I, hereby publicly declare my Muslim and Arab/Berber heritage.[1]
My surname, Moore, was the 16th most common surname in the United States in the 2000 census, and our lineage traces back to one of three surname sources:
(1) the people known as Moors, black Muslim Arabs/Berbers living in present day Algeria who conquered Hispania (present day Spain) in 711, some of whose descendants made their way to England via the Norman conquest, and contributed to the development of English etiquette (e.g., Strickland’s 1893 work on the Lives of the Queens of England, Vol 5, p. 710),
(2) Nordic descendants whose roots in Africa are, to the best of my knowledge, not yet established, and lived in an “area of uncultivated land” in England when surnames began to come into use, or
(3) descendants of the Gaelic Mórdha clan.[2]
My lineage is from the first of these.
With that accomplished, I protest in the most vigorous terms attempts, by any local, state or federal government in the United States, to “register” us, or otherwise set us apart in legislation or executive decree as a potential threat or risk to the United States of America.
I further protest in the most vigorous terms any effort to register any other group of people based on heritage, religion, genetic information, or whatever other classifications may be devised to deprive groups of people of their inalienable rights as defined in the US Bill of Rights, the Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen, and the International Bill of Rights.
Race classification certificate issued in terms of the Population Registration Act
@WilHMoo
PS: If you have read previous posts in which I discuss my Puritan / Mayflower / Plymouth Colony heritage and thinking “Wait a minute…,” that’s on my mother’s side. My surname comes from my dad’s side.
[1] This whole heritage thing is, of course, silly in the sense that virtually all human beings are descended from Africans. But when governments begin to distribute status, rights and privileges in accord with it, it is not longer silly. Consult, for example, South Africa’s Population Registration Act, 1950.
[2] From ancestry.com’s entry on Moore:
Moore Name Meaning English: from Old French more ‘Moor’ (Latin maurus). The Latin term denoted a native of northwestern Africa, but in medieval England the word came to be used informally as a nickname for any swarthy or dark-skinned person. English: from a personal name (Latin Maurus ‘Moor’). This name was borne by various early Christian saints. The personal name was introduced to England by the Normans, but it was never as popular in England as it was on the Continent. English: from Middle English more ‘moor’, ‘marsh’, ‘fen’, ‘area of uncultivated land’ (Old English mor), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in such a place or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word, as for example Moore in Cheshire or More in Shropshire. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mórdha ‘descendant of Mórdha’, a byname meaning ‘great’, ‘proud’, or ‘stately’.
Will Opines 
