It's A Small World After All, Al Sharpton

On Feb. 26, 2007, The Chicago Tribune reported that, "Researchers discovered that Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather." That's a long time ago. Thurmond was 100 years old when he died in 2003. Sharpton, a black "civil rights leader," recently found out that he had ancestors who were "owned" by ancestors of the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond, a cracker, is known for running for President as a segregationist in 1948. The Tribune quoted Sharpton as making this weird statement: "I couldn't describe the emotions that I've had over the last two or three days thinking about this. Everything from anger and outrage to reflection, and to some pride and glory." I'm not sure where the pride and glory come from. Is Sharpton angry or outraged at the still-dead Strom Thurmond? Strom had nothing to do with slave ownership. Is Sharpton proud of being distantly related to someone who was a slave of a long, long, long dead distant relative of man he didn't like? Are you confused, too? Perhaps one day the novelty one's ancestors having been "owned" by someone else's ancestor will wear off. It did for my people, even though the persecution continues today. My father's side of the family is Jewish. We've been persecuted and/or owned as slaves and/or slaughtered en masse for a few thousand years now. It would come as no surprise, indeed it is taken for granted, that my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a slave of some currently living Arab dictator's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. After all, we're all brothers and sisters. I wonder if Al Sharpton would feel better if, instead of Thurmond's ancestor, it was Sen. Robert Byrd's ancestor. Byrd was a wizard in the Ku Klux Klan. But Byrd is Democrat. Thurmond was a Republican.