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

709, 2017

Trump would fail “Basic Training” as Commander-In-Chief because …

By DHughes|2017-09-07T17:40:28-04:00September 7th, 2017|Categories: business, community, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: Donald Trump, Elliott Jaques, Prudence Gourguechon, US Army Field Manual 6-22|7 Comments

... he doesn't pass the minimum requirements in the US Army's FM 6-22 Leader Development Field Manual Three things you might not know Donald Trump would not pass the Read more...

1708, 2017

From Charlottesville to Cobourg, free speech walks a …

By DHughes|2017-08-18T06:09:03-04:00August 17th, 2017|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social|Tags: Charlottesville, Cobourg, Free speech, Trump|4 Comments

fine line between open debate and abusive control (6 minute read) The tragedy in Charlottesville Virginia last week cannot be equated with millions of daily infringements on free speech Read more...

2007, 2017

Leadership in the mirror and …

By DHughes|2017-07-21T10:26:18-04:00July 20th, 2017|Categories: business, community, politics, social|Tags: Charles Darwin, Charlie Munger, Claude Levi-Straus, Daniel Kahneman, E.O. Wilson, Elliott Jaques, Richard Dawkins, Robert Axelrod|2 Comments

the genetic battle between achievement and cooperation Four things you might not know A shallow understanding of the genetic fundamentals of human behavior is perhaps the greatest deficit in Read more...

607, 2017

Where is the leadership in this toxic brew of …

By DHughes|2017-07-07T08:40:44-04:00July 6th, 2017|Categories: business, community, politics|Tags: Darwin, Dawkins, Hitler, Macbeth, Populism, Shakespeare, Trump, Wilson|0 Comments

twisted populism, failing leadership and genetically driven Darwinian leaders? Double, double toil and trouble; Fire leaders, and burst their bubble; Fair is foul, and foul is fair, The peoples' Read more...

2006, 2017

70% is a long way from 100% …

By DHughes|2017-06-20T11:34:39-04:00June 20th, 2017|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: Amazon, Apple, Deloitte, Dr. Elliott Jaques, Gallup, Google, Requisite Organization, Yahoo|4 Comments

so why is it accepted as a benchmark by most leaders? Three things you probably don't know When rating the top five public tech organizational cultures, Google came out Read more...

606, 2017

On Bullshit – a perspicacious, philosophical take on …

By DHughes|2017-06-06T11:51:17-04:00June 6th, 2017|Categories: business, communitywatch, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: Bullshit, Harry Franfurt, Ivanka Trump, kellyanne Conway, Richard Dawkins, Trump|1 Comment

our society's state of affairs and the President of BS Four things you might not know The author of the bestselling book, On Bullshit is Harry Frankfurt, professor emeritus 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.