Yellowface

Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Tests

Amy Harmon in the Times: Alan Moldawer's adopted twins, Matt and Andrew, had always thought of themselves as white. But when it came time for them to apply to college last year, Mr. Moldawer thought it might be worth investigating the origins of their slightly tan-tinted skin, with a new DNA kit that he had heard could determine an individual's genetic ancestry.

The results, designating the boys 9 percent Native American and 11 percent northern African, arrived too late for the admissions process. But Mr. Moldawer, a business executive in Silver Spring, Md., says they could be useful in obtaining financial aid.

"Naturally when you're applying to college you're looking at how your genetic status might help you," said Mr. Moldawer, who knows that the twins' birth parents are white, but has little information about their extended family. "I have three kids going now, and you can bet that any advantage we can take we will."

Genetic tests, once obscure tools for scientists, have begun to influence everyday lives in many ways. The tests are reshaping people's sense of themselves — where they came from, why they behave as they do, what disease might be coming their way.

It may be only natural then that ethnic ancestry tests, one of the first commercial products to emerge from the genetic revolution, are spurring a thorough exploration of the question, What is in it for me?

Ah, yes--it's only natural for white people to wanna become Native American, or Hispanic, or Asian American, when they want to, then go back to being white when they get tired of it....

It's an astonishing article. Not just the content, but the style--it's written as if there's no other side. Not that it's surprising anymore that the New York Times is tin-eared when it comes to race.

The worst thing about the article is the Times tries to present examples of 'the other side', like a black woman who uses DNA tests to confirm her Scottish heritage to claim a castle. Does the Times not understand that in a court of law, a descendant is a claim of fact that does not depend on when it came to your attention what your heritage is.

But when it comes to affirmative action programs, someone who's lived as a white person and is minimally a person of color is lying when they represent themselves as a person of color for the 2 seconds it takes to check a box.

Besides which, it's like when whites tag affirmative action programs reverse discrimination. No, reverse discrimination would be if blacks enslaved whites for 200 years. It's not a two-way street; in 21st century America you don't need to know anything culturally or go through anything societally to be generically white. You can't say the same if you're Asian American or Hispanic or African American.

It actually is why I feel bad for white Americans, but that's another day's post. I think the funniest part of the article, actually, is this girl:

"If someone appears to be white and then finds out they are not, they haven't experienced the kinds of things that affirmative action is supposed to remedy," said Lester Monts, senior vice provost for student affairs at the University of Michigan, which won the right to use race as a factor in admissions in a 2003 Supreme Court decision.

Still, Michigan, like most other universities, relies on how students choose to describe themselves on admissions applications when assigning racial preferences.

Ashley Klett's younger sister marked the "Asian" box on her college applications this year, after the elder Ms. Klett, 20, took a DNA test that said she was 2 percent East Asian and 98 percent European.

Whether it mattered they do not know, but she did get into the college of her choice.

"And they gave her a scholarship," Ashley said.

She thought being Asian American would help her get into college?!

I guess one problem with pretending to be something you're not is how telling your ignorance can be. Bet Ashley never thought reading an article like this would be of any relevance to her: Ending College Admission Quotas Against Asian-Americans.

Image of an unspecified monkey from various places on the web.