num_pages: 216
description: The unexpected story of how genetic testing is affecting race in AmericaDNA has been a master key unlocking medical and forensic secrets but its genealogical life has also been notable. Genealogy is the second most popular hobby in the United States and the outpouring of interest in it from the African American community has been remarkable. After personally and professionally delving into the phenomenon for more than a decade Alondra Nelson realized that genetic testing is being used to grapple with the unfinished business of slavery. It is being used for reconciliation to establish ties with African ancestral homelands to rethink citizenship and to make unprecedented legal claims for slavery reparations based on genetic ancestry. Arguing that DNA offers a new tool for enduring issues Nelson shows that the social life of DNA is affecting and transforming twenty-first-century racial politics.
language: English
title: The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome
publisher: Beacon Press