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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-01 > 1138577005


From: Bonnie Schrack <>
Subject: RE: [DNA] Newsweek Article: In your Blood (DNA Testing)
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:23:25 -0500


Glen wrote:

> This is exactly the sort of remark that I find annoying and insulting; the
> idea that the only things worth finding are the PC 'exotics', be they
> African, some variety of NA, or religion-linked middle eastern. I
> certainly don't feel in the slightest 'short-changed' by not finding
> any of
> these in my own ancestry, and I don't find the implication that this
> is the
> only reason that the science exists to be productive. (And by the way,
> everybody is indigenous somewhere, depending on the timeframe that you're
> talking about. It's not a mark of special grace.)

I'm well aware that it annoys you, Glen, because in my opinion, you are
looking at this whole thing through a bizarrely distorted lens.

*You* are the one here who's projecting the whole notion that there is
anything implied in any of this about your own background being *less*
desirable. It just isn't there, and your continual insistance in seeing
this in a whole range of instances, which you never tire of imposing on
the list, reveals a lot more about your own psychology than about
anything else.

The obvious fact you fail to recognize is that we are just beginning to
get to the point in our society, where having African or Native American
ancestry is NOT seen as something problematic. To celebrate the fact
that people are finally getting to the point where they can feel good
about their whole range of ancestors, without having to worry about
hiding any of them, simply does not, as you try to claim, imply that any
of us should feel any less good about our European ancestry. To imagine
that I, for instance, would not celebrate my European roots, would be
ridiculous. Why do you imagine that being happy about one thing should
have to mean being less happy about something else? Is there some
reason we can't share joy in the beauty and gifts of eachother's
heritages and ancestors?

Bonnie

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