Publications by Type: Journal Article

The point of our objection is
that this study draws on a racist
epistemological frame despite
centuries of Black radical
anticolonial activism and scholarship
produced in opposition to these
framings. The implications of this
study are that Black women bear
the burden of its findings, while
Black knowledges are debased
and erased.

Abstract
There is long-standing tension regarding whether and how to use race or geographic ancestry in biomedical research. We examined multiple self-reported measures of race and ancestry from a cohort of over 100,000 U.S. residents alongside genetic data. We found that these measures are often non-overlapping, and that no single self-reported measure alone provides a better fit to genetic ancestry than a combination including both race and geographic ancestry. We also found that patterns of reporting for race and ancestry appear to be influenced by participation in direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry testing. Our results demonstrate that there is a place for the language of both race and geographic ancestry as we seek to empower individuals to fully describe their family history in research and medicine.

One Sentence Summary Self-identification in the United States according to both racial and geographic terms best reflects genetic ancestry in individuals.