By L. Okey Onyejekwe Jr., MD, JD,  23andMe’s Vice President of Healthcare Operations and Medical Affairs
Why did we need a separate month for Black history? I’ve answered this question many times and heard it asked many times more. At its most innocuous, it’s a silly question. Yet it&#8217;s a dangerous one regardless of intent. For one, the health disparity data points that I’ll be reflecting on below—sobering by any account—won’t surprise you. You know them, at the very least by implication. Black people between 18 and 50 are two times more likely than whites to die from heart disease, and Black children are eight<a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&amp;lvlid=15"> times more likely</a> to die from asthma, etc.
I couldn’t shock you with the data even if I delivered it with lightning. Indeed, the implications of this question go far beyond “history.” So rather than trying to wow you with sobering statistics, or dignify the question with an answer, I thought I’d share why I’m unusually hopeful as we conclude this Black History Month.
<h2>A Reservoir of Hope</h2>
The perspectives I share here are those of a healthcare provider who happens also to be Black. Being Black in America requires drawing on an endless reservoir of hope of what could be, and not what is.
So hope is not new for me, even though the events of the past year tested that outlook. I saw a Black man murdered by police officers—his agonizing transition from a full life all the way to death captured on camera for eternity. I cried because he’s a son, and I have sons. I raged because it happened again, and I told you—we all have been telling you—that it would. But mostly I despaired at the fact that I know—we all know—that justice will not be served once again. That’s always the most painful part.
Then there was the Black man killed by white racist civilians for JWB (jogging while black). The killers got to go home and have dinner with family that evening, no questions asked, and for months afterward. And of course, there was the young woman, murdered by police in her own home. She’ll never get to write about her own experience as a Black healthcare professional. As always, no one will face justice for it. And there was so much more.
So how is it possible that I have any hope as a father of a boy who’s so full of life, another boy who loves running, and a daughter who too aspires to be a healthcare professional?

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="384" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Okey-and-kids-at-BLM-march.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28781" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Okey-and-kids-at-BLM-march.png 512w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Okey-and-kids-at-BLM-march-300x225.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></figure>
 
<h2>An Inflection Point?</h2>
None of this was new to me, to us. The shock, if there was any, didn’t come from us. We’ve been crying out loud over this type of injustice for years. But in 2020, at least for a moment, it seemed like other people cared.
Will it last?  We did see that racism was <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/ama-racism-threat-public-health">finally recognized by the AMA</a> and other organizations as a public health threat for the first time ever.  The policy acknowledges that “the primary drivers of racial health inequity are systemic and structural racism” and that “racism and unconscious bias within medical research and health care delivery have caused and continue to cause harm to marginalized communities and society as a whole.” To one desperate to nail down a foundation on something hopeful, this was a hammer. A tool. Something I can actually build with.
Of course, there was another pandemic in 2020, also with disproportionate effects, killing Black people at <a href="https://covidtracking.com/race">1.6 times the rate of white people</a>. Research from 23andMe, the company where I work, found that Black customers who consented to participate in our research are <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/impact-disparities-of-covid-19/">80 percent more likely</a> than whites to be hospitalized from COVID-19. Beyond that, Black and other underrepresented communities are also much less likely to be included — or are much less willing to participate — in health research. That includes the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2021971">most recent clinical trials</a> for COVID-19 vaccines.
This kind of disparity is more than just the problem of Black people. It’s a recognized public health problem. In fact, it’s an unacceptable deviation from the standard of care.
<h2>Taking Action</h2>
The significance of this shift cannot be overstated. Even before the pandemic, there were concerted efforts to take action.
The National Institutes of Health&#8217;s <a href="http://allofus.nih.gov/">All of Us</a> Precision Medicine Initiative is recruiting a million Americans, particularly from underrepresented communities, for genetic health research. The Veteran&#8217;s Administration&#8217;s <a href="https://www.research.va.gov/mvp/">Million Veterans Program</a> is doing much the same.
23andMe has spent more than a decade focused on diversifying its research database to improve our study of diseases like Parkinson’s, within all populations. While we still have a long way to go, 23andMe now has one of the largest, if not the largest, groups of African Americans consented to participate in genetic research in the world. But these types of efforts can no longer be optional outliers. They must indeed become the norm if they are to be within the standard of care.
These efforts and others will lead to new insights into human biology, better and more equitable clinical care, and improved outcomes for everyone. But we still have so much more work to do. At 23andMe we pledged to <a href="https://www.23andme.com/black-lives-matter">hold ourselves accountable</a> to make improvements to ensure our people, products, and practices are more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
It’s a pledge we could all make, especially right now. It amounts to doing more than just hoping for change. It means making a plan to change so that everyone benefits from the scientific insights we learn through research, and all of us have the chance for equitable healthcare.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Hope, Healthcare, and Black Lives

People who know Maurice Hayes know he&#8217;s passionate about science, healthcare, and prevention. It&#8217;s personal for him.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-32741" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Maurice-Hayes-219x300.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Maurice-Hayes-219x300.jpg 219w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Maurice-Hayes.jpg 373w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 219px) 100vw, 219px" />
For three decades, he&#8217;s worked as an MRI technician in Atlanta, and almost every day, he sees people from all walks of life, all ages, and all ethnicities, who are there for one reason. They&#8217;re sick. And being a compassionate person, he can&#8217;t help but wonder:
&#8220;Why can&#8217;t we do more to find out how this could have been prevented?&#8221; Maurice asked.
Of course, lifestyle also plays a role, he said.
&#8220;I&#8217;m a big proponent of preventative medicine,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Some things could be dealt with through diet and exercise.&#8221;
But that&#8217;s not the whole story.
Part of staying healthy involves also knowing what your risks are for disease. Knowing that early gives you time to figure out &#8220;the best way to anticipate what is coming and have a plan,&#8221; Maurice said.
And that&#8217;s where science and research come in, he said. He believes that genetic research offers hope for finding the causes and cures for disease. That&#8217;s what attracted him to 23andMe, learning more about his ancestral roots, particularly his genetic connections to Africa.
There&#8217;s a lot of genetic research out there to be excited about already. And Maurice, who follows some of those developments, can see the potential. But he also knows that those breakthroughs don&#8217;t benefit everyone, mainly if you are Black. This is partly because most <a href="https://www.23andme.com/research/">genetic health research</a> is done in people of European descent.
&#8220;So when the studies are going on, most of these studies don&#8217;t include Black people,&#8221; Maurice said. &#8220;That means the data is just not there.&#8221;
The irony is that it is often people within the Black community who are hit the hardest by certain conditions. Yet, they are usually not well represented in studies of those conditions. So, of course, it&#8217;s personal. Maurice has had family members who&#8217;ve dealt with heart disease, lung disease, and cancer. Most recently, he had two close relatives die from COVID-related illnesses.
That&#8217;s why he&#8217;s participating in research, not just through 23andMe and its <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/black-representation-in-research/">Black Representation in Genomic Research</a> study — which aims to understand the biology connecting genetic variants to diseases — but also in the <a href="https://allofus.nih.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Institutes of Health&#8217;s All of Us</a> study.
&#8220;There are not a lot of 50-something-year-old Black men who want to sign up to have their DNA checked because they&#8217;re too afraid of how that could be used in a bad way,&#8221; he said.
And there&#8217;s a reason for that. There&#8217;s some history. Still fresh in some people&#8217;s minds is the notorious <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm">Tuskegee Syphilis Study</a>. In the 40-year-long study, African American men with syphilis were left untreated for their illness so that researchers could watch the disease&#8217;s progression.
&#8220;When you say &#8216;Research&#8217; and &#8216;African Americans,&#8217; everybody puts in the horror stories,&#8221; Maurice said. &#8220;(That) is one reason they&#8217;re not doing well with vaccinations. (It&#8217;s) because there is a lack of trust.&#8221;
Winning back trust will be difficult, but it&#8217;s essential for the Black community to benefit from research, which is why he&#8217;s participating in it.
&#8220;I want to ensure that the data was more inclusive,&#8221; Maurice said. &#8220;It&#8217;s also personal to me because of my family history and some of the diseases that we have, and I wish there was more research in that area.&#8221;
But it&#8217;s not just about him and his family. Seeing sick people day in and day out who might benefit from new genetic research motivates his interest in participating in research.
&#8220;I wanted to inspire other minorities to get to know themselves better. Let&#8217;s seek out those points of intersection. Together, we create a beautiful tapestry to be celebrated for all its diversity. Let&#8217;s begin anew.&#8221;

