Sorry in advance if this topic makes anyone uncomfortable, but maybe someone can clarify something I've been wondering about.
In reading the Grand Rapids reports on the Dantzler guy who killed 7 people before biting the barrel himself, I was a bit surprised the guy was a black guy. I thought maybe his Germanic [[ Danzig) surname indicated he was bi-racial and acquired his last name from his white father.
Then I looked at OTIS and found about 15 Dantzler's all guests of the Governor, and all of them black.
Now maybe there is something I don't understand, but I have only met one black guy with a Germanic surname. If you see the name Hessberg, a Schmidt, trotmann, Gresshaber, Wittgenstein or Istok you can be pretty sure the person has a little Wagner running through their veins.
I've always assumed this had something to do with northern Europeans having a problem with the entire slavery issue. This assumption is based on my understanding that most of the freedmen took the surnames of their former owners. The English and Irish seemingly had fewer issues with the shameful institution and hence we now have most AA with last names like Johnson, Bailey, Kilpatrick and Ferguson.
Cassis Clay famously referred to his name as being a "slave name" when he joined NOI and took Muhamid Ali as his new identity.
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