LBLogan
General Manager
I've literally only seen MGM used on LSA.How come only light-skinned African-Americans like Steph Curry and his family, Vanessa Williams, and Angela Davis are referred to as MGM when all African-Americans are no matter what their skin tone is? For instance, Blair Underwood is only 74% African. Don Cheadle is only 81%. Snoop Dogg is only 75%. Yet no one would ever refer to them as MGM because their skin is dark. Tyra Banks is 79% and even though she has more African DNA than both Snoop and Blair, someone would probably refer to her as MGM because her skin is a lighter brown than theirs and she has green eyes.
Wanda Sykes is about the same percentage African as Vanessa Williams (59% and 56%) and I don't see anyone referring to her as MGM. Neither of them have a white parent, grandparent, or even great-grandparent. They aren't even Louisiana Creole.
Michelle Obama hasn't taken a DNA test, but ancestral researchers found white ancestors for her like every other AA. They are distant, though.
Michelle’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, were all black. She has Gullah roots. Michelle also has some European ancestry on her family tree, with distant English, Scottish, and Irish, roots. One of Michelle’s white ancestors was her great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Marion Shields. Charles was the son of Henry Wells Shields and Christianna Payne Patterson.
This term seems to only apply to people with certain features and seems to actually be colorist. It is also redundant because if you consider yourself black and are an ADOS in America, you are multigenerational mixed. Just because you have dark skin does not mean you aren't MGM like every other AA. So what is the point of this term besides division based on features?
In looking at genealogy info a family member shared with me recently, there was a lot of genetic admixture in our ancestry long before we were taken from Africa. Probably more mixture back then than that which took place after our people arrived in America. But that's a topic that's rarely, if ever, discussed when these conversations arise.