Inspiring Others to Participate in Research

Meet Melinda King, 23andMe’s new Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and People Business Partner.
Melinda previously served as an Assistant Vice President at the University of Alabama, her alma mater. Her responsibilities included leading the University&#8217;s career center and heading up Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the University&#8217;s Division of Student Life. She has more than two decades of human resources experience, working with companies in Texas, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Florida. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-28768 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2-300x283.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="283" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2-300x283.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2-1024x967.jpeg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2-768x725.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2-880x831.jpeg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2-1180x1114.jpeg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mel2.jpeg 1350w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Melinda&#8217;s decision to come out west and work with 23andMe had a lot to do with last year&#8217;s events and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/black-lives-matter">a letter</a> written by our founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki. The letter came in the wake of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd. In it, Anne acknowledged 23andMe&#8217;s own failings, and she pledged that 23andMe would make its hiring practices and its products more inclusive.&nbsp;
For Melinda, it was a refreshingly candid response, and she reached out to Anne directly on LinkedIn. In the months since then, 23andMe has started to make <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/diversity-equity-inclusion/">progress</a>. (More on that to come next month.) Melinda is going to help us continue our DEI work. As she says, this kind of effort isn&#8217;t a one-off project that you do and then move on. It&#8217;s a long-term commitment to change company culture.&nbsp;
We sat down with Melinda to chat about her, her role at 23andMe, and what she hopes to achieve. As we look back at 2020, we can see some silver linings. The problematic year pushed important issues to the forefront that needed to be addressed, including improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring, our employees’ experience, our product, our health research, and our community impact.
<h6>What drew you to 23andMe?&nbsp;</h6>
“The opportunity to combine my passion for DEI with the ability to work for an organization that is improving health care outcomes, especially for those in marginalized communities. Really excited to be a part of work that has a broader impact.”
<h6>Could you add more details about reading <a href="https://www.23andme.com/black-lives-matter">Anne’s letter regarding</a> the Black Lives Matter movement and how it affected your decision to come here?</h6>
“After the George Floyd murder, I decided I needed to be more solution-driven in the current movement regarding the impact of systemic racism and how it has manifested itself around police brutality for black and brown bodies. I&nbsp; had grown skeptical regarding the number of organizations that were making bold public statements around their commitment to Diversity. When I saw Anne’s willingness to call her own company out, I found it refreshing that she was willing to say her organization was part of the problem. I felt this is an organization that I want to connect with to see how I can assist them with their DEI journey.&nbsp;”
<h6>As the Director of DEI, what do you hope people outside the company take away from your hire? What about those inside the company?</h6>
“DEI work is not a one-person job, but it is important to have someone to ensure the work that is done is strategic and sustainable. My hope is individuals within and outside the company will view this role as a long-term commitment to having a diverse workforce, with equitable opportunities and an inclusive culture.”
<h6>Can you talk about 2020 and whether you think that it marked an inflection point for companies looking more seriously at DEI in the workplace?&nbsp;</h6>
“Absolutely, 2020 brought the issues of systemic racism into everyone’s living room. It was further complicated by COVID. You really could not escape what was happening around the country and the impact it was having on the workforce. Organizations that normally would stay away from conversations about social justice had no choice but to address it because people could not separate what was happening to others from their own lives. For a lot of leaders, it was the first time they really understood the impact inequalities have on people they work with and care about. They realized they could no longer stand on the sidelines.”
<h6>Do you see a nexus between DEI in the workplace and what 23andMe is trying to do to <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/improving-research-diversity">improve diversity in its research</a>?</h6>
“I do. We all know there is a gap between the disparities in health care outcomes for minorities and other marginalized communities. Research is one of the vehicles to close that gap. It will be important for 23andMe to engage with those communities to better understand those medical conditions and to offer solutions for those most impacted.”
<h6>What are some things you can share about the coming year and what you hope to focus on?&nbsp;</h6>
“I really just want to continue the trend of turning words into action around this important work. To make certain we look at all of our major decisions through a DEI lens.”

