Reputation & Dignity

I wanted to find out about my ancestry. I wanted to see the noble men and women that made me. So I will know where I came from. So I will know where I am going. I will know my purpose. However my family did warn me that you might find bad history and you might regret what you find. I still waited all my life to do a test. I had to afford the fee for the test and take it properly because I don't want to pay that fee again. And there are lots of people taking the test, celebrities and notable people. I want to see how far they can retrieve of my ancestry. Here I go and mail it.

A few weeks later, I received a letter stating that they are sorry but they must continue more research. And so I wait another few weeks and still the same results. Then finally the third set of weeks, I received a letter. I am hoping. This gots to be good because it took a really long time. I have been very patient and very longsuffering. Shoot I deserve a trophy for waiting so long. Then all of a sudden I feared, what if it says something I don't like. How could I be sure? How could I be certain? So I waited more weeks and months, I begin to research the testing company and found they were the second best and that their results are verified. And I saw other companies that could translate the tests. And I was just about to open the letter on my birthday when I received a letter from a prominent Museum. It says urgent on the outside. So I opened it quickly and my heart dropped as it stated "You are a relative of George Washington, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and Benjamin Franklin. And you must uphold their legacies."

How could this be? How could this come about? I was thinking. And it said further "They were cousins and you are closer to Washington than the others." How could I be related to George Washington? How could I be close to the founding fathers? I'm Black. I was raised Black not White. And what if I don't want to be his relative because of all the slavery. I wanted to find Black Kings and Black Queens. Who knows what he's done to my ancestors? I can't tell my family. I can't tell my friends. I'm gonna look stupid. I'm gonna look like a opportunist.

Then I read further in the letter that they demand to use my name for Washington's first victory during the Revolutionary War, George Hamilton Scott. Okay let's breathe..let's look at the first test. As I opened shocked, Yup at least ten percent from Great Britain and cousins in Great Britain. Mostly African but there's other people in Africa besides Black people and they can't say how much of one race they can only guess.

Then a phone call in my West Virginia apartment, The operator asking for me. I'm annoyed and agitated said that I really don't feel like talking about the tests. They called me Native Son you got to come to Mount Vernon, the home of your father. And I was ready to hang up but when they said that we have been waiting for hundreds of years and thought Washington did not have an heir. I patriotically and naive agreed. My mother called asking about the test. And I plainly told her. She exclaimed that she knew it. And said my family kept the secret because they were discriminated against and they did not want to be put in that position. But she said I was strong enough, wise enough, and smart enough to know what to do. She said that it was rumored one of my ancestors was born on Mount Vernon before Washington died. My mother Giselle Hazele Scott. I told her my anguished and she told me to pray about it and be open and that she loved me and I told her that I love her too.

As I travelled to Virginia to meet at Mount Vernon but my heart was not into it. When I saw the slave cabins, I started to cry. And I wanted to leave and as I saw the bedrooms of Martha Washington and George Washington, I was angry for the unfairness but I knew from school that the laws permitted slavery. It's like that old spiritual, I know I've been changed the angels in Heaven signed my name. I know I've been changed. I realized I can't walk away from my past. I can't walk away from my inheritance. My ancestors are responsible for what they've done. And I am not responsible for them. They are apart of me and I would not be born without them. It is my job to undo the injustices and tell my story. To turn what was done in evil for good and established liberty, justice, and knowledge.