfather was born, the beginning of Volume II, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2026.