The New Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at 23andMe

February marks a time to remember and celebrate people of the African diaspora. To kick off a Black History Month of reflection, we’d like to highlight some of the projects 23andMe has been working on to specifically address disparities in biomedical and genetic research for people of African ancestry.
Research shows that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1310-4">genetic studies that include diverse, multi-ethnic participants</a> have a higher chance of discovering important genetic variants associated with diseases. Those associations would have been missed in studies that focus only on one homogenous group.
<h6>We Need to Do Better</h6>
Despite this, as of 2019, <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30231-4">only two percent of participants in genome-wide association studies</a> around the world were people of African ancestry. Additionally, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry">genetic risk prediction</a> scores, which will be instrumental in the future of personalized medicine, need to take ancestry into account. A risk score developed for one population may not be as accurate for another, exacerbating already existing health disparities for African Americans.
But it’s not enough for us to wait for others to fix the problem. As our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/black-lives-matter">CEO Anne Wojcicki stated last June</a>, “We absolutely have the potential to be better. Despite our efforts, I have to honestly say that we are also part of the problem.”
<h6>Some History</h6>
Over the years, we have made an effort to ensure our product and research are relevant to those of African ancestry. Here is a snapshot of our progress over the last decade:
2011: We launched our <a href="https://www.23andme.com/roots/">Roots into the Future</a> project to recruit 10,000 African Americans to participate in research.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-9427" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-768x768.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-880x880.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-574x574.png 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo-980x980.png 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RootsLogo.png 1050w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
2013: We launched our first African Ancestry Project, which recruited people with four grandparents from Sub-Saharan Africa.
2014: With this additional data from people of African ancestry, we published <a href="http://www.cell.com/ajhg/abstract/S0002-9297%2814%2900476-5">the first large-scale study of genetic ancestry in the United States</a> that reflects historical migrations.
2015: Using external research, we launched our Health service with a report for sickle cell anemia and a report for beta-thalassemia and related hemoglobinopathies, among others. Both of these conditions are highly relevant for people with African ancestry.
2016: We reached the milestone of 45,000 African Americans participating in 23andMe research.
2016: We <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andme-scientists-improving-diversity-in-genetic-research/">received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant</a> to help us develop a new analysis pipeline that may alleviate disparities in research.
2016: We launched the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/africa-project/">African Genetics Project</a>, further recruiting individuals with ancestry from one of 16 African countries, expanding our recruitment outside of Sub-Saharan African ancestry.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-25259" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05242016_ig_ad_3.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
2016: We launched the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/african-american-sequencing-project/">African American Sequencing Project</a>, which also received funding from the NIH, to create a genomic reference panel that was shared with the broader scientific community for research.
2017: We launched the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/global-genetics-project/">Global Genetics Project</a>, further recruiting individuals underrepresented in genomics research, including 45 countries in Africa.
2018: We launched our <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andmes-populations-collaborations/">Populations Collaborations Program</a>, which partners with academic researchers working across the globe to genotype people in communities who are underrepresented in genetics research, including Angola, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2018: Thanks to contributions from our African Genetics Project and Populations Collaborations Program, we <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/new-african-east-asian-details/">updated our Ancestry Composition report</a> to now reflect nine additional ancestry regions within Africa.
2018: Using external research, we developed a health report for G6PD deficiency, a blood disorder that can affect one in 10 African American men.
2019: We reached the milestone of 295,000 African Americans participating in 23andMe research, which is six times our cohort size just four years prior!
2019: The de-identified data from the African American Sequencing Project was made available to qualified researchers through the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/">National Center for Biotechnology Information’s database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP)</a>, allowing other qualified researchers to improve the accuracy of their genetic research on people of African descent.
2019: Using external research, we developed a report for TTR-related hereditary amyloidosis.  About one in 28 African Americans is estimated to have a gene variant that predisposes to this heart condition.
2020: We expanded our Global Genetics Project to specifically recruit from subregions within Nigeria.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-27481" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-768x768.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-880x880.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-574x574.png 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1-980x980.png 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GGP-face-asset-1.png 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />2020: We launched our Black Representation in Genetic Research study, which will conduct RNA sequencing that will also be made publicly available to qualified researchers when complete.
2020: Our <a href="https://research.23andme.com/research-innovation-collaborations/">Research Innovations Collaborations program</a> made a specific call for proposals that are of high significance for underrepresented populations, including groups with African ancestry, in order to further address health disparities.
2020: Using external research, we developed a report for APOL1-related chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common and underdiagnosed, and the risk for severe disease is about three times higher in African Americans. About one in eight African Americans has a genetic predisposition for CKD due to variants in the APOL1 gene.
2021: 23andMe now has one of, if not the largest research cohort of genotyped and phenotyped people of African ancestry, with hundreds of thousands of individuals consenting to participate in research.
<h6>Studies Relevant to the Black Community</h6>
Because of these recruitment efforts, 23andMe has already been able to conduct health-related genome-wide association studies specific to people with African ancestry for example around <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-017-1836-1">uterine fibroids</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0307-5">alcohol and tobacco use</a>. This research may also help us develop more health reports that are particularly important for this group. Foundational studies like these are key to reducing disparities in health care in the future.
Thanks to this research, we have also learned more about human history and migration, and can now match customers to over 150 subregions within Africa. We also r<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/transatlantic-slave-trade-paper/">ecently published one of the most comprehensive investigations of the genomic consequences of the transatlantic slave trade</a> ever done in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-30848 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1.png" alt="" width="1024" height="536" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-300x157.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-768x402.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/DEI-Blog-1024x536-1-880x461.png 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />And this is only the beginning. With all this new data, the next few years should see a slew of new studies of particular interest and relevance to those of African ancestry. In addition to improving the inclusivity of our research and product, we are also committed to Diversity Equity and Inclusion across the board. That includes our hiring practices and employee experience, as well as community impact. And as Anne said, we’re asking that our customers hold us accountable. So keep checking back to make sure we’re advancing genetic research for all people, regardless of their ancestry.
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*The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva for the purpose of reporting and interpreting genetic health risks and reporting carrier status. It is not intended to diagnose any disease. Your ethnicity may affect the relevance of each report and how your genetic health risk results are interpreted. Each genetic health risk report describes if a person has variants associated with a higher risk of developing a disease, but does not describe a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. The test is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions, including whether or not you should take a medication, how much of a medication you should take, or determine any treatment. Our carrier status reports can be used to determine carrier status, but cannot determine if you have two copies of any genetic variant. These carrier reports are not intended to tell you anything about your risk for developing a disease in the future, the health of your fetus, or your newborn child&#8217;s risk of developing a particular disease later in life. For certain conditions, we provide a single report that includes information on both carrier status and genetic health risk. For important information and limitations regarding each genetic health risk report and carrier status report, visit  <a href="https://www.23andme.com/test-info/">https://www.23andme.com/test-info/</a>.

Reflecting on Improving Diversity in 23andMe Research for Black History Month

By Joe Banks, 23andMe Tech Lead
Editor’s note: This post by 23andMe’s Joe Banks, first appeared on 23andMe’s engineering blog. We’re reprinting an excerpt of it here to highlight issues around online accessibility and ideas for improving it. You can see the full version <a href="https://medium.com/23andme-engineering/accessibility-and-me-812c362031d2">here</a>.
I have a disability. Two, actually.
I was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome Type 2A, a rare genetic disease characterized by hearing loss and progressive vision loss.
When I was 3, my parents discovered that I was born with moderate-severe hearing loss in both of my ears. I was fitted with a pair of hearing aids, devices that would allow me to finally understand and hear my family.&nbsp;
The vision loss has had more of a profound impact on my life. While I knew that I was going blind, it didn’t feel real to me until I was in my 20s. I started to bump into people more frequently, which was followed by a quick apology by me and a glaring stare by the one whose space I invaded. Driving became increasingly difficult. For the safety of others and myself, I stopped driving at age 25. A few years later, I would learn how to use a white cane.&nbsp;
My visual field has narrowed from 180 degrees of visual field to less than 10 degrees. At this point, I’m considered legally blind and someone who has low vision.
&nbsp;

