Woman -- I love the hayell outta you!!! You've said EVERYTHING I feel and so much more! Those of us, particularly born and raised in the South or, of Southern, Black ancestry share so many of the same experiences!!

I didn't know my great-grandmother, she died nearly 20 years before I was born. I did, however, grow up with my grandmother who lived to 93 and shared all of the stories of those who came before us. She was privileged to have inherited some land on one of the SC Sea Islands, paid for by my 2nd great-grandmother in 1899 who was born into slavery and whose husband served during the Civil War in the 21st U.S. Colored Infantry. The land was originally a part of the plantation where the maternal side of my family was previously enslaved I have a copy of the original deed. It's a long story I'm slowly writing, hopefully for a book one day -- mainly for my sons their children to have and know, as James Baldwin said, "from whence they came."

Hope you read the piece at the link that I shared with Dwayne, because it speaks to what you say about Africans on the Continent and us. I've heard about other derogative terms used on the internet, but I keep it moving' when I see that kind of mess. And of course you're right about those that sold us and didn't come looking for us, some of it I get, some I don't. All I know is I have no desire to see Viola Davis in "The Woman King."

Like you I can't (nor want to) deny my African ancestry, but I am Black! Thanks so much for the convo!