Have to disagree with you here. I knew all these things would happen. When people don't have that information/interpretation before writing about it, they should probably spend a bit more time educating themselves.

Starting with understanding and recognition of who benefits from the information being presented in the way it is. And ensuring that you get your information from a seriously wide assortment of sources. (Tho you can of course exclude the radical right wing stuff. Their heads are too totally messed up for them to think straight.)

I find The Washington Post to be the most reliable national newspaper, tho of course people do make mistakes. But it's never the only source I use on ANY story. I don't do the cable news networks unless something shows up on my newsfeed on either FB or Twitter, or some other site I attend to regularly.

The problem of course is that we are bombarded with so much information it's hard to sort thru the meaning of it. That's where having

Of course that is incredibly annoying. I bet a whole lot of black women with Vaughn as a surname get asked the same question.

On a smaller note -- ironically, all my life people kept asking me if I am related to the now late Michael Nesmith.

I used to say, "yes indeed I am. I have an older brother named Michael. He's a computer analyst (or was before he retired)."

But when all the ancestry websites started popping up, my youngest brother (I have 3 plus 1 sister) did some serious research on our father's side of the family.

Turns out we are in fact related to THAT Michael Nesmith by way of a great great grandfather. I wrote to him at his "ranch" about it, trying to be nonchalant & not a demanding fan. Never heard back from him, tho.

Then, many years later I ran into a once rather famous songwriter who wrote some of the most popular songs of the 60s & 70s; fewer in the 80s. He actually moved into my apartment complex.

He wrote a few songs for the Monkeys. He told me that THAT Michael Nesmith was a huge, self-absorbed pr*ck. So ok, no prob.

Funny how life's hidden web of connections can become suddenly visible when you least expect it.

Of course there are fewer Nesmiths/ NeSmiths/Naysmiths (etc) than there are Vaughns, and the search for familial connections through one or more of the ancestry sites would be very time consuming, and likely not worth the effort.

I hope do this little detour into an old white lady's connections to a famous singer/songwriter didn't feel like a waste of time. (☺️😉😇)

BTW I am massively ADHD and I just can't help it when I see something interesting...so I go off on a rant about it. (There are even more interesting -- to me -- details that I will spare you.)

Best wishes.