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="921" height="1024" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw-921x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28733" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw-921x1024.png 921w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw-270x300.png 270w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw-768x854.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw-791x880.png 791w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw-1061x1180.png 1061w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-H-8KJLI4jqzxEbpJPPBEw.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px" /></figure>
 
Today, I continue to do what I love: building websites — here at 23andMe I’m a tech lead writing the code that powers 23andMe’s website — and lifting heavy metal as well as enjoying the outdoors.&nbsp;
At work, I visually scan my computer screen with the vision I have left, increase the contrast and brightness of my screen, enlarge my mouse cursor, zoom in on smaller text, and use my keyboard as much as I comfortably can.
But even with these tools at my disposal, I run into issues that are difficult to overcome while browsing the web.&nbsp;
I’m sharing my experience both as someone with disabilities and as a tech lead at 23andMe, to highlight actions engineers, designers and others can take to fix the issues that exclude people with disabilities. The beauty of much of the technology today—like smartphones, computers, and the Web—is that they&#8217;re designed to be accessible to people with disabilities. Engineers, like me, who build on these platforms, have the responsibility to uphold this design, and not break it. Below are issues that I have personally experienced and steps engineers and web designers can take to fix these types of issues.

<h2>Accessibility issues that affect me</h2>
<h6>Low color contrast</h6>
I have enough functional vision to read text on a screen, but my sensitivity to contrast has diminished over time. I opt to increase the contrast and brightness on my computer screen, but that only can get me so far.
Low contrast text is a trendy design pattern, but it fails to consider how it affects people with low vision. Unfortunately, this practice is so popular that it ranks as the number one most common accessibility violation found in the <a href="https://webaim.org/projects/million/">WebAIM Million</a>, an accessibility audit of the one million most-visited home pages on the web.
I tend to skip over text that has low contrast because it’s too much of a strain to read it. I know that others like me with low vision, have the same issues. It’s common for me to leave a website or trash an email if the content is too difficult to read. A simple and subtle change in contrast to the design could open all that content to others who are visually impaired.&nbsp;
It’s simple to first check the contrast and then fix it if it falls below the threshold that is visible to the people with low vision. To measure contrast ratio, you can use <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM’s contrast checker</a>, or something similar. Enter the text color and background color, and the checker will tell you if the contrast ratio passes.
While testing for color contrast is easy, changing a color palette that’s been tied to a brand, like 23andMe, can be difficult. However, that isn’t an excuse to avoid the problem. After all, continuing to use a color palette that’s discriminatory to people with low vision is not good for a brand.
At 23andMe, <a href="https://style.23andme.com/">our design system</a> provides a color palette that indicates what colors meet the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/contrast-minimum.html">minimum color contrast (AA) set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)</a>. This shared knowledge ensures that designers and developers are on the same page when it comes to accessible color usage.

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="338" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/23andMe-Color-Palette.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28734" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/23andMe-Color-Palette.png 512w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/23andMe-Color-Palette-300x198.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></figure>
 
<h6>Inability to zoom</h6>
Another issue that people with low vision experience is the inability to magnify the text to make it more readable. Fixing that is also pretty straightforward by ensuring that the site isn’t restricting or disabling the zoom function.&nbsp;
<h6>No captions</h6>
While my hearing aids help me hear, they don’t completely restore my hearing. I’ll still miss words when listening to speech and I tend to subconsciously lip read when I’m talking to someone. When watching a video, I don’t always have the benefit of lip reading, so that’s when captions come in handy for me.
At 23andMe, we host our videos on YouTube. One of the great features of the platform is automatic captioning. This provides a quick and easy way for video authors to include captions in their videos. However, the quality of captions can vary, so it’s best practice to validate the captions in the video settings and make any corrections where needed. This ensures that the correct information is being communicated.
<h6>CAPTCHAs</h6>
I personally hate CAPTCHAs. Although they’re intended to prevent spam by distinguishing a human from a bot, for people with visual impairments are just another hurdle to accessing content.&nbsp; As someone with low vision, there’s nothing more frustrating than filling out a form and reaching a CAPTCHA where I repeatedly fail at scanning low-res photos for obscure objects. And what’s the alternative? Making out words in an audio track with distracting background noise? That’s also really difficult for me to accomplish with my hearing impairment.
I’m not alone. <a href="https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey7/#problematic">WebAIM’s 2017 screen reader survey</a> respondents agree that CAPTCHAs are the number one most problematic issue they face on the web.
Determining if someone is a robot is a tough problem to solve and there isn&#8217;t a clear solution. Non-interactive solutions, like Google&#8217;s reCaptcha v3, are great for accessibility. However, since users are tracked, privacy rights need to be considered and handled appropriately. In addition, methods to handle ambiguous results need to also be accessible and effective at blocking bots. My hopes are that the solutions developed for CAPTCHA consider people with disabilities and don&#8217;t lock them out.
To learn more about the challenges with CAPTCHA and accessibility, check out W3C’s document on the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/">Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA</a>.
<h6>Moving forward</h6>
My journey with Usher Syndrome is still unfolding and I’m learning along the way. While I’ve accepted that this is my reality, I have an uneasy feeling about the current state of the web and what that means for my future. I’d like to continue being independent on the web, but I will need the help of the tech community to build experiences that I can continue to access and enjoy as my vision loss progresses.
In February 2020, WebAIM reevaluated the state of web accessibility for the top one million visited websites. Unfortunately, things have gotten worse since last year. Ninety-eight percent of the top million failed the accessibility audit. The kicker is that the audit only covered 30 percent of accessibility bugs.
This is a big problem. We need to do better.&nbsp; If we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, it is that access to the web whether it is for work, online learning, entertainment, or even simple social interactions is crucial for everybody.
At 23andMe, we’ve acknowledged this and have put an enormous effort towards making our digital experiences accessible. We&#8217;ve been working on educating colleagues about accessibility through talks, workshops, demos, online resources, and tickets addressing accessibility issues. Our design system requires components to be accessible and documents proper usage and accessibility considerations. To help prevent regressions, engineers are trained and provided documentation on how to evaluate accessibility with an automated scan, a keyboard, and a screen reader. The work continues, but we&#8217;re happy with the progress that we have made for our users.
I’ll end this with a few tips on getting started with accessibility. The breadth of accessibility topics can be pretty overwhelming, but starting somewhere is better than avoiding the problem.
<h6>Find where you can help and get involved</h6>
Accessibility is not just a front-end engineering problem.&nbsp;
If you have a role in making digital experiences that people use, then you should be familiar with how your decisions impact people with disabilities. For examples on how each role can contribute to accessibility, check out <a href="https://accessibility-for-teams.com/">Accessibility for Teams</a> and <a href="https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/accessibility/a11y-for-teams">Accessibility for Teams by Google</a>.
<h6>Learn about accessibility and share the knowledge</h6>
I started understanding accessibility when I began manually evaluating interfaces with a keyboard and a screen reader. I saw how bad the UX could be when accessibility is overlooked and how some features were completely unusable… and it was everywhere.
This prompted me to go back and re-evaluate how I was building websites. I browsed through <a href="https://webaim.org/articles/">WebAIM’s articles</a> on accessibility, watched through <a href="https://www.udacity.com/course/web-accessibility--ud891">Google’s online accessibility course</a> and used the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/">WCAG as a quick reference</a>.&nbsp;
The point is, when you find out how you play a role in accessibility (see previous section), start digging into the topics where you can make the most impact.&nbsp;
Then, share that knowledge with your colleagues. At 23andMe, we’ve organized workshops, demos, meetings, and a company-wide presentation on a11y. In addition, we’ve curated documentation on a11y and created an #accessibility Slack channel where people can ask questions.
I invite you to start learning about accessibility and making the web a more inclusive place. At 23andMe, our mission is to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome. We’re doing our best to include everyone in this pursuit. If you’d like to help us, please send feedback to our customer care team.&nbsp;
<h6>About the Author</h6>
Joe Banks is a tech lead at 23andMe and helps write the code for www.23andMe.com. He loves learning about new tech and aspires to make the Web more inclusive.

