In this episode we address another issue that students come into class with when we try to teach about the cultural construction of race: the biological reinforcement of race that comes from commercials run by DNA ancestry companies that promise to tell you whether you should be wearing lederhosen or kilts.
Methods of ancestry estimation:
23andMe. The science behind 23andMe's Genetic Weight report. February, 2017. https://permalinks.23andme.com/pdf/23_17-GeneticWeight_Feb2017.pdf.
AncestryDNA. Ethnicity estimate white paper. October 30, 2013. https://www.ancestry.com/dna/resource/whitePaper/AncestryDNA-Ethnicity-White-Paper.
FamilyTreeDNA ancestry methodology: https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/user-guide/family-finder-myftdna/myorigins-methodology/
Additional Resources
Brown, Kristen V. How DNA Testing Botched My Family's Heritage, and Probably Yours, Too, January 16, 2018. https://gizmodo.com/how-dna-testing-botched-my-familys-heritage-and-probab-1820932637
Copeland, Libby. Who was she? A DNA test only opened new mysteries. July 27, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/she-thought-she-was-irish-until-a-dna-test-opened-a-100-year-old-mystery/ (The “she thought she was Irish” anecdote).
Dahm Triplets DNA ancestry tests: http://www.ninjajournalist.com/entertainment/identical-triplets-dna-test/
https://youtu.be/rDeyeUAtdrQ (The anecdote about identical triplets who had different “ethnic” ancestry estimates).
Grayson, Gisele. My Grandmother Was Italian. Why Aren't My Genes Italian? January 22, 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/01/22/578293890/my-grandmother-was-italian-why-arent-my-genes-italian
Holden, Constance. “The Touchy Subject of ‘Race’.” Science 322, no. 5903 (2008): 839. (Report on the 2008 meeting where genome scientists searched for alternatives to race)
International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki Autosomal DNA testing comparison chart: https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart
Minton, Mark. The Garden City Telegram, January 8, 2018. http://www.gctelegram.com/news/20180108/rep-steve-alford-cites-belief-blacks-more-susceptible-to-marijuana
Rutherford, Adam. A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes. Workman Publishing, 2017.
