aparticularpath

Ask me anything

Hi. I'm Matt. This has been a place of regurgitation and frivolity (don't fret, it will continue to be) but, with any luck and a titch of effort, it will also become a place where I think, document and be more me than it has been previously. Run on sentence much?

• WNYC's Radio Lab: Race

  Intro: “This show is essentially a slightly-prepared conversation about a topic amongst various sorts of scientist. This particular show is about race and DNA and whether or not the later depicts the former. The portion captured might have to be listened to in order to be fully appreciated, but it discusses why DNA can't depict whether or not someone is of a certain race BECAUSE the DNA markers judged are too generalized based on traits (eye color, nose shape, ear shape, head size, geographically generalize ancestry etc)... Anyway, this radio show can be listened to via iTunes over at and I HIGHLY recommend it for its humor, intelligence/education and overall entertainment in terrific proportions http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/index.xml ”

  “I don't actually know WHICH voice is which.... SO, based off stereo-typing and a guess from experience with "All Things Considered"... here goes. ”

  Jad: “Science complicates things. Even now this whole definition that science has of race being ancestrey it just doesn't jive with how people LIVE race. ”

  Robert: “You mean how people talk about it really ”

  Jad: “Yeah, I mean, take a look at this photo. ”

  Robert: “This one right here. ”

  Jad: “Yeah. What race do you think he is? ”

  Robert: “He's black. ”

  Jad: “Definitely black? ”

  Robert: “Definitely black. ”

  Jad: “How black is he? ”

  Robert: “How black is he? What kind of a question is that? ”

  Jad: “Yeah, just tell me for a visual... ”

  Robert: “He's definitely black. Black black... ”

  Jad: “Obama black? ”

  Robert: “No. He's not, he's blacker than that. ”

  Jad: “So he's unequivocally black, right? ”

  Robert: “I don't know!?!? ”

  Guest Wayne Joseph (also the guy in the picture): “My parents taught us that because you came from the segregated south you were either black or you were white. There was no in between. ”

  Jad: “The guy you're looking at, the guy you just heard. He's Wayne Joseph. He's a education director in LA and he also on the side writes essays, about race mostly, for national magazines. And one day a couple years back he was watching TV... ”

  Wayne: “... and I happened to see a TV program highlighting the fact that a couple of DNA labs were actually doing racial testing on DNA... ”

  Jad: “... a light bulb went on and he thought, "well, hey, this will be perfect, I'll test myself. I'll see what percentage of me is black and what percentage is other stuff and then write about it." And so what did you think you would be? ”

  Wayne: “Well, I was thinking 70 - 75% or more. ”

  Jad: “75% African and 25%... who knows what. ”

  Wayne: “So I sent away for the kit. I swabbed both cheeks. Put it into a vile. Sent it back. A few weeks later I get back the results. First thing I did was I checked the kit for the ID number to make sure they didn't send me some one else's kit by mistake. But the kit number matched and I couldn't believe it. 57% indo-european, 39% nativa american, 4% asian and 0% african. ”

  Jad: “0%... as in nothing. ”

  Wayne: “mmhmm, I mean, I couldn't believe it. I'd lived my entire life as a black man. Yet I have no African genetically. ”

  Jad: “How did you think of that.. did it sink in all at once? ”

  Wayne: “No. After a couple of days, I hadn't told my wife anything yet, I went to see my mother and I said, "look there's only one logical explanation I can live with. It's ok, i love you, just tell me the truth... I'm adopted?" She kinda giggled and she said she could remember ever pain she had having you. I can still remember it. So I thought, this doesn't make any sense. She said "yeah, it's a little surprising but I'm too old, too tired to be anything else so ... that's just the way it is." Now, for my brother, when I told him the result he said "Wayne that's your DNA that's not my DNA, I'm a black man and that's the end of it for me." ”

  Jad: “hmm, and what about your wife? ”

  Wayne: “Well, my second wife happens to be Jewish, her response was "What do you mean? You're a black man. I defied my mother to marry you. You've got to be black." ”

  Jad: “Whoa. So she needed you to be black... ”

  Wayne: “Absolutely, because she had told her mother at the time, "Look, I'm marrying Wayne, you're going to have to decide whether you're going to accept him or lose your daughter." It really through me for a loop. You start thinking about your life and there are certain decisions you make in life based on who you think you are. Would I have married a black woman the first time? Would I have decided to go to a black highschool? ”

  Jad: “Do you have any answers to those questions? ”

  Wayne: “Maybe not. How different would my life have been would I have known this 45 years ago.... ”

  music: “to close.”
  2 years ago