Accessibility and Me

By Samantha Ancona Esselmann, Ph.D., a 23andMe Ancestry Product Scientist
The <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry">genetic ancestry testing</a> industry† is younger than Facebook.
Since the mid-aughts, around 35 million people have “done their DNA,” and as we chew on our own results, the industry struggles to keep up with an evolving understanding of identity in a genomic era. There’s a lot of learning and adjusting that’s happening in real time.
I’m still learning, too.
I’ve learned that it’s essential that Direct-to-Consumer DNA testing companies be clear about the differences between DNA, ancestry, and identity. And, for this <a href="https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/">Native American Heritage </a>Month,‡ I decided to share what I’ve learned about how these concepts impact not only the lives of Indigenous American individuals but also the sovereignties of Indigenous Nations. 
Identity is complex, and the discussions raised in this post are intended to amplify the perspectives of individuals from North America with Indigenous ancestry. In Mexico, Central America, and South America, Indigenous ancestry is more common than in North America, and their perspectives on how DNA does or does not relate to cultural identity are distinct. Furthermore, the adoption of Indigenous children presents a different set of issues related to identity and ancestry that are not explored here.
Whether or not you have “Native American DNA,” it’s essential to understand what it means — and doesn’t mean — to find evidence of this ancestry in your DNA.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-32806 size-large" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel-1024x786.jpg" alt="A map of the Americas that shades in where 23andMe customers with Indigenous American ancestry come from." width="1024" height="786" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel-1024x786.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel-300x230.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel-768x590.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel-880x676.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel-1180x906.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Map-of-Indigenous-American-Reference-Panel.jpg 1249w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
<h2>What it does mean</h2>
<ol>
<li>With some degree of statistical confidence, some sections of your DNA match a limited set of Indigenous American reference individuals more closely than they do other global reference populations.</li>
<li>Suppose information about a possible Indigenous American ancestor is new to you. In that case, you can be excited about this ancestry and use it as a starting place to learn more about the diverse Indigenous histories of the Americas respectfully. However, your test result should be viewed cautiously in the context of the technology’s limitations.</li>
</ol>
<h2>What it does not mean</h2>
<ol>
<li>You cannot use these results to seek or confirm membership in a Tribe or Nation. These tests simply do not provide enough information to confirm this kind of affiliation. Tribal enrollment processes use genealogical evidence of kinship, not genetic ancestry test results.</li>
<li>It doesn’t mean you should start identifying as Native American based on the results of a genetic ancestry test.</li>
<li>It doesn’t mean you can claim Native identity and then use genetic ancestry testing to “confirm” it.</li>
<li>It doesn’t mean you can go to your Native American friends and say, “Hey, guess what? I took a DNA test, and it turns out I’m Native American, too!”</li>
</ol>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-32813 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kim-Tallbear-Quote.jpg" alt="A quote from Kim TallBear's book." width="723" height="531" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kim-Tallbear-Quote.jpg 723w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kim-Tallbear-Quote-300x220.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" />
<h2>Keep in Mind</h2>
If that last point is confusing, perhaps you have a frame of reference that can help you empathize: Would it rub you the wrong way if someone who never lived in your hometown told you they identified as being from there?
Being Native American isn&#8217;t just about having Indigenous American ancestry. It&#8217;s about being part of a culture&#8230;part of a community with shared beliefs, histories, and experiences. And no matter where you’re from, biology is ultimately not how group membership is determined.
Just as countries outline their own processes for obtaining citizenship, many Indigenous North American Nations, Tribes, or Bands determine enrollment based on many factors, such as documented descent from enrolled ancestors. While some Indigenous Nations have used DNA to ascertain close familial relationships (e.g., paternity tests), genetic ancestry estimates like those conducted by 23andMe are not used to determine enrollment.
<h2>Cultural Connections</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32809" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment.jpg" alt="A list of some of the criteria for enrollment in a Indigenous American Tribes or Nations." width="1536" height="989" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment.jpg 1536w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment-300x193.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment-768x495.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment-1024x659.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment-880x567.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Criteria-for-Enrollment-1180x760.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px" />Today, many people with Indigenous American genetic ancestry have no cultural connection to Native communities. 
There has been a centuries-long, systematic erasure of Indigenous Americans that began with slaughter and continued through the 20th century in the form of cultural assimilation. In North America, the U.S. and Canadian governments <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/dawes-act.htm">partitioned Native lands</a>, incentivized Native people to <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/indian-relocation.html">relocate to cities</a>, and compelled Native families to send their children to <a href="https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/IPS_Boarding_Schools.pdf">residential schools</a> far from home, where diseases spread like wildfire, abuse was commonplace, and expressing one’s Native culture was forbidden. For many, the psychological wounds of these institutions are still raw: the last residential school in Canada closed in the 1990s, and many boarding schools continue to operate in the U.S., though attendance is no longer mandatory.
<h2>Identity 
</h2>
Around one million 23andMe research participants, including many who don’t identify as Indigenous, have evidence in their DNA of having an Indigenous American ancestor. 
