Check out this Hypescience website that talks about the Neonazists
Unfortunately, the time of the white supremacists was not far behind. At various times in human history, Caucasians have judged themselves superior to many other ethnicities and cultures, and even though the idea of an egalitarian and less violent world is beautiful, neo-Nazis with torches always appear to remind us that we are not as evolved as we would like .
It hurts me to write this, but this movement is gaining new relevance. Along with a mistaken reinterpretation of "identity politics," we live in a time when radical governments and dislike of the population meet, making temperaments heat up.
At the same time, it has never been easier or so cheap to get a genetic ancestry test (GAT).
Aaron Panofsky and Joan Donovan, two sociologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have decided to investigate the growing trend of white nationalists who use these tests to reaffirm their imagined or assumed ancestry and identity.
Unfortunately for them, often such superstars are quite disappointed with the results.
Searching for ancestry
Donovan and Panofsky presented their research at a meeting of the American Sociological Association in Montreal on August 14.
The timing was quite appropriate considering the events that took place in Charlottesville, USA, in recent days.
But the study began in fact years ago: scientists have been reviewing the postings of a forum called "Stormfront," linked to a white nationalist and neo-Nazi movement, created by a former KKK, to observe how more than 600 people reacted to the results of Their GATs.
Am I white ... or not?
They found that many people were pleasantly surprised by their results. One postulated: "I was surprised because there was no more German [ancestry]. Evidently, Y DNA said 'Nordic' and goes back to the Cimbri tribe, which settled in Denmark. "
Others were not so happy. One user said, "See, that's why I do not recommend these tests to people. Do they bother to tell you that there were whites in what Senegal is now all this time? No? So they make you believe that you are mixed, although in all likelihood, you are simply related to a white fool who has left some of his DNA with the locals in what is now Senegal. "
Some forum users occasionally try to use the newly discovered "non-white ancestry" of people as an excuse to evict them from the online community. After one user revealed that he was "61% European", another replied, "I've prepared a drink for you. It's 61% pure water. The rest is potassium cyanide ... Cyanide is not water and you're not white. "
Another common response was simply to reject the legitimacy of the tests, suggesting they are a multicultural Jewish conspiracy.
Misuse of science
Researchers note that this reaction from white nationalists to DNA testing should not be dismissed as pure ignorance.
Although their theories more frequently prove unfounded, they reflect more than a simple misunderstanding of science, but a purposely misuse of it.
As Donovan and Panofsky write in their article, GAT unfortunately has two sides: it's good for citizens to learn about themselves, but it can be bad as well, because of privacy threats and data mining.
Moreover, such tests create a new infrastructure for racists to endow their unfounded theories with a "scientific air," mutually convincing themselves of the myths that mobilize them as a social group in the first place.