Was this Britain's first black queen?, in The Guardian:
Among those who attended Aptekar's focus groups is congressman Mel Watt, one of very few African-Americans in the House of Representatives and who represents the 12th district of North Carolina which includes Charlotte. "In private conversations, African-Americans have always acknowledged and found a sense of pride in this 'secret'," says Watt. "It's great that this discussion can now come out of the closet into the public places of Charlotte, so we all can acknowledge and celebrate it."
I suppose this isn't a gross example of ignorance, rather like Americans who have no idea that France has been a nation of immigrants since the early 19th century. But 10% of the American Congress is black, while 13% of the population is (thanks to majority-minority redistricting).
- Log in to post comments
"whom Valdes takes to have been a Moor and thus a black African": oh dear, bit of a cock-up there.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Queen Charlotte did have one 'Moorish' ancester in the 13th century, which is what seems to be claimed, and suppose also (very dubiously) that 'Moorish' = 'Black'. Assuming 3 generations per century, this would mean that Charlotte had approximately 1 out of 2^15 'Black' ancestors, which is less than 1 in 10,000. I've heard of the 'one drop' rule, but this is ridiculous!
The Guardian seems to be arguing that because the queen was ugly she must have been black. Good grief. If it weren't for Godwin's Law.....
"He claims that the queen, though German, was directly descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family, related to Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman nine generations removed, whose ancestry she traces from the 13th-century ruler Alfonso III and his lover Madragana, whom Valdes takes to have been a Moor and thus a black African."
Yeah.
Personally I feel arguements like these rapidly descend into farce once you travel beyond your place of birth/upbringing and that of your parents.
But then I also think that the weight some people seem to put in their claimed ancestry is also farcical as well - I know someone who proudly claims to be of irish-german-danish stock, despite her and her family back 2 generations having been born and raised in Chicago. I don't even know what thats supposed to mean! :)
So we can eliminate racism by extending the "just one drop" doctrine until we're all black, right?
Another one for the "race is socially constructed" pile, I guess...
Interestingly, the article goes on to say that Queen Charlotte was an ancestor of Queen Victoria - and therefore of most of the Royals in Europe.
While researching this I found an even more interesting article that suggests that Queen Victoria's father was Sir John Conroy??!!
It seems that there was always a court rumor of such, and even the Duke of Wellington felt it was true. Now researchers have shown that none of Queen Victoria's official ancestors had hemophilia, and thus it may have been introduced into the Royal line via Conroy??
Which would mean that I myself may be a distant relative of all the Royals in Europe!!!
Here's more on Sir John Conroy, including Conroy's picture...
It's all Africa if you're willing to go back far enough...
"Now researchers have shown that none of Queen Victoria's official ancestors had hemophilia, and thus it may have been introduced into the Royal line via Conroy??"
It would certainly be nice to have proof of hemophilia in Conroy's family. And the explanation could be that Queen Victoria experienced a de novo mutation. It's a rare event, but it does happen.
Regarding porphyria, a cursory review of the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyria) demonstrates that there are multiple types of porphyria and multiple modes of inheritance. Do we know with which one George III was afflicted?
Mirrored by the fact that Henry Louis Gates, upon taking a genetics test, found substantial European ancestry.
Arguing about descent is silly. Each of us is who we are. No more, no less.
Queen Victoria looked an awful lot like her putative father, Prince Edward, if you ask me. And Conroy would have had to have been a hemophiliac himself which seems pretty doubtful given that he was a soldier and lived as long as he did. By the way, I saw pictures of the current Prince Edward. Talk about a guy who has not aged well at all.
anondoc,
Yeah, good counter point! Except of course if he was a soldier in a non-field position - more like a gentleman soldier.
Huxley,
Do you see any resemblances between Sir John Conroy and Prince Charles?
I do - the eyes and nose particularly!
The Guardian article talks about the one-drop rule as something that used to exist in America. Isn't it still alive and well?
"The Guardian article talks about the one-drop rule as something that used to exist in America. Isn't it still alive and well?"
I would say that it is. Anyone who has any visible amount of African ancestry is claimed by the black community and not considered white by the whites, and I think if you can demonstrate any amount of African ancestry you can qualify for various affirmative action benefits.
This congressman from North Carolina considers himself black despite his European appearance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Butterfield
Mutations leading to haemophilia arise spontaneously fairly often. As Steve Jones said: "the mutation probably took place in the august testicles of her father, the Duke of Kent".
"Do you see any resemblances between Sir John Conroy and Prince Charles?
I do - the eyes and nose particularly!"
Ummm...even if Conroy were the natural father of Queen Victoria, he would be Charles's great great great great grandfather.
She doesn't look very Black/African to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Several_Portrait_of_Charlotte_of_Meck…
She did have significant Portuguese ancestry though, and thus likely Sephardic Jewish ancestry (which would have given her an 'ethnic' look) because of high intermarriage between the native Iberian royalty and Iberian Sephardic Jews over the centuries. Actually, European royalty (especially British royalty) has quite a bit of Jewish ancestry which can also be counted amongst its ranks, though it is/was mostly Sephardic rather than Ashkenazi until the last few decades.
And being from the Iberian peninsula along with North Africa, many Sephardic Jews actually have quite a bit of recent Black/African ancestry.