You know, I really can't stand white people who feel the need to defend themselves or qualify their positions in this manner. How whipped can you get?!
For my correspondence with Truscott over his contemptible posturing for the news media over this matter, see Correspondence. For a Conservative take on what this "issue" is all about, see Creating Hate In America Today.
Beyond that, I would have to make an additional comment on some of the posted remarks by contributors to this thread, who seem to think that the fact that someone in the Jefferson family might have been involved in the Hemmings descent, should entitle them to membership in the family association. Even if such descent were true, which is by no means certain, it would hardly be an argument for the legitimate heirs to treat such descent from an illicit liaison with indifference, even apart from any racial consideration.
There are sound social reasons for social taboos. It is the way Society directs people to behave in a better fashion. Just look at the horrendous mess that the New Deal set in motion, by taking the stigma out of being born out of wedlock in the late 1930s. For every unahppy child, they claimed to be helping, there are now ten or more. It is one of the most compelling examples of the mess that "Liberal" theorists make when they try to tell people how they should think.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
Upon hearing that a friend of mine was coming over, one of my wife's liberal friends said "Is this the Klan member?". I replied, deadpan, "I don't think so. At least I never see him at the meetings". She didn't try that line again