DEAR MISS MANNERS: Lately at social events, I often find myself trapped by people who want to share, in excruciating detail, their genetic test results.
Each person finds their own results deeply compelling, marveling at length over being 3% this and 15% that, with stunning reveals like, “I thought I we were Welsh, but it turns out we’re Scottish!”
Meanwhile, the next person is on deck, barely half-listening, eagerly getting ready to launch into their own genetic saga.
Monologuing about the minutiae of one’s DNA is self-absorption at, quite literally, the cellular level. Is there a polite way to shut this down?
GENTLE READER: Oh, dear. Miss Manners would have thought that we had established the idea that bragging about one’s lineage is rude, and now it has started up again.
Well, you could try expanding the scope of the conversation. Try, “What would your ancestors have thought of the state of America today?” Or, “I suppose you must want to travel there now. What are your vacation plans this year?”
Or, “Excuse me, I need to freshen my drink.”
they tested my cum and it came back Probably Nordic, just like Opa always said!!
white Americans are just so profoundly cultureless that they have a desperate need to find out that actually they're 3% Irish or 5% Swedish, just so they can try to find some connection to an existing culture which they have nothing to do with. that's the same reason none of these people ever brag about their English genetics, it's the same thing.
It's because whiteness doesn't exist. White culture doesn't exist, so they have to attach their identity to anything that they can, it's actually funny cause it's still a colonizer ass mentality
doing blood quantum studies just to discover that you're a cracker on several continents, that's gotta be a blow to the self esteem