In 2015, 23andMe published a <a href="https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(14)00476-5">study</a> showing that over 5% of our research participants who identify as African American have at least 2% DNA predicted to most closely match an Indigenous American reference population (and 22% are estimated to have at least 1% of this DNA). While self-identified European Americans are generally less likely to have Indigenous American genetic ancestry, the numbers vary widely from one state to the next: as many as 8% of European American customers from Louisiana carried at least 1% of this genetic ancestry.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-32810 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry.jpg" alt="A map of the US showing concentrations of European Americans with Native American ancestry." width="1539" height="904" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry.jpg 1539w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry-300x176.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry-768x451.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry-1024x601.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry-880x517.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Self-Reported-European-American-with-NA-ancestry-1180x693.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1539px) 100vw, 1539px" />
<h2>The Unexpected</h2>
Many of our customers expect to see evidence of Indigenous American ancestry in their DNA but don’t. 
This is among the most common customer complaints we receive, and there are a few reasons why this could happen. As a result of genetic recombination — the process through which DNA is randomly shuffled between generations — the further back in your family history you look, the less likely you are to have inherited DNA directly from every single one of your ancestors. For example, there’s a roughly 5% chance that you inherited zero DNA from a 5th-great-grandparent.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-32811 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Grantree-for-Inheritance-NA.jpg" alt="An illustration of how ancestry is inherited from grandparents, to parents to child." width="898" height="641" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Grantree-for-Inheritance-NA.jpg 898w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Grantree-for-Inheritance-NA-300x214.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Grantree-for-Inheritance-NA-768x548.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Grantree-for-Inheritance-NA-880x628.jpg 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 898px) 100vw, 898px" />
This means that you can be directly descended from someone indigenous to the Americas without having any DNA evidence of that ancestry.
<h2>Family Stories</h2>
But, there’s another reason someone might not have “Native American DNA”: In North America during the 19th and 20th centuries, white settlers or their descendants sometimes misattributed an ancestor as Indigenous. This may have been to justify a more native-born “Americanness” or to absolve one’s family of blame for colonialism, and these stories are still passed down through families to this day.
If your family has a story like this but no documentation, it doesn’t necessarily mean those stories are wrong and don’t make you a bad person.
<h2>The takeaway</h2>
Whether or not you have “Native American DNA,” your genetic ancestry may not be consistent with your cultural identity. You can celebrate and reflect on what your results can tell you about your genetic ancestors but understand that falsely claiming a romanticized Native identity based only on that evidence can be deeply offensive to people whose identities, experiences, worldviews, and cultures are shaped by being Native American. Its cultural appropriation <a href="https://qz.com/805704/columbus-day-cultural-appropriation-white-americans-need-to-stop-assuming-native-american-culture-belongs-to-them-too/">stems from colonialism</a>.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-32808 size-full" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kim-Tallbear-Quote-2.png" alt="" width="716" height="590" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kim-Tallbear-Quote-2.png 716w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kim-Tallbear-Quote-2-300x247.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px" />
I leave you with this: Indigenous peoples are modern peoples 
It’s a simple but essential point.
While it may be easy for you to think of Indigenous peoples as living in the past or to imagine them only in their ceremonial regalia, festooned with intricate beadwork or wearing elaborately feathered headgear, this perception of them does not capture the whole picture of who they are and how they think of themselves today.§
<h2>Learn About Indigenous Culture</h2>
There are countless respectful ways you can engage with Indigenous cultures, and here are just a few:
<ul>
<li>Experience <a href="https://native-land.ca/">Native Land</a> — a resource that “creates spaces where non-Indigenous people can be invited and challenged to learn more about the lands they inhabit, the history of those lands, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together.”</li>
<li>Follow Indigenous creators on Instagram or TikTok (start by exploring #Indigenous or #Native hashtags).</li>
<li>For Native American heritage month, Amazon Video and PBS are highlighting movies and documentaries featuring Native American voices.</li>
<li>Read the work of the incumbent United States Poet Laureate, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Harjo">Joy Harjo</a>, an enrolled member of the Muskogee Tribe.</li>
<li>Browse <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/online-resources/exhibition-websites">online exhibitions </a>at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian</li>
<li>Check out the 45th annual <a href="https://www.aifisf.com/">American Indian Film Festival</a>, which ran November 6 &#8211; 14, 2020, or attend the <a href="https://nmai.brand.live/c/nativecinemashowcase">Native Cinema Showcase</a> November 18 &#8211; 27, 2020</li>
</ul>
To dig deeper into this topic, I recommend reading “<a href="https://kimtallbear.com/pubs/how-identifying-native-americans-is-vastly-more-complicated-than-matching-dna/">Native American DNA: Tribal Belongings and the False Promise of Genetic Science</a>” by Kim TallBear.
Have other resources? Share them in the comments below.
Thank you to all of you who continue to grow and learn with us, and thank you for being passionately curious about the world and the diverse stories of the people close to you and those further away.
<hr />
*Did you notice that “Native American DNA” in the title of this piece is in quotes? Krystal Tsosie, a Navajo (Diné) geneticist and bioethicist at Vanderbilt University explains why the phrase is problematic: “It biologically reifies the idea that DNA can be intrinsic to an ethnic group.” Additionally, the term “Native American” is considered U.S.-centric (First Nations people of Canada do not refer to themselves this way), and the phrase is rooted in colonialism: “America” comes from Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator and merchant. For these and other reasons, Tsosie emphasizes, “We, as Indigenous scientists, use the term &#8220;Native American DNA&#8221; to highlight these limitations, but do not consider it a legitimate phrasing.” In this post, the terms “Native” and “Indigenous” are used interchangeably, and “Native American” is the name 23andMe has used for its reference panel for the Americas to date. 
† In 2007, 23andMe became the first autosomal genetic ancestry test available to consumers. However, limited Y chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA analyses were available to consumers before 2007. 
‡ Native American Heritage Month is celebrated during November in the U.S. Canada celebrates National Indigenous History Month in June.
• Even indigeneity is a modern category and people may not understand themselves in this way. For example, modern “Indigenous” Europeans would most likely identify as “European” rather than “Indigenous European.” Colonialism has forced such distinctions between Indigenous peoples and settler colonizers.

