How African Americans Use DNA Testing to Connect With Their Past
Genetic tests have ushered in a new era of root-seeking and community-building, says social scientist Alondra Nelson.
In 1977, Alondra Nelson remembers lying stomach-down, head-in-hands, in front of the television, watching Alex Haley’s miniseries Roots with her parents. “I knew that something special was happening because my parents didn’t let us watch TV in the evenings, and here, they were letting us watch eight nights in a row,” she told a crowd at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic. “They wanted us to see it for its historic nature.”
The miniseries, which traced Haley’s genealogy back to the Gambia, spurred many African
