White Nationalists Use DNA Test To Check 'Whiteness', Aren't All Happy With Findings
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A bunch of white nationalists in the US have been rushing to get genetic ancestry tests to show off their 'whiteness' only to find they're not as white as they thought and they're pissed off with the results.
A team of sociologists analysed forum posts on Stormfront, a white nationalist website, for over two years - God help them, I bet that was fucking grim - looking in particular at how the members reacted to getting results from a genealogy DNA test.
These types of test are very popular in the US, not just with white supremacists, with people forking out about $100 (£78) to find out their genetic make-up.
Credit: PA
Naturally, the white nationalists would be expecting and hoping to have only white, European ancestry, but around two thirds we're shocked and outraged to find African, Asian and Jewish genes.
Aaron Panofsky and Joan Donovan, from the University of California, who carried out the study, presented the results earlier this week, just days after the US was rocked by the clashes in Charlottesville.
The violent protests in Charlottesville saw white supremacists fight with anti-fascists. One woman, Heather Heyer, died after 20-year-old James Fields ploughed his car into protestors.
Protestors clashed in Charlottesville. Credit: PA
Upon finding out their genetic make-up wasn't white, white, white, some users rejected the results or discredit the tests calling them: "a Jewish conspiracy that is trying to confuse true white Americans about their ancestry," Panofsky told STAT News. Good grief.
He went on: "They will say things like, 'If you see a Jew in the mirror looking back at you, that's a problem; if you don't, you're fine'."
The study also found that some newer members were kicked out of the forum once their results revealed they weren't 100% white European.
Credit: PA
However, Panofsky and Donovan also found that some of the critical responses to the test were the 'surprisingly sophisticated'.
Panofsky said: "If we believe their politics comes from lack of sophistication because they're unintelligent or uneducated. I think we're liable to make a lot of mistakes in how we cope with them."
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Topics: Racism
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