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DNA and Racism
Have you seen the recent commercials that promote people having DNA tests? They show a man who is shocked to find out he should be dancing in kilts instead of lederhosen. And there is the woman who clearly has an American accent who says when she travels, people ask where she is from—and she assumes they are asking about her cellular history. Several people report that they now feel “complete,” knowing their personal DNA. It’s fascinating to see how people respond to their results.
One teacher at West Chester University in Pennsylvania has identified a creative and educational way to use DNA tests: to explore questions about racism. Her name is Anita Foeman; she was doing consulting work in the area of race mediation and was using DNA testing as one tool. Her goal, rather than causing confrontation, was to help people recognize their biases and create an environment where people could speak about race in a constructive and positive way. She brought her experiences into the university environment.
Overall, the student response has been enthusiastic.
‘Some people have never had a happy conversation about race,’ Foeman said. But in her class at West Chester University, there was laughter. Eagerness. And easy connections where there might have been chasms. ‘Our differences are fascinating,’ she said.
At a time when tensions over race and politics are so raw, the stakes, Foeman said, seem particularly high. Her students have been talking all fall about riots, building walls, terrorist attacks, immigration, the election. ‘You can feel it buzzing around the halls like electricity,’ Foeman said.
To introduce the process, Dr. Foeman has people complete a short survey about their ancestry. Then they spit into a vial and the vials are sent for testing. Weeks later they get an email with the results of their “ethnic make-up, a color coded map of their past.”
Students have reacted in amusing and thoughtful ways:
‘When I opened my results, the first thing that greeted me was 6 percent African,’ said a student with very pale skin in the back of the classroom, smacking herself in the forehead, mouth open wide, to re-create her reaction the night before: ‘Whaaaaat?’
‘I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised,’ she added. ‘I know a lot of African-American people have some white DNA, so I shouldn’t be surprised there’s some African in me.’
A student with bright-red hair sent her mother an image of her results, telling her, ‘We’re not Irish at all.’ Her first response was: ‘You must have the wrong data.’ And then: ‘Don’t tell your grandfather. It might kill him.’
There were also students who refused to be tested or denied the results:
Foeman has seen people drop out of the project after getting their results, including three people who identified as African-American who were upset to learn how much European ancestry they had. Some people refuse to take the test. A woman of Chinese descent told Foeman: ‘It’s okay for you – you already know you’re mixed up. I don’t want to find out I’m not pure.’
One of the most valuable aspects of this process is that the results create an opportunity to talk about race in a non-threatening, educational and intimate way:
In class, there were a few quiet moments. But mostly people were rushing to talk – to tell about the great-grandfather who was a Portuguese pirate, the grandfather who was a Black Panther, the grandmother who doesn’t like black people, the great-grandmother whose skin is so much lighter than her siblings’ and everyone will be very angry if anyone asks why that is. The grandmother who, on her deathbed at 99, insisted that the family’s roots went back to William the Conqueror, although no one thought the family was of British descent. (That student’s test results indicated they were, in fact, British. ‘Even up to the end, you gave Grandma no respect!’ Foeman teased.)
Emma Krentler, who has pale skin and brown hair, told the class she knew of Italian and German ancestors and expected some kind of a split between the two. Instead, she found a much more intricate tapestry: 2 percent North African, 13 percent West Asian, 2 percent Jewish. And when she saw Middle Eastern, ‘I was like, What? What?’ It was complete and utter surprise.”
‘Who are these people?!’ Foeman laughed with her.
Students are now volunteering for testing campus-wide.
We are in a period of history where many of us want to identify constructive, meaningful and intimate ways to talk about race. We can initiate conversations, but too often participants become upset, defensive, and angry. Discussions might be superficial because they are intellectual, theoretical and uneasy, not exploring the most fundamental aspects of our beliefs about race and culture. I support any method that can bridge the gaps that seem to be increasing over racial differences. If DNA testing is one step that can span those conflicts, creating an environment of curiosity, sincerity, and learning, then I think it could be a great tool for developing and deepening relationships in a society that is ripe for healing.
Published in Education
@iWe, do you want to be the power behind the throne? As a teen that was the position I thought would be best.
Nope, never did, never have, never will want to be famous.
Of course, I’m pretty strange.
I like your paranoia; however, researching the family tree through Websites might not be definitive. What if Mamma was sleeping around? What if the family had reason to lie about their heritage? What if someone along the way made stuff up and the records are incomplete? I know of instances of each of those that might not be traceable in Website research, but show up in DNA.
