I read with interest Courtenay Edelhart's article on the testing of her DNA ("Tracing ancestry through DNA," Sept. 17). This letter is in no way intended as a criticism of her. With her multi-racial and multi-ethnic heritage, she is certainly no racist.
One statement that she made, however, shows how imbedded [sic] racism still is in our culture.
RAW Watch...
She refers to past members of her mother's family "passing for white." The concept of "passing for white" is the result of old-fashioned white racism which holds that, no matter how small a percentage of a light-skinned person's ancestors were black, that person is considered black. This is no more logical than saying that a dark-skinned person with a few white ancestors is white. If one removes the illogic of racism, therefore, a person who is able to "pass for white" has enough Caucasian ancestors to be white.
I believe the writer of the letter has just made this up.
On the other hand, if we go back a sufficient number of generations, our DNA will tell us that we are all Africans.
This probably IS true, though, from what I've heard. Of course, some might then go too far and make the "racist" claim that white people are more highly evolved, superior versions of our original black ancestors. They won't, of course, suggest that black people should be mocked or treated differently because of this, because they are only stating fact, not opinion...but you know, if you suggest that one race is better than another (and FYI, I'm not saying that's the case here), that is unacceptable in today's PC multi-cult age.
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