NYT: DNA Tells Students They Aren't Who They Thought

[DeepModem Mom]

DNA Tells Students They Aren't Who They Thought
By EMMA DALY

Published: April 13, 2005


STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - When Don R. Harrison Jr. was growing up in Philadelphia, neighborhood children would tease him and call him "white boy," because his skin was lighter than theirs. But Mr. Harrison, a "proud black man," was still unprepared for the results of a DNA test, taken as part of a class at Pennsylvania State University, to determine his genetic ancestry.

"I figured it would be interesting. I'm light-skinned and I wanted to know my whole makeup," said Mr. Harrison, a 20-year-old sociology major. But he was shocked by results showing him to be 52 percent African and 48 percent European: "which I had no clue about, considering both my parents are black," said Mr. Harrison. "So I'm half white."

Samuel M. Richards, who teaches Sociology 119, Race and Ethnic Relations, to 500 students each semester, said the DNA tests, which were conducted last year for the first time, were very popular with the class.

"Everyone wants to take the test, even students who think they are 100 percent one race or another, and almost every one of them wants to discover something, that they're 1 percent Asian or something. It's a badge in this multicultural world," he said.

About half of the 100 students tested this semester were white, he said, "And every one of them said, 'Oh man, I hope I'm part black,' because it would upset their parents....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/nyregion/13penn.html

[AuntiBush]

1. Be Forewarned about those DNA testings...

Wish I had the article to link to, but they've already stolen our identities, from Genealogy boards/groups on up... selling them to firms making $$$ and the DNA thing is another form of it.

Sorry - no link. If I find it I'll repost here.

[mutus_frutex]

5. Paranoia..

People can steal your DNA quite easily if they want to, get a saw of your skin maybe, or a couple of hairs.

This is the second comment of this type I've seen today regarding the "stealing" of DNA. I could understand if this was in the context of law enforcement, but both comments were in regard to scientific studies.

There are many people in this forum that are quite anti-science, and I'm surprised because most of my liberal friends are very pro-science..

Cheers.

[Warpy]

11. Or a water glass you've had a drink from

Honestly, why anybody would want my DNA is beyond me, though.

However, if it would help anybody avoid the horror show of illnesses I've been through, I'd give it gladly.

[mutus_frutex]

14. I'm sorry to hear about that..

Your illness, I mean.

I also wouldn't have any problem giving away my DNA. If you started trying to avoid leaving your DNA around you would go completely psychotic.

Comments like the one I replied to make me mad. Scientists already have a hard time getting funded as things are. It's enough that the government is trying to cut research for both economic and religious reason, to also have liberals being paranoid and calling their representatives.

Cheers..

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. There's an article in the April Scientific American about

how the relatively isolated and homogenous population of Finland has been used in genetic research. Since there are only a limited number of genotypes in the population, any mutation stands out in a way it wouldn't in a more multi-ethnic country.

According to the article, they have very little trouble getting Finnish people to give DNA samples, and the research has found the genetic markers for several hereditary diseases.

(They also mentioned that the lack of extreme socio-economic inequality and the universally high standards of health care remove some of the variables that could influence a population's health.)

[Rose Siding]

2. ALL said "it would upset their parents" if they were black?

God, that makes me so sad.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. I think maybe the opposite -- they wanted to be black....

if that was the cultural heritage they'd grown up with.

[Rose Siding]

6. But that doesn't make sense

Why would it upset their parents if their parents were black and that's how they'd been raised?

I think he was talking about the white kids who had been raised white saying they hoped they were black...

About half of the 100 students tested this semester were white, he said, "And every one of them said, 'Oh man, I hope I'm part black,' because it would upset their parents.

"That's this generation," he said. "People want to identify with this pop multiracial culture. They don't want to live next to it, but they want to be part of it. It's cool."

[DeepModem Mom]

9. I think you're right, Rose --

And my Gen Y daughter confirms to me the multicultural bent of her generation, which, parental relationships notwithstanding, will be, I think, a good thing. Early studies of Gen Y show, I've also heard, that the majority of Gen Y is "blind" to race (and also sexual orientation). There's an enormous number of these Yers, more than Boomers, and they're going to be interesting to watch.

[Merope215]

19. We are pretty much "blind" to race

At least, everyone I know is. And it's really cool.

[Lisa]

26. it's interesting how that's changed in only 2-3 decades

Growing up in the 1970s, I remember that many of the other girls in my elementary and high school classes used to hesitate about ogling guys who were Asian, black, or even Italian -- not so much because they were worried about possible cultural conflicts with the guys' families, but a visceral reaction. It was just starting to become uncool to sort out your potential dates based on ethnicity (so they would feebly say something like "I don't like short guys" or "He's too much of a jock"). Some of the more daring ones might speculate about what it might be like to date Bruce Lee, for example, but there was that aura of the exotic and it wasn't usually carried so far as to think about getting hitched and settling down with him.

Eavesdropping on the same age group today, it seems that the unwritten taboos are much less obvious. (And so is the "forbidden fruit" factor, which I know prompted some of my friends to make advances across those barriers for the shock value.) Much less hesitation about expressing interest in someone from a different ethnic background, and what used to be novel/exotic is no longer so unusual, nor an insurmountable obstacle.

