Letters: ‘My Culture Was in My DNA’
Readers share their experiences with genetic testing—and debate whether ancestry can be a meaningful proxy for culture.
Your DNA Is Not Your Culture
In September, Sarah Zhang explored how DNA-testing companies conflate genetics and culture while promoting their products.
The discussion should be “Your Culture Is Your DNA.” As an African American whose elementary- and high-school books in New York said my ancestors were oppressed, passive people, I was concerned because I heard a different message at home and in my community. I heard stories of heroic people who defended themselves, resisted, rebelled, and waged antislavery Maroon rebellions. In college, when I proposed my American-history term project of researching Maroon slave rebellions in the Americas, the chair of
