When DNA Testing Gives You a Past and Threatens Your Future
The troubling risks of genetic testing while Black
When I was a senior in college, I won the random prize of a DNA test from African Ancestry, a genealogical DNA testing company that provides family history information for people of African descent. My father took the MatriClan test, which traced our ancestry back to Africa through the mitochondrial DNA passed down from mothers to their children. Several months later, the results came back: My family on my father’s mother’s side hails from the Mende people of Sierra Leone.
What does this mean for me?
It means I now know where my family comes from. If there are health problems specific to folks from this region, I can ask for certain tests from my doctor. If I want to know where a certain physical feature found in our family comes from, I might find it among images of these people.
It also means my DNA is now part of a large collection of genetic information held by a largely unregulated industry that has a history of sharing genetic data with the FBI as well as with other third parties for research purposes.
If I lived in a country where I trusted that the government, law enforcement, and large corporations all have my best interests in mind when it comes to…
