{"id":55734,"date":"2018-02-14T23:26:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T23:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=55734"},"modified":"2018-02-14T23:26:14","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T23:26:14","slug":"they-considered-themselves-white-but-dna-tests-told-a-more-complex-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=55734","title":{"rendered":"They considered themselves white, but DNA tests told a more complex story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/social-issues\/they-considered-themselves-white-but-dna-tests-told-a-more-complex-story\/2018\/02\/06\/16215d1a-e181-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>They considered themselves white, but DNA tests told a more complex story<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Washington Post<\/a><br \/>\n2018-02-06<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TaraBahrampour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Tara Bahrampour<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/c\/embed\/49fa0da4-02c3-11e8-86b9-8908743c79dd\" width=\"480\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As more Americans take advantage of genetic testing to pinpoint the makeup of their DNA, the technology is coming head to head with the country\u2019s deep-rooted obsession with race and racial myths. This is perhaps no more true than for the growing number of self-identified European Americans who learn they are actually part African.<\/p>\n<p>For those who are surprised by their genetic heritage, the new information can often set into motion a complicated recalibration of how they view their identity.<\/p>\n<p>Nicole Persley, who grew up in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nokesville%2C_Virginia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nokesville, Va.<\/a>, was stunned to learn that she is part African. Her youth could not have been whiter. In the 1970s and \u201980s in her rural home town, she went to school with farmers\u2019 kids who listened to country music and sometimes made racist jokes. She was, as she recalls, \u201cbasically raised a Southern white girl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But as a student at the University of Michigan: \u201cMy roommate was black. My friends were black. I was dating a black man.\u201d And they saw something different in her facial features and hair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was constantly being asked, \u2018What are you? What\u2019s your ethnic background?\u2019\u2009\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;The test results can present an intriguing puzzle. When a significant amount of African DNA shows up in a presumably white person, \u201cthere\u2019s usually a story \u2014 either a parent moved away or a grandparent died young,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/atrammel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Angela Trammel<\/a>, an investigative genealogist in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Washington_metropolitan_area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington area<\/a>. \u201cUsually a story of mystery, disappearance \u2014 something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Persley, 46, the link turned out to be her grandfather, who had moved away from his native <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Georgia_(U.S._state)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Georgia<\/a> and started a new life <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=5864\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passing as white<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Michigan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michigan<\/a>. He married a white woman, who bore Persley\u2019s father&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/social-issues\/they-considered-themselves-white-but-dna-tests-told-a-more-complex-story\/2018\/02\/06\/16215d1a-e181-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They considered themselves white, but DNA tests told a more complex story The Washington Post 2018-02-06 Tara Bahrampour As more Americans take advantage of genetic testing to pinpoint the makeup of their DNA, the technology is coming head to head with the country\u2019s deep-rooted obsession with race and racial myths. This is perhaps no more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2039,8,6462,20],"tags":[28033,25303,2875,2581],"class_list":["post-55734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-health-medicine","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-nicole-persley","tag-tara-bahrampour","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55734","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=55734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55736,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55734\/revisions\/55736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}