What it means to have “Native American DNA”*

By Andrew Todhunter
Stephen Duncan felt a strong connection to Mexican American culture for most of his life, but never knew the truth of his Hispanic ancestry. As we finish<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-28570 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D-300x228.jpg" alt="Stephen Duncan" width="300" height="228" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D-300x228.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D-1024x779.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D-768x584.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D-880x670.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D-1180x898.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Stephen-D.jpg 1866w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Adopted as an infant in western Oklahoma in 1961, Stephen and his adoptive parents believed his ancestry was largely Native American and German. To cultivate that connection, Stephen’s adoptive father Harlston Duncan—himself partly Native American—helped Stephen learn about what they believed were his deep Native American roots. This became a significant part of Stephen’s early life, and he continues to cherish that cultural connection, even after learning that it wasn’t a totally accurate picture of his heritage.
<h6>Sacred Music</h6>
Raised in Oklahoma and now based in Galveston, Texas, Stephen was trained as an ethnomusicologist and attended Seminary at the University of Notre Dame. He has three degrees from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and a doctorate in sacred music from the University of Memphis. He is the Bishop of the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America in Galveston. Stephen also serves as the Director of Fine Art for the Galveston Independent School District.
It wasn’t until recently that Stephen started to search for more information about his birth family. He’d always been curious but didn’t want to hurt his adoptive mother Marian Duncan’s feelings, so he waited until after her passing to investigate. He first used <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-health-ancestry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">23andMe’s Health + Ancestry Service</a> to learn more about how his DNA may impact his health. While the genetic insights were helpful, he says, he was amazed by what he learned about his heritage. It was much different than he expected. 
<h6>A Unexpected Ancestry Composition</h6>
According to his Ancestry Composition, about  40 percent of his DNA was from Great Britain and Ireland, about 18 percent from France and Germany, and 13 percent was from Spain and Portugal. Another surprise, he had a small amount of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. To his surprise, only about 2 percent of his ancestry was Native American.
Stephen’s biggest surprise though came in 2018, when he received an email from Gabriel Ruggieri, another 23andMe customer who’d opted into DNA Relatives. The message said:
“I just got the report today that we are half brothers,” Gabriel wrote. “It appears we share a mother. If you would like to know me a little more let me know.”
<h6>Meeting His Birth Mother</h6>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-28567 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-300x300.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-880x880.jpeg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-271x271.jpeg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-372x372.jpeg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre-574x574.jpeg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/with-Mi-Madre.jpeg 894w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Stunned by the news, Stephen soon learned that his birth mother, Rosa Ruggieri, lived in Urbandale, Iowa, not far from his newly found half brother Gabriel, and four more half-siblings. With their help, Stephen began to explore the rich history of his birth family.
Rosa’s father was Irish American, and her mother was Mexican American, descended from a centuries-old family-centered in the town of Jalostotitlan in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Stephen’s great grandfather Pedro Gonzales Cornejo immigrated to Texas to escape Pancho Villa in the early 20th century and found work on the railroad. The Cornejo family, Stephen discovered, traces its descent through Spain and Italy as far back as the early 16th century. Thus far, Stephen has been able to follow his family tree as far back as 1505, to an ancestor named Hernando Jaen del Salto Cletages in the town of Jaen in Andalusia, Spain. His mother Rosa feels a strong connection to her Spanish and Mexican roots, and Stephen now calls her mi Madre. This feels appropriate, he said, and helps differentiate Rosa from his adoptive mother.
<h6>Connecting with His Mexican Roots</h6>
<code style="display: none;"> </code>The discovery of his Hispanic heritage has only deepened Stephen’s lifelong appreciation of Mexican and Mexican American culture. “To know that all this stuff you find really cool is part of your family history is amazing,” he said.
Stephen joined a Hispanic Dance group through his position at the Galveston Independent School District and hopes to start a Mariachi band. He has also long loved the music associated with the Sephardic Jewish culture, brought to Mexico through Spain and Portugal beginning in the flight from the Inquisition in the early 1500s. Discovering his small degree of Jewish heritage has helped him deepen that association as well, and to explore the link between the Sephardic and Mexican cultures.
<div id="attachment_28565" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-28565" class="wp-image-28565 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings-300x198.jpeg" alt="Stephen, second row on the right, with his new found siblings." width="300" height="198" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings-300x198.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings-1024x674.jpeg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings-768x506.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings-880x580.jpeg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings-1180x777.jpeg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-siblings.jpeg 1280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Stephen, second row on the right, with his new found siblings.</div>
“There are many connections to the Sephardic Jewish culture in what we associate with Mexico,” he said. “While corn tortillas had been used for thousands of years, Sephardic Jews may have helped develop wheat flour tortillas as a type of unleavened bread. And the traditional spinning top we see in Mexico was probably influenced by the Jewish dreidel.”
This rich blending of cultures and ancestry through birth and adoption continues in the next generation of Stephen’s family—one of his half-siblings adopted four children from Russia.
Having traveled often to Mexico as a tourist before he knew his heritage, Stephen visited his family’s ancestral town of Jalostotitlan for the first time in 2018. While few Cornejos remain in the area, a local who had known the family remarked on Stephen’s resemblance. “Yep, you look like a Cornejo,” she told him with a smile. For Stephen, the trip to Jalostotitlan felt like an unexpected homecoming.

Embracing Latino Heritage with A Mexican Homecoming

Last June, following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and so many others in the Black community, our CEO <a href="https://www.23andme.com/black-lives-matter">pledged to hold ourselves accountable</a> to make improvements to ensure our people, products, and practices are more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Today, we wanted to share some of the steps we’ve started to take.

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="536" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog-1024x536.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28515" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog-1024x536.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog-300x157.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog-768x402.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog-880x461.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog-1180x618.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-Blog.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
 
<h2>Established clear Diversity, Equity &amp; Inclusion (DEI) focus areas</h2>
In order for us to have a clear understanding of the areas where we can best focus our efforts, we conducted an in-depth audit from 2019 through 2020, which included data and feedback from the following sources:
<ul>
<li>Discussions with current and former Black employees</li>
<li>Employee exit survey feedback</li>
<li>Reviewed hiring data, looking at ethnic and gender diversity</li>
<li>Company-wide employee engagement survey responses</li>
<li>Past and current workforce demographics</li>
<li>An audit conducted by <a href="https://mathison.io/">Mathison</a>, an organization focused on hiring diverse talent</li>
</ul>
Based on the findings of this audit, we were able to identify four key company focus areas:
<ol>
<li>Hiring: Attract and hire top, diverse talent.</li>
<li>Employee Experience: Cultivate an inclusive environment that authentically celebrates our shared genome and unique differences.</li>
<li>Product &amp; Research: Use our product to build and sustain DEI in every customer and community interaction.</li>
<li>Community Impact: Use our relationships to build diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities.</li>
</ol>
Our approach is to ensure DEI is the foundation of how 23andMe fundamentally operates—it’s not an afterthought or a separate side effort. We have set clear goals, codified each of these four focus areas in our annual company strategy, and will measure how well we’re making progress quarterly.

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="546" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company-1024x546.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-28513" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company-1024x546.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company-300x160.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company-768x409.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company-880x469.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company-1180x629.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DEI-company.jpg 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
 
