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My People Were Oppressed! I Demand Reparations !

by Randy Barker

My man, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, has it right. Just back from the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Jesse has found the issue that will make people forget about his sexual transgressions. Even better, it's something that could mean money in my pocket. That issue is reparations. Reparations for slavery and past racial injustice is back on the front burner.  Every black politician [except for the Nigerians] attending the U.N. Conference at Durban, South Africa thought it was a splendid idea. Even the ruling Muslims in Sudan who are today enslaving black Sudanese Christians. I, too, think reparations are a great idea. And I believe I richly deserve my fair share of Whitey's taxpayer dollars.

Oh, you thought I was lily white myself ? Guess again, sucker ! I'm Melungeon. And you may be, too. Besides Barker, other common Melungeon surnames include Adkins, Carter, Hall, Moore, etc. The list looks like the telephone book in any Eastern Kentucky town you can name. Or any Appalachian town in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, for that matter.

Who and what is a Melungeon ? Dern good question. It hasn't been totally determined by DNA testing yet, but here is what is known. Back in 1654, Englishmen exploring the Appalachian Mountains discovered a well-established Christian people who were "dark-skinned  with fine European features", with striking blue eyes and who identified themselves in broken Elizabethan English as "Portyghee" or Portuguese. But they may also have been a combination of Spanish, Turkish, Moor, Berber, Gypsy or Jew. Maybe even the Taureg, the blue-eyed "white" Arabs of the Sahara. They undoubtedly had intermarried with Indians just as Captain John Smith of Jamestown did with  Pocahontas. And later on, some intermarried with escaped black and half-black slaves.

Where did these people come from ? There are all kinds of theories. Shipwrecked sailors. People banished from Barbados. Survivors from The Lost Colony. Spanish soldiers from Hernando De Soto's army. The Rom, or gypsies, who were kicked out of Europe and came over as indentured servants on early tobacco plantations. Portuguese, Armenians,Turks and Moors freed from the Spanish by Sir Francis Drake in 1587. Wherever they came from, they looked Mediterranean, and therefore were not considered "white" by Northern Europeans.

Categorizing these people collectively as "colored" made it easier for their best land to be stolen from them. And that may have caused them to seek sanctuary in the Appalachian high country. Discrimination was rampant. And it's existed until very recently. Back in the 1920's, a Dr. W.A. Plecker, Virginia's first chief of the Bureau of Vital Records insisted that all Melungeon people be listed as "free people of color (FPC)"or "Mulatto (M)" on state records, which came to mean the same as Negro. Plecker was operating on what they call in the Bahamas "the lick of the brush" or the "one drop rule" here, even when it couldn't be proven one drop of Negro blood existed. Plecker also was instrumental in getting passed through the Virginia legislature an "Act To Preserve Racial Integrity" that said if you have 1/16th Melungeon blood you could not marry a "white person". This law was on the books until 1967.

I suspect that I have Melungeon blood on both sides of my family. The Howards of Magoffin County can be just as "easily tanned" as the Barkers of Elliot County, especially when Howards intermarry with Arnetts. One thing I know for sure. I do have a half-Cherokee great-great grandfather named John Starkey. This Confederate veteran's picture hangs in my home today.

So, you see, I can lay out a claim for the racial persecution of my ancestors, too. And I can charge both European governments, and my own, as the culprits. I can go the persecuted Native American route. I can also claim my ancestors were discriminated against and looked on as "colored". Or, if there's enough money in it, I might want to "pass" as Black. Who's to say I'm not ? After all, this is just about getting cash for what happened 150 to 400 years ago to some long-dead relatives. It's a great shakedown as only Jesse can do them. And I'm confident that reparations money won't be as devastating for Melungeons as those Great Society trillions were for Blacks. The destruction of their basic family structure, rampant drug and government dependency, overwhelming illegitimacy, etc. So go for it, Jesse! Get us some bucks ! If Michael Jackson gets money, I want money !

Excerpt from NotSo SERIOUS MONEY,
a weekly online financial newsletter written by
randybarker@aol.com