Performing blackness: a composite counterstory of direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry testing

Abstract

The industry of genetic ancestry testing (GAT) uses biotechnology to generate new performances of genetic, cultural, and ethnoracial identity. Based on interviews and focus groups with Black GAT customers, this composite counterstory narrates the familial, institutional, and political contexts of Black GAT identity negotiation. This article highlights how conceptions of Blackness are constrained and enabled by the everyday nature of racism, the omnipresence of anti-Black data surveillance, familial narratives, and the allure of institutional racial reconciliation attached to commercialized genomics. This counterstory illustrates the salience of narrative in the construction of the racial and genetic self.