Rachel Fugate Blog #2 A Family History

Where are you from? No, where are you from from? What nationality are you?

Throughout this week I have been struggling with answering this blog and I was not exactly sure why. I rewrote my beginning sentence dozens of times and I could not find a good way to start. Usually when asked where I am from I would automatically be able to give you such a long and well thought answer that you would probably know who my great aunt was by the time that I got through. I would start by telling you that I was from a little town from southwest Virginia, living on a farm that had been in the family for over five generation. Then if you asked me "No, no. Where are you from from." I would tell you about the history of the Fugates, French Huguenots who came to America during the religious unrest in Europe. They received a charter for a large chunk of land in the mountains of Appalachia and they have lived there ever since. My mother's family was much more spread out. My great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee and on the other side is German and Irish.

The funny thing is though that I identify most with the French part of me. The Fugate family who I grew up with learning the history of our family. I didn't actually think about that history until we watched "Roots". That was the film that struck me most during this entire week. I was something that I could most identify with as bad as that is. The Smith films about the L.A. riots were not something that I was connected with and then the film "Triumph of the Will" was also a distant thing. Growing up in the South, "Roots" made a trigger of question come up for me. What was the trigger for such brutality? Why would someone who claimed to know the bible, who was reading it while another human was being maimed just sit by and think it was just?

I had a very interesting conversation with my campus minister about the subjects of racism and the one thing that I took away from that was that I know next to nothing about racism and where it stands in this country. That is what made me realize why the other two films made no since to me. I couldn't understand I couldn't comprehend why people would want to burn down building and cause wars because of race and color. My nationality is American and that is who I identify as. For me I didn't think that we were as in danger of such a dangerous thing. I was born in 1993 and I didn't even realize that something like the riots had happened while I was almost around and yet I grew up think that racism didn't actually exist.

I am going to end with the question of what I actually know about this country and what is it that I know about our nationality. What is true racism? Why is it still here even after something as awful as the Southern slavery?

But scary things as riots and war and racism aside, I think it is always interesting to explore ones history. I love to see things like family trees and this has always been one of my favorites. It is the Fugate family crest, brought over from France and kept in the family. While I am an America I am still from some very interesting heritage.