Hi friend,
You are invited to a virtual Sip & Search hosted by Color Of Change ! Please join us on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT for a fun and interactive genealogy event. Whether you know everything about your ancestry or very little, you will learn new tools for talking about ancestry with your living family and tools to explore the stories of those who have passed on. We will help you build your family’s archive by highlighting resources you may have access to, records you might not have accessed before and context specific to doing genealogy as Black people. We will dedicate time to the resources most relevant to Black people in the United States, but all are welcome !
Most of all, we want to help you further your genealogy research without compromising your privacy. Direct-to-consumer genetic testing like 23andMe and Ancestry.com want you to believe that you are safe, but genetic data is unalterable and highly specific. When they sell aggregate data to corporations, 23andMe risks the safety of its users and their families.
To learn more, including how you can explore your genealogy without risking your genetic information, join us for a Sip & Search on Thursday, Oct. 13!
You deserve to know where your data goes when you use genetic tests. Throughout history, institutions have violated the autonomy and privacy of Black people to make supposed scientific discoveries or develop medical treatments, while keeping us from accessing the benefits. Every user to whom 23andMe markets its product deserves to understand what they’re signing up for—how 23andMe might use their data and how that data might be used by other sites that customers later share their reports with (i.e., inadvertent data sharing with law enforcement databases).
You deserve to access information about your family without sacrificing your right to privacy. Color Of Change is hosting a Sip & Search on Thursday, Oct. 13 to share tools you can use to trace your genealogy without risking your genetic privacy. Genetic data is precious, and Black people deserve an active, informed choice in determining how ours is used.
23andMe’s products and research often capture the attention of Black Americans whose genealogy was disrupted by slavery. The burden of tracing lineage is painfully heavy for those whose families were torn apart and sold as property. The possibility of accessing that stolen history can be an exciting one, but a lack of precedent for genetic privacy means that direct-to-consumer genetic testing can risk our privacy and safety. It is unreasonable to expect that individuals who buy a saliva test will understand how much of their privacy is at stake by signing 23andMe’s lengthy terms and conditions or by consenting to research.
23andMe is driven by its ability to profit from your genetic data — once when the customer buys the testing kit, and again when the company sells aggregate user data to pharmaceutical companies. Black customers contend with a long history of exploitation under the auspices of research and medicine.1 From violent experimentation during slavery to Henrietta Lacks’ stolen cells, there have been too many instances of abuse of Black bodies in the name of furthering medical research.2,3
For another way to explore your family history, join us on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT for a Sip & Search. All are welcome as we center the experiences of Black American families.
Until justice is real,
The Color Of Change Team.
References :
- Marissa Evans, “The Cautious Gene : Genetic testing inherits a legacy of distrust,” Bitch Media, December 17, 2020, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/365344?t=9&akid=53586%2E1942551%2EMLwm1U
- Kathleen Bachynski, “American medicine was built on the backs of slaves. And it still affects how doctors treat patients today,” Washington Post, June 4, 2018, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/365345?t=11&akid=53586%2E1942551%2EMLwm1U
- “Henrietta Lacks : Science must right a historical wrong,” Nature, September 1, 2020, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/365346?t=13&akid=53586%2E1942551%2EMLwm1U
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Please help keep our movement strong.
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