<h6>Additional efforts aimed at improving DEI</h6>
Although we’ve primarily been working on establishing clear company focus areas, we have made good progress in some workplace, research, product, and community efforts over the past three months. Specifically, the company:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/celebrating-pride-month-a-spotlight-on-sex-and-gender/">Hosted a company-wide Pride event</a> to celebrate our employees and to educate allies</li>
<li><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/black-information-network/">Became a Founding Partner for iHeart Radio’s BIN: Black Information Network</a>, the first and only national and local news audio service dedicated to providing an objective, accurate, and trusted source of continual news coverage with a Black voice and perspective</li>
<li>Began to build a more diverse leadership team by welcoming <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/l-okey-onyejekwe-jr">L. Okey Onyejekwe Jr., MD &amp; JD</a>, as 23andMe’s Vice President of Healthcare Operations &amp; Medical Affairs</li>
<li><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/transatlantic-slave-trade-paper">Published research detailing one of the most comprehensive investigations of the transatlantic slave trade ever done</a>, based on genetic data from close to 50,000 people</li>
<li><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/chronic-kidney-disease-report">Launched a new Genetic Health Risk report on APOL1-related chronic kidney disease</a>*, which has particular relevance for customers with African ancestry</li>
<li>Through our COVID-19 research study, we were able to <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/impact-disparities-of-covid-19">identify racial and ethnic disparities in the impact of COVID-19</a></li>
<li>Joined <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/newsroom/tech-companies-join-push-for-diversity-inclusion/">SurveyMonkey’s new initiative</a> to audit and track the diversity, equity, and inclusion practices of our vendors and service providers</li>
<li>Implemented enhancements to our HR systems to better track more dimensions of diversity and reduce bias in the candidate application process</li>
</ul>
<h2>Engaging employees across the company</h2>
Since kicking off our concerted DEI efforts, 23andMe employees have truly come together to volunteer their time and energy to create a better workplace and improve our product and community efforts.
We now have 96 active employee resource group members devoted to DEI, 23andWe. And nearly 290 employees, roughly 51% of our workforce, have joined our company Slack channel #diversity, where we discuss and share interesting articles, videos, and resources.
We believe progress can only come if all employees are motivated and engaged to drive positive change.
<h2>Continuing down the DEI path</h2>
While we’ve just started on this journey, we are encouraged by the enthusiasm of our employees. Please stay tuned as we continue to share the latest updates and news of our commitment to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion across our company, product, and community.
*The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva to report and interpret genetic health risks. It is not intended to diagnose any disease. Your ethnicity may affect the relevance of each report and how your genetic health risk results are interpreted. Each genetic health risk report describes if a person has variants associated with a higher risk of developing a disease but does not describe a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. The test is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health or to be used to make medical decisions, including whether or not you should take a medication, how much of a medication you should take, or determine any treatment. The Chronic Kidney Disease (APOL1-Related) genetic health risk report (i) is indicated for reporting the S342G and N388_Y389del variants in the APOL1 gene, which define the G1 and G2 haplotypes, respectively, and (ii) describes if a person has variants associated with an increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease. The variants included in this report are the most common and best studied in people of African descent.

23andMe’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(20)30200-7">The American Journal of Human Genetics</a>, a paper by 23andMe researchers leveraged genetic data from close to 50,000 people to detail one of the most comprehensive investigations of the transatlantic slave trade ever done. 
The study confirms genetic links between regions in the Americas with areas along the Atlantic coast of Africa that align with routes of known slave voyages documented in shipping records. 
The researchers were able to date the arrival of specific African populations to different parts of the Americas and the representation of specific African communities in those regions of America.

&nbsp;

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="654" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/slave-trade-by-volume.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27639" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/slave-trade-by-volume.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/slave-trade-by-volume-300x192.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/slave-trade-by-volume-768x491.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/slave-trade-by-volume-880x562.jpg 880w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
 
<h6>Genetic Data and Historical Records</h6>
“Last year marked 400 years since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in what was to become the United States of America,” said lead author Steven Micheletti, Ph.D., and a 23andMe population geneticist. 

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="538" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1-1024x538.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28348" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1-1024x538.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1-300x158.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1-768x403.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1-880x462.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1-1180x620.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Deportation_Final_01-1.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
 
&nbsp;
The study documents genetic links to Africa in the Americas, Steven said.
“It’s important that we understand the rich history and contributions of African people and their descendants, to the culture and history not only of the United States but also to all the Americas. In looking at the genetic landscape that resulted from this forced migration, one gets a deep and profound sense of the continuous hardships people of African descent have endured.”
<h6>Some Surprises</h6>
While the study aligns with known historical records, the researchers also made some unexpected findings. One was an over-representation of Nigerian ancestry in many parts of the Americas compared to what shipping records show.
&nbsp;

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="538" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02-1024x538.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28345" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02-1024x538.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02-300x158.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02-768x403.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02-880x462.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02-1180x620.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mean-African_Final_02.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
 
&nbsp;
This most likely reflects the often under-discussed active trade that moved slaves within the Americas, even after the slave trade had been banned by several European nations. 
The data also indicated that South America and Central America had the lowest proportion of African ancestry when compared to the United States and the British Caribbean. This is despite the majority of enslaved people taken from Africa being shipped to South America. It likely reflects cultural and historical differences. It could be due to higher mortality rates in those areas, but also it may be a result that some Latin and South American countries promoted dilution of African ethnicity through intermarriage of fair-skinned European men and women of African descent.&nbsp;
Another surprise was that the researchers failed to find strong genetic connections with people from Senegal and The Gambia. That was unexpected given the number of enslaved people that were deported from that region of Africa. 
The researchers believe this may be because many of those enslaved Senegambians were transported to rice plantations in the United States because they had experience cultivating rice in Africa. But rice plantations in the United States were often rampant with malaria, resulting in extremely high death rates among enslaved people on those plantations.
<h6>History in the DNA</h6>
And the analysis yielded insights into other brutal practices of slavery, one that impacted the lifespan of male slaves and the sexual exploitation of women. 
<div class="mceTemp">
&nbsp;
</div>

 <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="538" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1-1024x538.png" alt="" class="wp-image-28347" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1-1024x538.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1-300x158.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1-768x403.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1-880x462.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1-1180x620.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/African-Sex-Bias_-Final_01-1.png 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
 
&nbsp;
The report confirmed what other studies have shown: a bias towards African female contributions to the gene pools of the Americas due to generations of rape and exploitation. The study found that this was particularly stark in Central America and South America. 
This was another example where genetic results support historical accounts of the dehumanization of enslaved people and their descendants 
<h6>A Deeper Understanding</h6>
Joanna Mountain, 23andMe’s Senior Director of Research and a co-author of the paper, said the study deepens our understanding of the impact of the transatlantic slave trade.
“Our study advances the understanding of the consequences of this period by comparing genetic connections between Africa and the Americas with historical records,” Mountain said. “While historical records previously revealed a large part of the story of the transatlantic slave trade, this study yielded insights into historical processes that may have been only conjectured prior to this study.”
But the research also reveals the deep connections to Africa across all the Americas. 

For Uzodinma Iweala a medical doctor and CEO of The Africa Center, who read an early draft of the paper, it’s that aspect of the paper that resonated the most.&nbsp;
Dr. Iweala, who is Igbo and the child of Nigerian immigrants, said in traveling throughout the United States, the Caribbean and South America he has always been inspired by the long-standing connections between people and the African continent and its Diaspora that show the triumph of personal and community resilience in a context of deliberate and sustained violence.&nbsp;
“It’s a sense of familiarity I and my family have felt in places as different and spread out as St. Simons Island in Georgia, or the streets of Jamaica, or in Bahia, Brazil,” he said. “It sometimes feels like walking the streets of the village where my family is from in Nigeria and that makes me feel safe and welcome.”
The study would not have been possible without the contributions of data by tens of thousands of 23andMe customers who consented to participate in research.

DEI — Page 7