American Lives

February 7th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Young Black Professional Guide American Lives Despite the attention it received in recent years, I’ve never really had the desire to trace my roots back to Africa. Because the DNA is only traced back through a handful of women, the information would represent such a small percentage of my history that I wasn’t sure that it was worth it. (They examine your mother’s DNA, and her mother’s DNA, and then her mother’s DNA and so on.)

But I’ve been watching “American Lives” on PBS. Actually, I’ve been watching clips on the website, not the actual show, but you get the point.

Anyway, its VERY interesting.

One of Tom Joyner’s elders was electrocuted after being accused of killing a white confederate soldier, forcing his entire family to sale 130 acres of land and move.

And Don Cheadle’s people were owned by Native Americans, not whites, and weren’t required to free slaves when whites were because they were governed by their own laws.

I would LOVE for Gates to sit down with some of today’s more popular celebrities and tell them about their lives. How would 50 Cent or “Supahead” respond after hearing about his elders?

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  1. Comment by The Urban Scientist on 9 February 2008:

    I love African-American Lives 2 Better. He’s doing more of what he’s actually qualified to do - historical research. He is (or rather his staff and/or grad students) are pounding the pavement and going through archives and finding documents and relics to piece together a story of the past.

    African-American Lives (Lies), the first one, was compelling and interesting but irritated the mess out of me. I’m a Biologist, and I know you can’t genetically pin-point your ancestral geography. Furthermore..Skip ain’t qualified to do such research OR interpret the results.
    One limitation you named already - you can only reliably trace back on the mother’s side…Damn mitochondrial DNA…

    Also, the genomic library is quite incomplete. There is NO genetic catalogue. In fact, there have been several (but unsuccessful) efforts to genetically catalogue all indigenous peoples in Africa, Pacific Islands, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia, but for cultural reasons, many refuse. They view scientists, the equipment, and the purpose of the research as inappropriate and invasive.
    So this makes pinpointing ancestry even harder.

    We really don’t have all of the information it would require to confirm that a person’s DNA came from this place, these peoples, or this tribe only…and no other tribe. Even 20/20 did a program on the methodology and interpretation of results. Most people are “matched” to the same dozen or so tribes at a percentage of 15-20% comparison.

    Population Geneticists are still working on it. Check back every few years.

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