As this series on genetics has unfolded throughout the last year, we have heard many variations on a common theme answering the question, “Who am I?’ Tonight, our presenters addressed a different but still very much related question: “Where do I come from?” Our genetic make-up is uniquely our own, but the combination of genes that sets us apart as individuals is also a legacy from the thousands of people who are our ancestors. What does it mean to consider genetics in the context of geneology?
From our first panelist, Dr. Rick Kittles, we heard about efforts to use the technology behind DNA sequencing and genetic testing to identify the region of origin for African-Americans whose ancestors were brought to North America as slaves. Our second panelist, author Ronne Hartfield, shared stories from her critically-acclaimed memoir, Another Way Home, which details her mother’s life as a bi-racial American, the daughter of a white plantation owner and a mixed-race daughter of a former slave. Finally, Christopher Rabb concluded by discussing the social consequences of learning about one’s genetic origins, particularly in the setting of the African-American experience.
No matter what our heritage, questions about our origins and the impact this information can have on our identities are universal. Does it change what we think about ourselves if we learn through genetic testing that we do not, in fact, share ancestry with a particular racial group? What about the revelation—as is often the case for many African-Americans—that our ancestry is mixed, sometimes as the result of sexual violence many years in the past? Does finding out who are ancestors were and where they come from influence us today? How is the way that we view ourselves shaped by what we learn about not our own past but the past of those to whom we are related? The questions are endless and so are the possible answers. Let’s keep the conversation going!
Amanda
IHC facilitator
