On my fathers side we can trace our history back to my great grandfather who arrived at Ellis Isle from Germany. Sadly. we can't go any further back than that without genealogical tests. Since it was so few generations ago I can't imagine my fathers side of the family owned slaves, at least not in the United States. On my mother's side we can trace back to my great great grandmother. She also traveled from Germany to Ellis Isle. Since slavery was almost non-existent in Germany I don't believe that anyone in my family (thankfully) owned slaves.
While my family may not have owned slaves, we are still living in the US. Even by living in the US we are abiding and enforcing prejudicial and racist actions that were instituted years and years ago. What is interesting about my family however is that we never came from any type of money. A majority of my family has been poor, below or just above the poverty line, up until my uncle and my parents. I find this interesting because with my family coming from lower class I would presume there wouldn't be as much personal racism (as apposed to institutionalized) in my family. However, and I discussed this with both of my parents, both of my grandfathers were very racist. I believe this had a lot to do with their upbringing. I don't know any of my great grandparents but I would venture to say they were personally racist as well leading to their children becoming racist.
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