This week we focused on Roots and the article about 1619. I have to say the slave trade is not a topic, I am particularly interested in writing about for the simple fact that it was a horrendous crime against the of Africans and for the simple fact that I can say that I am fully African, and I cannot confidently say that my family was affected by the slave trade. Over the summer, I had to complete a family tree for an assignment for my Intercultural Communication course. On my mom’s side of the family, there was only one immigrant that arrived here from another country, her name was Hannah Maiden. Hannah arrived here in 1840, and her origin was unknown. She may not have even been African.  Everyone in my family has a red tint, some darker than others, and they also have the facial similarities to the indigenous people. My dad’s side of the family are all from Westmoreland County, Virginia and for as long as I have known we have owned the land there dating back to the late 1800s. However, I do have a great great grandfather that was Irish. I suspect that the Irish came to America and bore children with some of the women in my family ancestry. The point I am making here is that not all brown and red tinted people come from Africa. The idea that every black person has ancestors from Africa is something we were conditioned to believe. If an “African-American” goes to Africa and tells them they are “African-American”, an African would quickly tell us we are not because do not come from there. Why have we been conditioned to think that we are all truly African-American? Can we say that all of our ancestors come from Africa? What gives us the right to take the story of Africans and call it our own? Frankly, African-American is a race and race is a social construct imposed on us by European settlers in the past and as a still imposed on us today by the “white elite.” I am sure that my ancestors mixed with Africans and Europeans, but I cannot comfortably say that I am African-American when the physical features of my family are more closely related to the indigenous people of America.  Nor do I feel comfortable taking their story and calling it my own. Lastly, I will not subject me or family to the social constructs that were on us by settlers. Roots could be the story of most African American people, but it is not the complete story for all of us.