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I am very suspicious of people who are wedded to DNA and gene-language when discussing race. It gives it a pseudo-scientific veneer that is problematic at worst and bad science at best. #AcademicTwitter
I find it particularly troubling in a Latin American context in which peoples have been mixing for centuries and often come from people groups themselves who have been mixing centuries. When people talk about “Portuguese“ or “Spanish genes“ I find it ahistorical.
So when Latin Americanists talk about genes that come from Europe as though they were separate from African genes, I have to shut it down. The Mediterranean was known for many people groups traveling and migrating through the region. That includes North Africa.
There is an undercover anti-blackness that comes with not acknowledging that Europeans are descendants of Africans. Also, the Portuguese royal family, the Medicis, the south of France, and Flemish paintings all show sub-Saharan Africans have mixed with Europeans for centuries.
I also find it striking that people like to think that Africans all share the same set of genes. People honestly believe that 1.2 billion people all have genes in common because they are on the second largest continent on the planet. GTHOH
Even though people on the continent recognize ethnoracial differences that exist between people groups and the continent has the most diverse genes on the planet, people are wedded to the notion that there is an African gene and a European gene.
When I think about Shakira and Salma Hayek, there is also erasure of the significant Middle Eastern and Asian populations throughout Latin America. I suspect they all get flattened to be “European.“
From what I understand about DNA ancestry tests, they presuppose that geographic difference already exists. Then they lump genes together accordingly. Then they find—“Quelle surprise!“— geographic difference exists.
Are there studies in which these DNA ancestry companies have taken all of the genes from all over the world and then let them cluster independently to see if geography is one of the ways that they cluster? If anyone could share that research, that would be helpful!
Otherwise, I have difficulty believing that people in Hausaland, the Xhosa, and people in the DRC share genes that are so different from people in Portugal or Norway.
if someone can provide this great science, please let me know!
if someone can provide this great science, please let me know!
