Blacks as me: narrative identity.
This commentary responds to genetic testing of African ancestry through a series of personal narratives that reveal a complex, intimate, and individualised process of identity formation. The author discusses both how her family and others outside her family have fostered and challenged her sense of black identity. She concludes by maintaining that racial identity is not in the genes but in the world in which we live and the stories we construct and are able to maintain.
Baylis
Francoise
F
Department of Bioethics, Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4H7. francoise.baylis@dal.ca
D001741:Black or African American / Q000235:genetics; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics*; D036281:Genetic Research; D005820:Genetic Testing; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D010375:Pedigree; D011287:Prejudice; D012933:Social Identification