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

405, 2012

Talk to the animals, they’ll tell you the truth

By DHughes|2018-01-16T13:59:41-05:00May 4th, 2012|Categories: social|Tags: endangered species, Grizzly bears, owls, polar bears, red knot birds, turtles, wolves, World Wildlife Foundation|0 Comments

(photos courtesy Joel Sartore, all rights reserved: http://www.joelsartore.com/galleries/the-biodiversity-project/) We're killing each other and one of us knows why– and doesn't care Go ahead, look them in the eye and tell Read more...

1202, 2012

Meet the neighbors – before we kill them all!

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:27-05:00February 12th, 2012|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: climate change, coral reefs, ecosystem, El Nino, fisheries, Global Reef Monitoring Network, Great Barrier Reef, oceans, tourism, US State Department, world weather, World Wildlife Foundation|0 Comments

Hey you humans, it's not Planet Earth, it's Planet Water How naïve, arrogant and ignorant of us to call it planet earth. Oceans cover 71% of the planet, Read more...

702, 2012

Text message: “Hey Mom, I’ll be right home … maybe.”

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:27-05:00February 7th, 2012|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: BMW, car accidents, cell phones, children, Costa Concordia, death, motorists, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Safety Council, safety, smart phones, texting, US Transportation Department|0 Comments

Dumb people using smart phones – it's killing them. But only about 5500 each year, so who cares? When your number is up, it's up. And it may Read more...

601, 2012

Forget the science of climate change, just step outside

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:29-05:00January 6th, 2012|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: climate change, deforestation, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, Rick Perry|0 Comments

On January 5, 2012, 98% of the United States had temperatures above freezing – in January! On this same day in January 2011, 46% of the United Sates Read more...

601, 2012

The View: Where marriage is a trivial pursuit

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:29-05:00January 6th, 2012|Categories: social|Tags: Elizabeth, Joy, marriage, sex, Sherri, The View, Whoopi|0 Comments

In just two minutes, Whoopi, Joy, Sherri and Elizabeth manage to trivialize, minimize, debase and insult marriage and sex. We all know that dumb-downed TV almost always ups 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.