By Scotty Reid, 6/4/2012, news, opinion

Michelle Rodriguez has had a steady career in film with such credits as the popular television series “Lost” on her resume and the hugely successful box office smash Avatar. However, comments she recently made about her European ancestors could make an impact on her future in the industry. Considering white males currently control the vast majority of all major media in the world, they are in prime position to cut down on her future career opportunities. Let us hope that does not happen.

Rodriguez’s DNA was recently analyzed which revealed her genetic heritage is not quite what she thought. On the celebrity laden PBS television series “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.”, Rodriguez found out her European genes dominated her profile. She was hoping to explain her olive complexion and straight hair to what turned out to be a small percentage of Native American genetic material.

Michelle Rodriguez profile revealed her genetic code is 73 percent European, 21 percent black, and 6 percent Native American.

However, what is more interesting to those who pay attention to racial classification and how to deconstruct the system of White supremacy, was Rodriguez’s negative reaction to finding out that she was 73 percent European. On a side bar, most media made for the consumption of a white audience ignored or only slightly made reference to the Rodriguez’s experience with racism/white supremacy and focused mostly on the sexual practices of white Europeans, which may have caused her to form a negative view of Europeans/white people in general.

Hat tip to Bossip.com for printing Rodriquez’s comments in full and in context. Attorney General Eric Holder caught flack for saying Americans don’t want to talk about race, to Black people and lots of other non-white residents, American is deciphered in this context to mean White people are cowards and don’t want to talk about race, cue Salt-N-Pepa now and let’s talk about it.

Apparently, Michelle Rodriguez was disgusted to find out she was 73 percent European/white.

“I’m appalled,” said Michelle. “I’m European? Ewww! I wanted to be Native American!”

Again, thus far major media has chosen to leave her low opinion of Europeans out of their articles.

Without asking Ms. Rodriguez, why she had such a negative reaction to her genetic profile, one can only look to her background and speculate where she might have began forming a negative view of white people.

Michelle Rodriguez was born in 1978 in San Antonio, Texas, a time when the FBI’s CointelPro program to destroy various political movements was allegedly still operating up to the mid eighties. There are of course questions about if it ever ended and now operating under post-911 “terror” legislation and clandestine cyber activities.  

Rodriguez’s mother is described as a dark skinned Dominican, which of course would help to account for her 21% African genes, and she lived with her mother for a short time in the Dominican Republic where she was from. Michelle Rodriguez may have read about the political/racial oppression of Afro-Dominicans in preparation for a movie role. She took a role in a film that focused on the Mirabal sisters, Dominican revolutionaries opposed to the rule of military dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina who ordered the slaughter of up to 30,000 Haitians living on the interior borders of the two nations that share an island. President Molina was assassinated in 1960 but for most of his rule enjoyed good relations with the United States.

Rodriguez would also spend a few years as a child in Puerto Rico, which has a long history of resistance to American occupation and is still among the colonies currently being occupied by the United States. Her father is Puerto Rican and reportedly served in the United States Army. Again, one can only speculate as to what conversations adults were having around her and how much she was paying attention. Her father’s lineage has brought up some awkward sexual social practices rooted in white supremacy.

In tracing the recorded history of her father’s line, Gates discovered that her father’s ancestors practiced endogamy, which is inbreeding with relatives to achieve a specific genetic profile.

Bossip.com

“They inbred in a bid to maintain the family’s lighter skin color because they believed lighter-skinned people were more high class than dark-skinned folks.”

Which brings up a moral and philosophical question, if you could change your appearance, would you choose to be white in a system based on white supremacy? Certainly, during the time Rodriguez’s paternal great-grandparents were alive, white supremacy was out in the open for everyone to see the benefits of being classified as white. Did they come together as a family and come to a conscience decision to breed with each other to achieve a dominant European genetic trait? Did the females have a choice in the matter back during a time when women were also openly oppressed by a white male dominated world-order?

Think about this in context.

The benefits of white supremacy were so desired and the evidence of the suffering of those not classified as white, pushed a family to make decision to engage in family relations to obtain the racial classification of white for their future generations.

Was Rodriguez’s “Ewww” reaction to this sexual breeding practice or her European dominated genetic profile or both?

She was not clear on if she would consider a relationship with a relative.

“Even though my great-grandparents were first cousins, I don’t think I’ll ever go down that path if I ever get married.”

Just so you know, according to CousinCouples.com ….

“26 states allow first cousin marriages; most people can marry their cousin in the US.”

Michelle Rodriguez does remember as a child her African descendant mother being mistreated by her father’s relatives because of her dark skin color.

To put this practice into context, breeding within a family is not a rare practice in European cultures and surely, the practice continued with the colonist in America.  European sexual customs are usually associated with the so-called royal bloodlines of Europe including that of the so-called “Queen Elizabeth” of England who is currently celebrating her “Diamond Jubilee” reign of white supremacy and class warfare.

Rodriguez who grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey and when learning about her 21 percent African genes, the actress had a notably opposite reaction and said,

“I need to shoot over there (Africa) and get in touch with my roots.”

It appears Michelle Rodriguez would rather be African identified and did not self identified as a white person prior to learning her genetic profile.