Race, Self Identity, and Admixture in the Genomic Era

• In Event: 452 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Race, Science, and Medicine

Abstract

Genetic ancestry testing could bring knowledge of racial and ethnic admixture to consumer study of family history. Nevertheless, gaps in genetic testing of the world’s populations, the overlap of geographic ancestral origin groups with racial and ethnic terminology, and the persistence of the Black-White binary impact interpretation of genetic origins. Americans may valorize or deny knowledge of their racial-ethnic heritage due to White privilege, a history or passing, or a tendency to discount direct line relatives from cultures and societies they are not familiar with. Status and privilege afforded to Whiteness and the tendency to push Black ancestry into a non-White category impacts the self-identification of multi-racial people. Whites may reject or neutralize multi-racial ancestry while Blacks persist with primary African American identification and accept multi-ancestral group designation.

Author

• Judith Ann Warner, Texas A&M International Univ.