Is DNA testing that traces African tribe heritage for African-Americans accurate and credible?
Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at
7:14 pm
1. African-Americans are mixture of the numerous African peoples. How can we be sure?
2. Can this truly be traced through male DNA
Actor Isaiah Washington said his ancestors are Sierra Leone and Angola assuming he got testing on his mother and father side.
Other black celebrities mentioned Ghana, Nigeria, and various other places.
Can it really be traced accurately?
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Tagged with: african peoples • ancestors • angola • black celebrities • dna • ghana • isaiah washington • mixture • mother and father • nigeria • sierra leone
Filed under: DNA Testing Discussions
It is both scientifically accurate and more than credible. For more info http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/
Oprah had hers traced back on an episode of The History Detectives (PBS). She was traced back to Europe instead of Africa.
Richard Dawkins in his book "The Ancestor’s Tale" has a long explanation about why these tests are not accurate. He says clearly that from a scientific point of view this is a hoax and people are being cheated. I am not a specialist but his explanation seems convincing.
As I understand it: I would think that if male, that is, yDNA were tested for specific markers, and those same markers were found in a population with a statistically large enough sample within an identified African group, then it may be possible. The likelihood of that is very very slim.
Deep ancestry via DNA testing means at least 10,000 years ago a haplotype was concentrated geographically in some part of a continent or parts of continents.
DNA testing is only reliable and credible when done by Labs that are reliable and credible. You must have a family member in both places. A general population search would be worthless. But, if you can trace your ancestry thru bloodlines and names and places back to a point of origin you have a shot at it.
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Our society really needs to try to begin to understand that
the ‘African-American’ (AA) ‘Ethnic’ group is *not* the
same group as the ’Black American’ (BA) ‘Race’ group —
that the two (2) terms are *not* synonymous and that the
two (2) terms should *not* be used inter-changeably.
We are *not* speaking of ‘semantics’ here – but rather
– the BAs & AAs are two different groups of people.
The AAs are the (largely Mixed-Race) ETHNIC group.
The BAs are the (Mono-Raced) RACE group.
As confusing as it seems — the U.S. government
[due to racism & wanting to stigmatize the part
of their lineage that was from Africa which, by
the way, is only one part of their lineage] —
has labeled those individuals who are the known
"descendents of the survivors" of the system of
chattel-slavery found in the USA as being AAs
(the hyphen is used in reference to acknowledging
the fact that most of them are Mixed-Race,
with African & non-African blood lines)
AND
has labeled those people who are "volitional immigrants"
who are directly from places such as the continent of
African, the West Indies, etc. — as being BAs
(with the word ‘Black’ used in reference to acknowledging
the fact that they are of a Mono-racial full-Black lineage).
In addition, it should also be remembered that – although
some AAs adhere to a socio-political ‘identity’ that is
often described by the slang term of “black”—the AAs
are actually *not* a "Race" group at all — but rather
they *are* a largely Mixed-Race ‘Ethnic’ group
(and the socio-political ‘identity’ that a person chooses
*does not* change their racially-mixed ancestral lineage).
Most (+70%) of the people born to two (2) parents who
are of the AA ‘Ethnic’ group are are of a Multi-Racially
‘Mixed’ (MGM) lineage – while the people to two (2)
parents who are of the BA ‘Racial’ group – on the
other hand – are of a Mono-Racially ‘Black’ lineage.
There is a big difference between a largely Multi-racial
‘Ethnic’ group and between a Mono-racial ‘Race group.
In addition, there is also a big difference between
one’s socio-political ‘identity’ (ex. "black") and
one’s ancestral racial ‘lineage’ (ex. ‘Mixed’).
Just because a person adheres to a given
socio-political ‘identity’ does *not* change
the composition of their ancestral ‘lineage’.
Also — the ‘One-Drop’ Rule (the false teaching that
‘any amount’ of Black ancestral lineage make a
person "full black") is nothing more than pure-racism.
The racist ‘One-Drop Rule’ (used only by the United
States government, by the way) was created during
the antebellum, chattel-slavery era by White racial
supremacist in order to get people to believe the false
racist myth that the so-called White "race" was "pure"
and to falsely view the Black "racial" admixture
(even the slightest amount) within someone’s
ancestral lineage as being "tainted".
To embrace the ‘One-Drop Rule’ is the equivalent of BOTH
embracing "racism" and embracing the false teaching
that a Mixed-Race person’s Black lineage is "tainted".
My advice is that a non-Racist should *not* embrace
the concept of the ‘One-Drop Rule’ — as "Black blood"
is *not* "tainted" — and should never be perceived
or embraced as being so (not even in the
name of so-called "pride" and "unity").
In addition, legally-speaking, attempted forcible
application of the racist ‘One-Drop Rule’ — against
any individual or group — was made illegal and ruled
as unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court
in 1967 via the case of ‘Loving vs. The State of Virginia’.
Through the ‘Loving vs. Virginia’ case, the U.S.
Supreme Court, ruled against both all of the laws
banning Interracial marriage — and — also ruled
that any so-called law which forcibly applied the
‘One Drop Rule’ — was racist, discriminatory,
illegal, unconstitutional, and non-enforcible.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1402
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1400
Related Links:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MGM-Mixed
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FGM-Mixed
————————PLEASE NOTE———————
— Dr. Luigi Caveli-Sforza, who is the Executive
Director of the Human Genome Project and the
world’s foremost authority on human genetics
has both tested and proven that more that 70%
of all AAs have a full ancestral lineage which
consists of +20-30% White / European and
more than +25% Amerindian bloodlines.
— That means that the ‘average’ (+70%) person
born to two (2) parents who are both members
of the AA Ethnic group actually has slightly
less than 50% Black / African blood lineage
found in his or her full-ancestral lineage.
For more information — see supporting links listed below:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1399
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1032
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1034
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/991
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1570
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1573
————————— ADDED NOTE ———————
It should also be noted that — contrary to popular belief and
myth spread among many groups who are not educated or
informed on the whole topic — it was not the group that is
currently being referred to as being the African-Americans
(AAs) — who chose this term for them — but rather —
like so many of the other terms used to describe
them — this term was also implemented by
the United States federal government
(starting with the 1990 United
States ‘Census Bureau’ Forms).
If a person insists on spreading the ‘myth’ that it was the
AAs who chose this term for themselves — it is clearly
indicative of the fact that they have never even once
actually studied the entire topic and are simply basing
their comments on assumption-based ignorance –
rather than objective facts and empirical evidence.
.
Ask Opera.
The west indies are very racially mixed and most so called Africans there have high Amerindian blood as proven by recent testing in puerto Rico and Cuba.