By Doris AC Johnson MA of Psy

On Wednesday, January 20, 2021, all of America bore witness to the presidential inauguration. This ceremony was indeed monumental and celebratory. Many of them have been, but this one is in a class all its own for more reasons than one.

 It has been written and rumored that many presidents before Barack Obama were brown, or descendants of brown people. This was one of the subjects of study for one of my reports when I was in the Bachelor’s program. Thomas Jefferson was born from a mother of Indian descent and a mulatto father which means he was mixed with brown and Caucasian further on having a sexual liaison/relationship with a woman of color which birthed a child, but that is an entirely different story which I will share in an upcoming blog. Warren Harding is noted as having brown ancestors. He also attended a school created for fugitive slaves. Sources say Harding’s father was a mulatto and his great-grandmother was also a brown woman. And then we have Abraham Lincoln, one of the most popular presidents this country has had. Historians have stated that byway of genetic testing, Lincoln was fathered by a man of color as his Caucasian mother deceived her husband by shielding the secret affair thereby deceiving his father into believing he was Lincoln’s father.  Andrew Jackson’s Irish mom was said to marry a brown man. Sources say his older brother was sold into slavery. Calvin Coolidge told onlookers that he was born from a mother of Indian descent. It was later noted that she was half brown. Dwight D. Eisenhower was also said to be a descendant of a grandmother who was mixed. Her parents were African and Mulatto.  

While all this information is rumored, it is written, which means that it is not just oral history. In fairness to people who do not receive what I have researched, I will agree that in most cases, there is a lineage debate.

Although I said what I said…we as a people are moving into yet another phase of life marked by “herstory.” Our attending Vice President is not only brown, but she is female. And this is sound information that our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many generations to come will not have to question. As the country watched the new President and Vice President on television screens across America, many derogatory statements were spewed across the internet. This moment in herstory was not a brown and white issue. However, it erased any remnants that put brown people AND brown women in a grey area. It also dismissed the stigma and expectation that men would forever impact the world as they took up residency in the White House. I ask that we please don’t turn this into a brown and white issue. We don’t know what the presidential team will do. We are hopeful and relieved to escape yesterday. The judgment of the many comments I read was intense and mostly bred and tarnished by ignorance matriculated from their upbringing. My views are intended for all opposing ethnicities…brown, white, yellow, and green both male and female. We have a renewed opportunity to have and embrace a clearer vision. The future is what we look forward to and the past is what we leave behind. You should try it. Many people want to mourn the loss of Trump’s oppressive hand in trying to resuscitate the broken heart of a country birthed on theft, torment, discourse, rape, and racism.  Those watching the channels that aired the inauguration were perhaps watching the wrong channel. They would have probably been in their element if they turned on Netflix and chilled!

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