Held at a Distance: Genetic Distancing and Middle Eastern Ancestry Test Results

• In Event: 21003 - Constructing and Contesting Identities: Race, Representation, and Resistance in the MENA Region

Abstract

Genetic ancestry tests (GATs) have been used for a wide range of purposes, including discovering family history, searching for unknown relatives, and satisfying individual curiosity. Reactions to GAT results can tell us about how consumers are understanding race, themselves, and other racial groups. Particularly illustrative are test takers’ reactions to undesirable ancestries, those that respondents do not aspire to adopt and may have negative attitudes towards. One such identity discovered by some GAT takers is Middle Eastern Ancestry. Exploring individuals’ reactions to finding an undesirable ancestry can highlight how certain identities are racialized and how these undesirable ancestries are discussed and dismissed by individuals who may not want to identify with that group. This study addresses the questions: how do White GAT-takers who “discover” Middle Eastern ancestry react to that ancestry? If they disregard it, how do they explain why they consider it irrelevant for their ethnic or racial identities? Drawing on 27 qualitative interviews with non-Hispanic White individuals in the US who have taken a GAT and received results showing they had Middle Eastern ancestry, this paper argues that when discovering an undesired ancestry, test-takers participate in genetic distancing. We coin this term to describe the reactions and justifications made by respondents upon “discovering” Middle Eastern ancestry in which they perceive themselves to be distant from these GAT results and from the ancestry itself. This study explores how the decision not to adopt a Middle Eastern identity is justified through various forms of distancing in which respondents express fractional, historical, perceived-fit, and attitudinal distance from this result. Regardless of what GAT results might display, distancing oneself from GAT results is an active process that reinforces one’s own preexisting ideas about their ancestry and their attitudes towards other groups. For the Middle East, this perpetuates the notion of the region as distinct and distant.

Authors

• Morgan Hanna-Ghattas, University of Pennsylvania

• Wendy D. Roth, University of Pennsylvania