"Cut Off Genes" Podcast Review- Ep. 205

In this episode “Please Don’t Bring Me Flowers” Julie talks briefly with Richard about his grandmother’s name changes before going on to talk about his families migration from an unknown town in Russia to the United States. You can listen to the episode by clicking here.

In the second section of this podcast, Julie brings up racism within the field of genetics which is a very interesting topic. They continue to have conversation about nature vs. nurture because racism is a learned behavior and mindset. It is based on what you learn from your family through the morals or ethics that your family instills in you. This doesn’t mean that you are a racist person, this means that you take part in these racist ideologies and practices. Anyone can unlearn this but there are so many people that continue to take part in these horrific acts of violence.

19:00 - This time stamp in the podcast I found necessary to highlight because they bring up education and racism together. They grapple with the idea that people who have gone through higher education and how the excuse of “being an educated person” makes it worse when you continue to be involved in racism and upholding those ideologies. Generally, the people who are interested in learning at a higher level are more inquisitive and learn how to question the things around them. A part of growing up is learning your own place in the world and how your learned behaviors affect your morals. It is not natural to hate people, that is a learned behavior and it is your job to challenge that.

21:00 - Richard speaks to travel and encourages everyone to travel “Once you see how other cultures, how other people live…even within our own country. There are other ways to live your life.” I think that in general, travel has become a very privileged, often racist way of interacting with other people from other places. The cultural whitewashing of different countries has contributed to an increase of travel, tourists and travel are a huge part of the economy that have significant negative effects on those who are local to the area. Instead of relying on your community to provide you with necessities, you become reliant on your own cultural exploitation from white tourists.

I agree with this statement but I also acknowledge that travel is also a really humbling experience if you immerse yourself in the experience. Travel should be about learning from other people and not about exploiting their resources or culture while you stay in a hotel and get your coffee from McDonalds every morning. When you travel and you contribute to the colonial systems in place, you are contributing to the cultural erasure of the people who are allowing you to visit their country. People want to be seen and heard for who they are but there is no respect in tourism for pleasure. Travel is a learning experience and a privilege.

When looking at DNA results and trying to find matches within the system provided, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. First thing I would like to mention that Julie and Richard touched on later in this podcast is that slavery and forced migration causes huge gaps in our genealogical history because there are so few records. The rape of women of color throughout the past several hundred years has huge historical, personal and genetic implications. This provides space for lost connections in our own personal histories and our communities.

The recent increase in white folks getting their DNA tested through sites like 23andMe and Ancestry is a way for them to feel “cultural” or closer to their roots. This causes many issues for several reasons and I can talk about blood quantum and racism in DNA testing in a different blog post.