In my family, we had stories that we were descended from two famous people and that my GG-grandfather’s given names were James Madison because his father served in James Madison’s cabinet. Well, I didn’t find anyone of that family name in JM’s cabinet. But I did find the son of one of the famous people we were supposedly descended from. So, something got mixed up. Now, maybe he was that cabinet member’s son, but that was not the father on the birth certificate. We cannot legitimately trace back to that family.
On my father’s side was the other famous person. I grew up so proud of that heritage, being his direct descendant. Then I researched, and he was a distant cousin.
But others in the family have these connections in their family trees anyway, because they just forced the relationships when they couldn’t find them.
Have Dupuytren’s Contracture in the family?
A couple more thoughts:
If you and your sibling both take the tests, you may get different results. They may not be hugely different, but unless you are identical twins, you do not have the same DNA. Theoretically, siblings could vary between 0% and 100% shared DNA. Usually, it will be somewhere between, such as 25%, although that is purely an average. So, if your family has a real mutt heritage, the numbers could really change as to the origins given by the companies. So, those just hoping their sibling takes the test will not get the complete picture (unless identical twins).
The different companies divide the world in different ways, so if you get it done by two companies, you will get different results reported, even though it is the same DNA. For instance, one may report 20% Eastern European, while the other says 10% Romanian and 10% Ukrainian. (This is a random example.)
And a final thought about the stories handed down through the family. I grew up being told my family name was Scottish and the family was from Scotland. That was utter bunk. We came from Warwickshire, England, about 13 miles from where Shakespeare lived and the ancestor who came to America lived at the same time as Shakespeare.
So, why was it passed down we were Scottish? It goes back to that famous cousin who we were supposedly direct descendants of. Back in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century in America, Scottish was not just an ethnicity, but an epithet. It was kind of like saying, “He’s a Polack,” was about forty years ago. This cousin got famous by getting involved on the wrong side of a war, so people started saying, “Yeah, that guy? His father was a Scottish trader.” This calumny of the day was recorded in history books, even though his patriline came from Warwickshire. So, even the history books can be wrong.
I have Dupuytrens. I have not done DNA testing but my ancestry is mostly English.
There is a lot of Viking heritage among the English. My Viking ancestors came to England in 1066, for instance. The common name for Dupuytren’s is Viking’s disease, because the mutation happened among them and has been passed down to their descendants. I haven’t shown any signs yet, but my mother has it.
Really is that what geneticists say? I was reading Nicholas D Wade and his thoughts on genetics and he didn’t mention this problem.
I was only almost a geneticist, but yes, really. Of course, we all share a very high percentage, just as we share 99% (or whatever) with chimps. So all humans are even closer in the total. But it doesn’t mean that all of that material is from the same place on Dad and Mom, if you know what I mean. You only get fifty percent of their genes from each (excepting mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, of course). So, theoretically, your sibling could get exactly the other fifty percent of each parent’s DNA. That’s not likely. Likewise, the only way they are likely to get 100% the same is if you emerge from the same fertilized egg, id est, identical twins. Boys have the exact same Y-chromosome, barring mutations, because that is not recombinant.
Everything else is a matter of probability and what genetic markers and regions the companies are looking at. They tend to look at the parts that are most variable. You get one from your mother and one from your father. Let’s say mother has variations 1 and 2 and father has variations 3 and 4. You and your siblings might have any of these combinations:
1 and 3
2 and 3
1 and 4
2 and 4.
That gives four combinations to choose from. If there are fewer variations represented, you may share more with your siblings, but this is the math.
I used to participate in a Scottish historical recreation society. People from all backgrounds joined because it was fun to run around dressed like extras from “Braveheart”, wearing big swords on their backs, drinking uisgebah and dancing to bagpipe and fiddle music. Most of us were Caucasian in appearance, but one of the members was a very black African American, and he sometimes got questions about his involvement in the group. Turns out his mom was from Scotland, dad was from Gambia, and he took after his dad color-wise, but he probably had more Scottish blood in his veins than anyone else in the group.
My dad’s family (many of whom were lawyers), had a distinctive look, with long, equine faces, prominent noses and buggy eyes. They were also quick to anger and scathing in their disapproval. While assigned to a courthouse in a black community I encountered a judge with our last name who looked exactly like a black version of the family, and who was known to be very irascible. I was always tempted to walk into his courtroom and call out “Cousin Bob!” I never got up the courage to do it though, fearing the consequences of what might be seen as over-familiarity.