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Medium AlternateDHughes2016-12-10T00:40:36-05:00

2010, 2016

Photo: VOA News

I give up. Trump wins

By DHughes|2016-10-23T09:38:00-04:00October 20th, 2016|Categories: politics, social, trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: Aristotle, Donald Trump, Presidential Debate, Sam Harris|1 Comment

Trump has exhausted every adverb, adjective, rebuttal, rational analysis and the essence of deductive reasoning (1 minute read) A syllogism destroyed Since the time of Aristotle (384-322 BCE), the syllogism Read more...

1710, 2016

Stand, kneel, sit, jump, run, pass … what difference does nationalism make?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:50-05:00October 17th, 2016|Categories: politics, social, trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome, uncategorized|Tags: Colin Kapernick, Donald Trump, Isaiah Berlin, Marquis de Condorcet, Ruth Bader Ginsburg|2 Comments

Are national anthems really about respect? Or repression? Four things you might not know Patriotism has been recognized since the earliest civilizations but nationalism is a relatively new concept Read more...

1310, 2016

Are Stumpf and Trump biologically connected?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:50-05:00October 13th, 2016|Categories: business, politics, social, trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: Charles Darwin, Donald Trump, Edward O. Wilson, evolution, John Stumpf, Leadership, Richard Dawkins|0 Comments

Egregious behavior by hollow, narcissistic leaders like Stumpf and Trump is, unfortunately, in the DNA of homo sapiens Four things you might not know The root cause of the behavior Read more...

310, 2016

Trump, David Johnston, Roy Cohn, Wayne Barrett, Aaron James, Salerno, Castellano, Joseph Weichselbaum,

Read this book BEFORE November 8th

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:51-05:00October 3rd, 2016|Categories: trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Comments Off on Read this book BEFORE November 8th

An evidence-based exposé of Trump's mob connections and his history of psychopathic behavior Three things you might not know The public record is clear. For forty years Donald Trump has Read more...

3009, 2016

Photo: Fortune.com

“What caused Donald Trump?” Surprise! It’s not what you think

By DHughes|2016-10-19T15:03:16-04:00September 30th, 2016|Categories: trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: Donald Trump, Ezra Klein, Gallup|0 Comments

New data disproves the mainstream chatter and assumptions Gallup interviewed 87,428 Americans and were able to fine tune where support for Trump is coming from (who and where). It's the Read more...

3009, 2016

Ten leadership books most leaders probably haven’t read, but should

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:51-05:00September 30th, 2016|Categories: trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: Adam Smith, Bertrand Russell, Confucius, David Brooks, Machiavelli, Plato, Wealth of Nations, Will Durant|Comments Off on Ten leadership books most leaders probably haven’t read, but should

A plethora of lessons, a dearth of leadership Six things you might not know: More than 11,000 business books are published annually.[1] Surprise, the top-ten books listed below are Read more...

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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.