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March 15, 2017 Page 7 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. O PINION Painful Legacy of Our Collective History Blank spots on the family tree M AndisA r outheni Maybe you’ve seen those Ancestry.com commercials pushing Americans to “discov- er their stories” by dig- ging into their family histories. Millions of Amer- icans find meaning from these searches. My mom’s one of them. She’s doing a deep dive into our family history, reviving the stories of past ancestors in America. She discovered that the Ger- man last name we had wasn’t our original family name. Somewhere — perhaps Ellis Island, once a gateway for millions of Europe- an immigrants — our name was changed. That’s made it hard to learn about our history before em- igration. On my father’s side, though, by the fog of history hides much more than names — and it’s in- credibly more painful. You see, my father is African-American. And for black Ameri- cans, searches on sites like Ancestry.com yield blank spots on the fam- ily tree. Before the Civil War, after all, our ances- tors were considered property, not people. This means there are no marriage certificates, medical records, or school or census records. Instead, pre-Civil War family research means sifting through bills of sale, auction records, and property led- gers with uncertainty, as families were often torn apart. Even if my family had lived in a state that abolished slavery be- fore the Civil War, or if someone from my family was a freed per- son in the North, I’d still have to do extensive research to find them. Many free blacks were kidnapped and forced back into slavery un- der federal laws like the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. African-American genealogy is also difficult because of names. Enslaved Africans were forced to take the last names of slave owners, which were often changed when individuals were sold to an- other family or institution. After the Civil War, emancipated blacks sometimes took on the names of their former masters, as is the case with part of my family, or made up new last names altogether. Even after emancipation, black Americans continued to face per- secution in the South and beyond. Many fled West or North or else- where, and the paper trail is non- existent or impossible to follow. When they did make it some- where else, they still faced lynch- ings, arson attacks, bombings, and theft from hostile whites. These acts of terror erased records and histo- ries, along with families and people. Now, however, there are some Trump’s Magical Thinking on Health Care Take note of the trick word ‘access’ J iM h ightower Donald Trump, the amazing wunderkind of global luxury liv- ing — and now our nation’s phantasma- goric, fast-charging president — is prov- ing to be a legislative magician. In his campaign, Trump’s number one promise was that he would “immediately” repeal the entirety of Obamacare, then — hocus-pocus and abracadabra! — Simulta- neously replace it with “great health care for a fraction of the price.” Sounds impressive! No wonder his White House media operation calls him “President Action, President Impact.” But it seems that the Amazing Donald has abruptly learned that what magicians do isn’t magic. They just perform illusions. In other words, it’s fakery. So Trump is now caught in the spotlight of reality, unable to produce a workable plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, as he so glibly promised. In fact, the GOP replacement scheme by he’s been backing would leave millions of people with no health care coverage, while reducing the benefits and jacking up insur- ance payments for millions of others. Frustrated, President Action recently whined to a meeting of state governors that “nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” Of course, by “nobody,” he meant that he didn’t know — and therefore no one could’ve known, since he knows everything. But now, in a truly amazing magical act, The Donald has pulled a rabbit out of his hat. His new Trumpcare plan, he brags, will guarantee that every American will have access to health coverage. Before you erupt in applause, however, notice the trick word he’s using: “access.” That doesn’t mean you’ll get coverage. You’ll just get access to coverage — if you can afford it. It’s the same as promising that everyone will get “access” to owning a private jet and living in a fabulous Florida golf resort, just like Trump. See, he truly is magical! OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also the editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. Dis- tributed by OtherWords.org. Advertise with diversity in The Portland Observer Call 503-288-0033 or email ads@portlandobserver.com exciting breakthroughs in the search for family history for Afri- can Americans. The Freedmen’s Bureau Project recently launched a new website, Discoverfreedmen.org, which in- cludes the names of almost 2 mil- lion men, women, and children. It brings together resources from various archives, museums, libraries, and digitized documents collected by the Freedmen’s Bu- reau, which was established in 1865 to provide services to newly emancipated communities. Its ar- chives include bank records, mar- riage and death certificates, mil- itary service records, migration information, and so much more. The new site also allows a par- tial name search, which is a game changer. Oral histories of formerly enslaved people are another in- valuable resource — check out the Library of Congress to start. Others include records kept by African-American newspapers, Benevolent Societies, churches, and so forth, which are available online and in public libraries. Finally, DNA tests are another new tool for people tracing their ancestry. But DNA can reveal a pain- ful lineage. For example, black women were often raped by slave owners or forced to have inter- course with enslaved men to bear children into slavery. How do you deal with that in a family tree? I’m grateful for the chance to glimpse new branches of my fam- ily tree. But ultimately, every one of my African ancestors was kid- napped from Africa. So even if I find a ship manifest or pay for a DNA test, I’ll never fully know the places, stories, and families that are my ancestry. This is the painful legacy of our collective American history. Mandisa Routheni is the New Mexico fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.