Someone at Reuters apparently decided it would be a good idea to track down the familial ancestry of a huge swath of American political figures and determine which of them had ancestors who once owned slaves. This was apparently done as part of their commemoration of Juneteenth. By the time they finished the project, they had come up with a lengthy list of presidents, governors, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and others who “qualified.” Why would they do this? We’ll get to that in a moment. But here’s the introduction where they describe the project and provide a high-level view of just how many people allegedly have slaveholders in their Ancestry files. (Yahoo)

As U.S. lawmakers commemorated the end of slavery by celebrating Juneteenth this month, many of them could have looked no further than their own family histories to find a more personal connection to what’s often called America’s “original sin.”

In researching the genealogies of America’s political elite, a Reuters examination found that a fifth of the nation’s congressmen, living presidents, Supreme Court justices and governors are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people.

Among 536 members of the last sitting Congress, for example, Reuters determined at least 100 descend from slaveholders. Of that group, more than a quarter of the Senate – 28 members – can trace their families to at least one slaveholder.

I won’t go into the details of the various people who made the list beyond one interesting tidbit. It struck me as somewhat hilarious that of all of the U.S. Presidents who are still alive, only one of them did not have an ancestor who owned slaves. And that one is Donald Trump. Yes, Barack Obama made “the list” because his white mother apparently had slave-owning ancestors.

So does that mean that Donald Trump is a better person than the rest of the presidents, including Obama? Does it mean that he’s less racist? Of course not, because this list is meaningless. It’s entirely irrelevant. If Trump is somehow a better person, it’s because of his own actions, not his bloodline. We are all judged by our own choices and activities in this life, whether our ancestors were whip-cracking taskmasters or people who helped set up the Underground Railroad.

So what was the point of doing all of this research? To explain, Reuters summoned up Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr who hosts a show on PBS about “Finding Your Roots.” Gates insists that this ancestral examination is “not another chapter in the blame game.” He claims that the project is only intended to show how “closely linked” we are to the institution of slavery” and how it “informed the lives” of the ancestors of those who represent us.

Really? Do any of you feel “closely linked” to the institution of slavery? I don’t. And just for the record, I found out over the past fifteen years that I had a great, great grandmother who was a former slave. Does that mean that Barack Obama owes me an apology? Should I qualify for reparations even though I’ve lived my entire life as a white person? (Whatever that’s supposed to mean at this point.)

No, it does not mean that. There’s nothing special about me because of that ancestral line. And there’s nothing special about you if you happen to be someone whose great, great, grandfather owned my great, great, grandmother. It’s the 21st century and we all are who we are. This was a clear attempt by Reuters to try to shame a bunch of politicians (far more Southerners and Republicans than Democrats) based on things that happened nearly 200 years ago. Let it go, already. We should study history, not try to reenact it to score virtue signaling points.