DNA Ancestry Testing and Race

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:

1. 23andMe. The science behind 23andMe's Genetic Weight report. February, 2017. https://permalinks.23andme.com/pdf/23_17-GeneticWeight_Feb2017.pdf.
2. AncestryDNA. Ethnicity estimate white paper. October 30, 2013. https://www.ancestry.com/dna/resource/whitePaper/AncestryDNA-Ethnicity-White-Paper.
3. FamilyTreeDNA ancestry methodology: https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/user-guide/family-finder-myftdna/myorigins-methodology/
   

Additional Resources

1. 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
2. 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).
3. Dahm Triplets DNA ancestry tests: http://www.ninjajournalist.com/entertainment/identical-triplets-dna-test/
4. https://youtu.be/rDeyeUAtdrQ (The anecdote about identical triplets who had different “ethnic” ancestry estimates).
5. 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
6. 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)
7. International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki Autosomal DNA testing comparison chart: https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart
8. 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
9. Rutherford, Adam. A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes. Workman Publishing, 2017.

​