People used to ask me, all the time, which country I was from (and express disbelief when I explained that both my parents and I were born here). They would grab triumphantly at my admission that my grandparents had moved here from Japan (in the early 1900s, as children). Knowing what I know now about history and demographics, the odds are pretty good that the families of those badgering me had moved here around or after that time!

It's been years since anybody asked me that particular question. Though I can't figure out whether it's because social attitudes in general have shifted, or because I'm now old enough that it's considered rude to ask such questions out of the blue like that. (When you're under 16, it's amazing what kinds of things other kids, and adults too, will say to your face!)

[NashVegas]

22. Young People LOVE Upsetting Their Parents

with things said parents are uptight about. Or at least, things they think their parents would be uptight about.

[sonicx]

8. No, I think article is saying that...

The kids want to make their parents uncomfortable.

[Warpy]

12. Even tribes in the US, whose members are determined by

"quantum" of "native blood" are starting to realize that genetics aint quite what they're cracked up to be and that cultural heritage trumps it very nicely.

My people were sailors, scholars, merchants, and itinerant musicians who married foreign brides who didn't want lives like their mothers. I can trace ancestors to 3 continents in the past 200 years. My baggage is 100% Irish, though.

[Kimber Scott]

13. I think it's the modern day version of the "milk man" joke.

You know, you think you know who your parents are then you find out your real dad is the milk man?

[demigoddess]

15. why does this make you sad? the kids would have received their dna

from their parents.

[Rose Siding]

16. The fact that they think

it would be *upsetting* to their parents. -Either they just *think* they're folks would be bothered by it or they actually would be bothered by it! Both ways indicate some kind of prejudice. That's what makes me sad.

[NashVegas]

23. Not Necessarily

Part of getting to know your parents on an adult level is trying to find out what makes them squirm and pushing those buttons until they confront it.

I had a friend in high school who was our school's first "punk rocker" and he was also sorta androgynous. I loved bringing him over; my mom didn't know what to make of him. "Are you dating him?" she finally asked. "Nope." "Is (my best friend) dating him?" "Nope." "Is he (whispers) *gay*?" Nope.

[Speck Tater]

4. I thought I was 100% white until...

... my genealogy research turned up a black great-great grandmother who married my French great-great grandfather after he moved from France to Haiti.

[Lisa]

10. Queen Elizabeth II also has black ancestors

(kind of like the archetypal "boring white person" there!)

I suppose in earlier times this information would have been suppressed, or pointedly ignored ... but now it's embraced as a sign of diversity within the Commonwealth.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/royalfamily.html

[sonicx]

7. Let's make KKK members take this test.

They'll off themselves if they are .000001% black.

[benddem]

17. have you ever looked at Congressman Bob Barr?

If he doesn't have black blood I'd be very surprised. It would certainly shut him up.

[DURHAM D]

20. And David Bossie. No question. n/t

[Lexingtonian]

25. He has admitted Mungalon ancestry

Which iirc is American Indian- Virginia Siouan or Tennessee Tutelo, I think- and black, admixed.

[billyoc]

18. I just hope I'm human.

:scared:

[Psephos]

21. Exactly n/t

[HockeyMom]

24. Genealogy and LDS Church

This has been going on for a while now - at least 5 years. I forget the formal name of it but is something like a World DNA Genealogy Database. I have been an amateur genealogist for over 25 years and have used the LDS records for my research. They sent me a letter several years ago and asked if I wanted to donate to this research. Sorry, but no thanks. Having my DNA in World DNA Database just creeps me out.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. Have any of you seen the film Motherland?

It was about doing DNA research with black Britons to figure out what part of Africa their ancestors came from. The film focused on three people.

One man found to his dismay that most of his genes were European, but his African genes were traceable to a desert tribe in Niger or Chad or some place like that.

One woman had a genetic sequence that is found only in a tribe living on an island off the coast of Guinea.

Both people were taken to meet their ancestral tribes, and although the tribes were very hospitable, it was clear that culturally, the travelers were much more British than African, and the meetings were rather awkward.

[salib]

29. This is pretty lame...

Provided by Doris Brown.

Currently, it isn't possible to determine race from DNA. Although many phenotypic traits have been identified and seem to be linked to certain families or populations with common ancestors, the genes for most of these traits have yet to be identified or mapped at the DNA level.

Traits can be determined from DNA to a certain degree, with the highest level of confidence between children and their parents. When people are tracing back further, though, they must look at multiple traits/genes in combination because we only inherit one chromosome from each (maternal and paternal) side of the family. A further complication in determining ancestry from DNA is that there are usually more differences within population groups (or races) than between groups (or races) at the phenotypic and genotypic levels.

The large amount of variation within populations comes from continuous mutation and reassortment of genes, which makes it very hard to say with confidence that a particular allele in any two people, for example, came from the same common ancestor or that it arose independently in two different populations. Also, most of the information collected in the Human Genome Project and in mapping disease genes has, unfortunately, underrepresented minorities.

It may be a long time before enough genetic information is available to compare individuals' DNA with DNA from different races and determine which race the individual may have descended from. Sometime in the future (after the Human Genome Project has progressed further), this may be possible and may allow people to know more about their heritage from their DNA composition, but it also raises other concerns. For example, there's growing concern that the genetic discoveries made possible through the Human Genome Project will lead to racism supported by differences in the genes between different "races."

For more information about the social and ethical issues about race and DNA and to find out more about the possible roles of DNA in determining race, contact the official site of the Human Genome Project: http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genome.