There were over 12 million people who signed up during the popularity of DNA testing at home. People would surrender their DNA, commonly with a spit or saliva sample. This was especially rampant for those who were seeking refuge in knowing more about their origins. There were several reasons as to why one would attempt to find out more about their lineage. Some are just plain curious while others use this as an opportunity to learn more about their parents who are otherwise unavailable. These DNA testing facilities promised that they could identify the history of your family with a simple sample. But could that be enough to end all the racism in the world though?
The results of the testing would be released onto people via e-mail. There you would find a detailed analysis of your DNA sample by country of origin. The digital map would then place a percentage on where your DNA would be comprised on.
You could receive a sort of mixed answer like 43% Nigerian, 1% Kenyan, and then suddenly have 55% Irish heritage. That might seem like a big jump but it could be due to the combination of your parents’ lineage.
This brought about much shock and change into people’s lives. They would find out traces of their origin that were unknown even to them. That led to a lot of emotional fallouts about one’s identity. In fact, you could see people suddenly either embrace their new cultural lineage or deny it outright. Some even questioned the legitimacy of these DNA origin tests because they have no features that would point out that a certain country is their origin.
With every rise to popularity, however, there is always an increase in doubters. You are going to submit sensitive genetic information about yourself willingly with your information freely being available for people hack on their open-source DNA testing site. And it is not just a privacy issue we have to deal with when submitting our genetic sample willingly to strangers. It is also the amount of emotional fallout one can have when they figure out some unsettling news about their origins. This can create an identity crisis among people that could potentially resort into depression or familial dispute.
A woman by the name of Ayshah Blackman was involved in a tv show in the U.K. called “The Secrets In My Family” She was a simple woman in her 50s who was born from a family of the Caribbean descent and is currently living in London. There were only 2 things about her family that she was certain on:
- She had an Indian heritage
- Her father has another daughter that she has no connection with
Blackman was coerced into partaking in the DNA test to help find more about her origins. This could potentially lead her to her long-lost sibling. However, the results of the test were not as expected. Her results had shown that she actually has zero connection to her Indian heritage. This caused her to start to seriously doubt her identity and existence as it made her wonder if her family was lying or that there was an affair that happened somewhere along the family tree. It even destroyed her view of her own family.
The result of the DNA ancestry test, instead, showcased that Blackman’s DNA origins are actually linked to parts of West Africa. Although, Blackman did say that she expected the connection to West Africa due to her 43% Benin, Togo DNA results. However, she was also deemed as 13% Scandanavian and parts Native American and British but absolutely zero connection to India. Blackman stated that she felt deep agony from finding out that her whole family history was built on lies.
One’s ancestry is something that should be treasured upon for it could easily be muddied up with years of interracial breeding, colonialism, slavery, and even rape. The history of a person’s ancestry is the only thing that can tether you from your family lineage. Incidents such as Blackman’s case are some of the examples where generations of history and narratives were suddenly shattered due to a single DNA test.
Blackman’s final statements on the show were her feeling dejected from her tribe of Indian ancestry despite decades of her life carrying that supposed bloodline with pride. “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t” claimed Blackman.
You can watch multiple videos of people all over the internet showcasing the results of their DNA sample tests for everyone to see. These people would treat the whole process