Genes and race in the era of genetic ancestry testing: The geneticization of identity and the social deconstruction of whiteness

Abstract

AbstractThe link between racial identity and biology has long been a topic of fascination within the US popular imagination. After the completion of the Human Genome Project, this fascination has increased as journalists and others have continued to search for a genetic basis of racial classifications. Moreover, the increasing popularity of genetic ancestry testing (GAT) is spurring a geneticization of identity as individuals are encouraged to change their racial identity based on their genetic profiles, rather than their social location. Scholarship suggests white Americans are more likely to take GATs and change their identity based on results. This paper reviews the literature on links between race and genes and GAT. We argue that GAT is a racial project prompting white individuals to engage in an inverse process of constructing race, a process we call “the social deconstruction of whiteness.” That is, GATs allow white individuals to use the imprimatur of genetic science to claim alternative identities in an era where the socially constructed category of “white” is losing its salience and the history of white supremacy is becoming more widely recognized. This process could lead society from “racism without racists” and towards “white supremacy without whites.”