Performing blackness: a composite counterstory of direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry testing

ABSTRACT

The industry of genetic ancestry testing (GAT) uses biotechnology to generate new performances of genetic, cultural, and ethnoracial identity. Based on interviews and focus groups with Black GAT customers, this composite counterstory narrates the familial, institutional, and political contexts of Black GAT identity negotiation. This article highlights how conceptions of Blackness are constrained and enabled by the everyday nature of racism, the omnipresence of anti-Black data surveillance, familial narratives, and the allure of institutional racial reconciliation attached to commercialized genomics. This counterstory illustrates the salience of narrative in the construction of the racial and genetic self.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity performance
• blackness
• genetic ancestry testing
• composite counterstory
• identity negotiation

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank her doctoral advisor and committee for their early feedback on this manuscript. Additionally, gratitude goes to the University of Utah’s African American Doctoral Scholars Initiative, Utah’s Center for Excellence in ELSI Research, and the Tanner Humanities Center.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The characters in this narrative, including Kiara, are based on focus groups and interviews with Black genetic ancestry testing (GAT) customers. The author ran 8 focus groups with 37 people and 8 follow-up interviews, equating to 1010 min of conversation. To participate, individuals had to be 18 years or older, speak English, identify as Black, and have taken a GAT (e.g., 23andMe, AncestryDNA, AfricanAncestry, etc …). This IRB-approved data collection occurred in 2021 and 2022. Throughout the narrative, the author uses footnotes to show when characters speak in direct quotes from participants. They are identified by their chosen pseudonyms. The first time they are identified, their footnote includes their self-reported race, gender, age, and ethnicity.

2 Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has written, produced, and starred in several Black history and genealogy-focused TV shows and documentaries, including African American Lives (2006) and Finding Your Roots—with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2012-present). He has pioneered mainstream depictions of African American genealogy.

3 Of the participants, many were in search of identity in some way, and their identities were varying. Participants ranged in age from 25-68, with an average age of 40. 70% of the participants self-identified as woman or female, and 30% self-identified as male or man. All participants identified as Black, with 13% identifying with one or more race(s). The ethnic backgrounds of the participants included African American, Black American, Jamaican, Caribbean, and Latino, with the highest percentage of ethnic identification being African American. The majority of participants did not identify with tribal or Indigenous groups, but those who did indicated a variety of African and Native American tribes, nations, and/or ethnic groups (e.g., Igbo, Navajo, Hausa).

4 Scholars have argued for generational consent because of “the ease with which genealogical and other personal data from the client, and by extension from their relatives, can be shared, linked and used” (Wallace et al. 2).

5 Direct quote from participant, Utah (Black man, 21, Navajo.) The Golden State Killer was apprehended after the FBI uploaded a suspect’s DNA to GEDmatch, a popular genetic genealogy database (Zhang).

6 Direct quote from participant, Scorp (Black woman, 25, Caribbean and African American).

7 Direct quote from participant, Motsesangape (Black female, 59, African American, unsure of West African descent).

8 Direct quote from participant, Shaka (Black man, 57, African American).

9 Direct quote from participant, Misty (Black woman, 51, African American).

10 The subheading comes from the title of Season 2 episode 10 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

11 Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. was funded through the slave labor of 272 people who were sold to pay off some of the university’s debt. Student protests associated with the Black Lives Matter Movement called attention to the way the institution benefited from the slave labor of Black people with the hashtag #GU272. The Georgetown Memory Project has documented 212 of the enslaved people and over 5000 descendants. Georgetown now grants legacy status to descendants, which allows them preference in admission like children of alumni (Swarns; The working group on slavery, memory, and reconciliation 37).

12 Direct quote from response to this study’s advertisement on Facebook.

13 Direct quote from participant, Misty.

14 The subheading comes from the title of Season 3 episode 1 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

15 Kiara’s 23andMe results (Table 1) are the author’s results.

16 Genetic ancestry tests can shape how people view themselves ethnically and racially. For Black people in the U.S., the rigidity of the U.S.’s Black-White binary means that fewer Black people outright change ethnoracial identity based on GATs (Nelson, Social Life of DNA 16; Roth and Ivemark 176).

17 Direct quote from description of Indonesian, Thai, Khmer, & Myanma ancestry on author’s 23andMe.

18 Direct quote from participant, Misty.

19 The subheading comes from the title of Season 6 episode 15 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

20 In CRT, the endemic nature of racism is often thought of as permanent. Instead of racial equality, Bell advocated for a “mechanism to make life bearable” (Bell 377).

21 Scholars have argued that colorblind ideologies in education produce “strategies of erasure” that are simultaneous practices of whiteness (de los Ríos et al.).

22 Direct quote from participant, Cocoa (Black woman, 51, African American).

23 Subtitle from the title of season 4 episode 8 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

24 Black students often face layers of surveillance at predominately White institutions, where technologies like student identification cards evoke legacies of slavery (Jenkins et al. 150).

25 Direct quote from participant, Motsesanagape.

26 Direct quote from participant, SameOldSong (Black woman, 50, African American).

27 Direct quote from participant, Arrow (Black woman, 56, African American).

28 Direct quote from participant, Valencia (Black female, 30, African American).

29 Direct quote from participant, JunePlum (Black woman, 55, Jamaican and African American).

30 Direct quote from participant, Tiana (Black female, 36, African American).

31 Direct quote from participant, PhillyGuy (Black man, 27, African American).

32 Direct quote from participant, Hope2000 (Black woman, 39, African American).

33 Subtitle taken from the title of Season 4 episode 2 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

34 Direct quote from participant, Misty.

35 Excerpts from statement by participant, Mocha2 (Black woman, 68, African American).