{"id":53649,"date":"2017-04-23T20:21:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T20:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53649"},"modified":"2017-04-23T20:21:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T20:21:25","slug":"dna-tests-and-sometimes-surprising-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53649","title":{"rendered":"DNA Tests, and Sometimes Surprising Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

DNA Tests, and Sometimes Surprising Results<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2017-04-20<\/p>\n

Anita Foeman<\/strong><\/a>, Professor of Communication Studies
\nWest Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nStudents at West Chester University<\/a> in Pennsylvania<\/a> have volunteered to take part in ancestry DNA testing<\/a>. Anita Foeman<\/a>, a communications professor, says she has found that conversations around race are \u201ccomplicated and jagged.\u201d
\nCredit West Chester University<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Race and identity in many ways define who we think we are, while modern genetics can challenge those notions. To delve into these issues, I am involved with a communications studies project at West Chester University<\/a> in Pennsylvania<\/a> that explores narratives at the intersection of race and identity.<\/p>\n

For the last decade, I have invited hundreds of people to be part of ancestry DNA tests<\/a>. But first I ask people how they identify themselves racially. It has been very interesting to explore their feelings about the differences between how they define themselves and what their DNA makeup shows when the test results come in.<\/p>\n

Biologically, our ancestral differences reflect only a 0.1 percent difference in DNA<\/a>. Yet we often cling to those differences \u2014 both in unity with our fellow people of origin and, at times, in divisiveness.<\/p>\n

Over all, the experiment has provided a special opportunity to explore the lines of race.\u00a0I found that as human beings, our strategies for survival are the same, and our similarities far outweigh our differences…<\/p>\n

…Bernard<\/strong>: Identifies as: Black; father is black and mother is white
\n<\/a>
\nCredit Erica C. Thompson\/West Chester University<\/small><\/p>\n

His prediction: 50% European, 50% African<\/p>\n

His comments before the test<\/em>: My mother said, \u201cI know you are me, but no cop is going to take the time to find out your mother is white.\u201d She was very specific about raising me as a black man.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Results: 91% European, 5% Middle Eastern, 2% Hispanic; less than 1% African and Asian<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thoughts about his ancestry results: What are you trying to do to me? You have caused a lot of problems in my family. I know my nose is sharp and my skin is light, but my politics are as black as night. Today, I don\u2019t identify as mixed. I reject my white privilege in a racist America. There is no way that I or my kids will identify as anything other than black…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students at West Chester University in Pennsylvania have volunteered to take part in ancestry DNA testing. Anita Foeman, a communications professor, says she has found that conversations around race are \u201ccomplicated and jagged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8413,2039,8,394,20],"tags":[26883,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-53649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-communications","category-health-medicine","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-anita-foeman","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53650,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53649\/revisions\/53650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}